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Google's Family Link accounts aren't as restrictive as they used to be — but they still kind of suck
I locked myself into a Google child account for a week — these are the limitations and workarounds I discovered
Children under the age of 13 can't create an unsupervised Google account for themselves. Instead, parents have to set up the accounts for them using Family Link, which is supposed to give them a lot of control over what apps and games kids can get, how much screentime they're allowed, and which websites they can visit. Parents can even get a streamlined overview of their kids' app usage à la Digital Wellbeing. But what does it feel like to sit on the receiving end of the system? Needless to say, kids seem to hate the service, and they're vocal about it; the Family Link for kids app has a staggering average rating of 1.4 stars on the Play Store.
Google accounts for kids can now finally sign into third-party apps
Parents can allow or deny the sign-in request
Not too long ago, I locked myself into a Google child account as an experiment and quickly ran into a whole lot of restrictions, some more questionable than others. Among the less understandable ones was the fact that I couldn't use the account to log into any third-party apps, which renders applications that only rely on this login method useless to me (and, you know, actual kids). Google is finally changing that. The company has sent out an email informing Family Link managers that they can now allow their children to sign into third-party apps.