How to use Samsung Galaxy parental controls

So you're getting your child a Samsung mobile phone. Maybe it's a hand-me-down or maybe it's brand new. Either way, you might want to consider setting up parental controls.

At a minimum, these can help ensure your child doesn't spend big bucks on in-app purchases. At a maximum, you can use apps to turn a Samsung Galaxy phone into a device that doesn't do much more than talk and text.

You're the parent – the choice of how far you want to go is up to you – but here's what you need to know about using parental controls on a Samsung Galaxy device.

First steps for a hand-me-down Samsung phone

If you're handing down an old device, you'll first want to wipe it to clear all old information. If you've already bought your child a new Samsung Galaxy phone, you can skip to this section.

The steps you need to follow will differ slightly depending on which device you have. Use one of the following sets of steps:

• Select Settings – General Management – Reset – Factory data reset
• Select Settings – Backup and reset – Factory data reset
• Select Settings – Privacy – Factory data reset

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If you've decided that it's time for your kids to have a mobile phone, we can help you choose a great value phone plan to keep them connected at all times.
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Choosing a new Galaxy phone for kids

If you're looking at buying your kid a brand-new phone, then you're unlikely to purchase the best Samsung smartphone on the market. Luckily there are a variety of refurbished handsets and budget Samsung options on the market. These are the most popular options in our database:

Parental control apps for Samsung Galaxy

Addictive games, dating sites – there are plenty of apps and websites you might not want your child to have access to on their Samsung Galaxy. Fortunately, there are plenty of restrictive apps designed for a child's phone.

Unlike Samsung tablets and iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones don't include parental controls as part of the phone's operating system. So if you want to restrict apps, your best bet is to download a parental control app.

There are a range of apps available, including an official option from Google. They all range from those offering full control and veto power of your child's phone use to those that will simply allow you to block certain age-inappropriate material. Others simply monitor your child's phone and internet use as a basic precaution. Here are just a few you can try:

Google Family Link

Available on: Google Play

Price: Free

This app from Google allows you to implement parental controls for a child up to age 13. You can approve apps your child wants to download from the Google Play Store, set screen time limits and a device bedtime. You can also monitor your child's location, lock your child's device and hide apps remotely if it's school time, study time, or time to sleep.

Google Family Link is one of the few free options available if you're looking for a parental control app. It doesn't give quite as much control as some premium options but it nails all the basics.

For this one, you'll need to also ensure your child has a Google account. If they don't have one and your child is under 13, you'll be prompted to create one using the Family Link app. Alternatively, you can do so when first setting up their Samsung smartphone.

Qustodio

Available on: Google Play

Price: Free basic version or $149.95 per year for the complete version

This app allows you to block apps, set screen time limits for your child's phone, filter inappropriate content from web browsing, set app usage limits, monitor text messages, get a weekly report on your child's phone usage and monitor your child's location.

The free version of Qustodio will allow you to protect up to five devices, set daily screen time limits, filter and pause web activity and monitor their location. Qustodio also offers a complete version starting at $149.95 per year/$12.50 per month to protect an unlimited number of devices with additional features such as YouTube monitoring, blocked website alerts and call and message monitoring.

ESET Parental Control

Available on: Google Play

Price: Free basic version or $29.99 per device per year for the premium version

ESET Parental Control is available both in free and premium versions. The free version is a bit limited but is designed to help set time limits for apps, instant block and provides basic app and web usage reports.

Opting for the premium version adds web filtering for inappropriate content, child tracking, safe search, full activity reports and Geofencing. The premium version will set you back $29.99 per device per year. There's a 30-day free trial available on premium features.

Screen Time & Location Tracker

Available on: Google Play

Price: Free basic version or USD$6.99 per month for the premium version

This two-in-one app combines limiting how long your child spends on their phone with web filtering, location tracking and social media monitoring. The free version of the app lets you monitor app usage and view web history and social media monitoring (Android phones only). This version is for one device per child.

If you upgrade to the premium version, you get access to the controls which allow location tracking, block specific apps and receive daily email summaries of their activities. You can also instantly pause your child's phone access, block specific apps (Android only), set daily limits or set schedules to restrict phone use altogether during certain times of day (like school hours or bedtime). The premium version costs USD$6.99 per month but you can use it on five devices and access a seven-day free trial to see if it suits you.

Parental controls for Google Play

If you don't want or need to approve all apps used by your kids on their Samsung Galaxy, you might prefer to use the Google Play Store's parent controls instead. This option won't let you have full say over which apps your child can download. Instead, it simply allows you to restrict purchases and the downloading of apps and content that is not age-appropriate.

Note that parental controls on the Google Play Store are device-specific. That means you'll need to set them up on every device your child has access to.

