Google Announces 'School Time' For Android Devices To Help Parents Manage Children's Screen Time, Activities

Google has introduced a new School Time setting for Android devices which will help the parents manage the screen time of their children while they are in school. The tech giant aims to help parents balance the time spent online and offline, especially when they are in school.

The new School Time will help the children minimise distractions and enhance school productivity. Do note that the feature will be available on the Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch and will further be expanded to other Android devices including tablets and Galaxy Watches by next year.

With this feature, parents will be able to restrict their children’s devices to a dedicated home screen with limited functionality. It will only include essential applications and contacts while they are in class. The parents can schedule School Time and select permissible applications via Family Link in Google's parental controls application.

The parents can also allow calls or texts from specific contacts making sure that they can still reach their children in case of emergency. Do note that the feature can be activated even outside school hours as well giving them a decent break.

If not Family Link, the tech giant offers Focus Mode on Android devices which will prevent notifications and limit distractions for a dedicated time period promoting productive surroundings.

Further, a new update which will be rolled out in a few months will allow the parents and teens to link their YouTube accounts and will give the parents visibility into their teen's activity on the platform. This aims to help the parents maintain a balanced approach for better upbringing of their kids.

Helping students focus on learning during school hours
We regularly engage with parents when designing products, and often hear from parents who do not want their children distracted at school but still want to be able to get in touch in case of emergency.

That’s why this year we introduced School time on Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatches. Over the next year, we’ll bring School time to even more devices including select Android phones, tablets and Samsung Galaxy Watches to promote a productive learning environment.

School time enables parents to set their child’s personal device to a dedicated home screen with limited functionality during school hours, which helps reduce distractions during class. Parents can schedule and select which apps are allowed during School time in Family Link, our parental controls app. Parents will also have the option to allow calls or texts from specific contacts. School time can also be turned on outside of class when it may be time to focus or take a break from screens. For teens who are not supervised by a parent through Family Link, we also offer Focus mode on Android devices to prevent notifications and limit distractions during a specific time period.

Additional settings for teens and teen supervision
As children grow into teens, parents may want different supervision options to better reflect their teens’ understanding and use of technology. We recognize that the settings a family wants to use can differ by age, developmental stage and parenting style. Which is why we’re continuing to provide tailored settings and experiences:

New supervision features for parents of teens are coming to YouTube. In an update rolling out later this summer, parents and teens will be able to link their accounts, enabling parents to gain visibility into their teens’ activity on YouTube.

In Family Link, supervision can be enabled for all ages. This helps give parents flexibility to determine the apps, products and experiences their teens can use, while also continuing to monitor their activity and set digital ground rules such as screen time limits or location sharing.

For all users under 18, we have default safety settings in place. This includes turning SafeSearch on, implementing content restrictions and turning autoplay off on YouTube. We also recently introduced new safeguards that limit recommendations of videos with content that could be problematic, especially for teens, if viewed in repetition – such as content related to body image.

Ongoing investment in parental controls
We are continuously investing in research and development to address the evolving needs of parents and children. By working closely with experts in child development, education and technology, our goal is to help shape a future where technology continues to facilitate learning and exploration.

The Family Link can allow parents to supervise children of all ages by giving them the flexibility to set digital ground rules such as screen time limits, location, app usage and more. The default Settings include SafeSearch, content restrictions, and disabling autoplay on YouTube.

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