Google Play purchase restrictions

The first thing you'll want to do is set up purchase restrictions. This will make sure your child can only buy apps, games, movies and in-app products with your permission.

Here's how you set them up on their device:

1. Open the Play Store app
2. Make sure you're logged in using a Google account your child doesn't have the password to
3. Tap the Your Profile icon on the top right-hand corner of the screen
4. Select Settings > Authentication > Require authentication for purchases
5. Tap For all purchases

Your Google password will now need to be entered every time a purchase is made through the Play Store on that device.

Google Play age restrictions

If you want to restrict access to free content, including apps, movies, etc that may not be age-appropriate, you'll need to set up the Google Play age restrictions as well:

1. Open the Play Store app
2. Tap Your profile icon on the top right-hand corner of the screen
3. Select Settings > Family > Parental controls
4. Use the slider to turn Parental controls on
5. You will be asked to set up a PIN, this will stop your content restrictions from being tampered with
6. You can now select maturity level restrictions on downloads and purchases of Apps & Games, Films, TV, Magazines, Music, and Books

Family Accounts

Family member accounts can all be linked on Google Play. You have the capability to add up to five additional family members, as long as they live in the same country as you. With a family account, you can manage your children's controls directly from your device so you won't need to worry about them sliding back into settings and changing it themselves.

Using your family account, you can have different approval settings for each family member depending on what you think is best. You will also be able to set up approval requests to accept or deny content that your kids are trying to access.

Preventing explicit content on a Samsung

If you've set up a maturity filter on the Google Play Store, your kids won't be able to buy any age-inappropriate movies, TV shows or games from Google Play. But that doesn't mean they can't encounter inappropriate content by browsing the web. If you're concerned about inappropriate or explicit content online, you may want to set up a content filter. Here are your options:

Google Chrome SafeSearch

If you want to filter content, the first thing to know is your child's Samsung Galaxy likely came with the Samsung Internet browser installed. While Samsung Internet includes ad-blockers, it doesn't come with any filters for explicit or inappropriate content.

But you can use the Google app or Google Chrome for your child's internet browsing, which allows you to enable a SafeSearch feature that filters explicit search results on Google.

Using Google SafeSearch is free but not foolproof. SafeSearch doesn't block access to inappropriate sites if the URL is typed directly into the browser and it doesn't work on non-Google browsers like Samsung Internet, which means you'll need to have those browsers uninstalled and maybe even blocked.

Premium content blockers

If Google SafeSearch doesn't sound like it will cut the mustard, you can try an app like Qustodio, Screen Time, or ESET as discussed above, which include content blockers as part of a suite of parental control features. Or you can try SPIN Safe Browser, which is a dedicated content-blocking tool.

SPIN Safe Browser blocks access to pornography and other inappropriate content. It also filters Google, Bing and Yahoo web and image search results, can set app limits, block new app installs and monitor app usage. It comes with a free seven-day free trial and costs USD $4.99 per month/USD$49.99 per year.

However, be aware that even apps like SPIN Safe Browser can let inappropriate websites slip through the net from time to time. If your child has access to the internet, there's really no way to be 100% sure they will never come into contact with information, images or videos you would prefer them not to see. If this is something that deeply worries you, think about whether or not your child is ready to browse the internet unsupervised.

Find your child using Samsung Galaxy

One of the perks of your kids getting their first phone is the peace of mind that comes with being able to find them if you need to. With a phone in their pocket, your child can call or text, and vice versa. But if they have a smartphone, for an extra security measure, you can also use apps to find your child's phone location.

Some parental control apps come with a child locator as part of a suite of other features. Three we've already discussed that will give you real-time information about the location of your child's phone are Google's Family Link, Qustodio and ESET.

If you don't want to use a parental control app, however, there are plenty of other Android apps that are dedicated to locating your family members. Here's one we know about.

Life360 - Family Locator

Available on: Google Play

Price: Free basic version or USD$4.99 per month for the premium version

Family Locator allows you to view real-time information about the location of your loved ones. You can set it up to give you real-time alerts when they arrive at or leave destinations and set up "circles" of contacts so you can see everyone's location and even chat within the app. You can even monitor battery life and access driving reports to make sure they're behaving safely behind the wheel.

There is a free version, although the premium tier allows unlimited place alerts, more extensive driving summaries and 30 days of location history compared to two days on the free version. The premium version starts at USD$4.99 per month.

Jacqui Dent

Editorial Strategist

Jacqui Dent is an Editorial Content Strategist at WhistleOut Australia, where she writes about mobile phone plans, NBN plans and everything in between. Over her ten-year career, she has worked to provide informed advice to the public, first in the sphere of writing and now in the world of consumer tech. Jacqui has also written about consumer telco products for Business Insider, Pedestrian and the 50Up Club.

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