How we’re helping kids and families safely learn, grow and play online
We're helping families manage their online experience with updates to products like Teacher Approved, Family Link and Assistant.
Tag Archives: families
How we’re helping kids and families safely learn, grow and play online
We're helping families manage their online experience with updates to products like Teacher Approved, Family Link and Assistant.
Source: The Official Google Blog
Tune in at any age with Google TV kids profiles
As a dad to a toddler, kids profiles on Google TV have been a life-saver in my house. My son has his own space to watch his favorite movies and shows like “Paw Patrol.” I can also decide what apps he watches, set ratings for him and manage his screen time.
But I know how I use kids profiles will change as my son gets older. We’ve learned that families have different preferences depending on the age of their kids. So today, we’re introducing three features that make kids profiles even better for the whole family, no matter what age your kids are.
Parent-managed watchlists
Have you ever been looking for something to watch and see a movie or show your kids might love? Now you can watchlist it for them. With parent-managed watchlists on kids profiles, you can create a “must-watch” list for your kids directly from your own profile. Just click on the movie or show, press the watchlist button and select your kids profile watchlist. The next time your kids are watching TV, their watchlist will be waiting for them right on their kids profile’s home screen.
Set up a parent-managed watchlist for your kids profiles
Google-powered recommendations
When your kids finish their favorite show, they might not be sure what to watch next. But with Google-powered recommendations on kids profiles, finding new things to watch just got easier. They can now discover popular movies and TV shows right on their profile’s home screen, based on the apps you’ve added and the rating settings you’ve set. We’ve also added a new “hide” button, which allows you to hide a title from the Popular movies or Popular TV shows rows you aren’t interested in. Just press and hold the Select button on the remote and select “hide.”
Discover popular movies and TV shows on kids profiles
Choose how your family watches YouTube
Families visit YouTube to have fun, learn, explore new interests and dive deeper into the things they love. If you have older kids in your home that are ready to move on from YouTube Kids, Google TV now supports a supervised experience on YouTube, so they can start exploring more of what YouTube has to offer with their Google TV kids profile. This experience comes with content settings for pre-teens and older, adjusts the features your child can use, and lets you block channels and manage additional controls through the YouTube mobile app.
A supervised experience on YouTube is now available on kids profiles
These new features on Google TV kids profiles will start rolling out today and will be complete over the next few weeks on the new Chromecast with Google TV and other Google TV devices including Hisense, Philips, Sony and TCL.
Source: The Official Google Blog
New features to help keep kids and families safer and entertained with tech
We’ve dedicated the last several years to creating products and services that have families in mind. Our goal is to allow kids of all ages to explore the best of what technology has to offer, in a safer way. We respect that each family’s relationship with technology is unique, so we want to give parents the tools and flexibility they need to find the right balance for their families — while also delivering more age-appropriate experiences.
Today, we're updating Family Link and Google TV with experiences for parents and kids alike, to help families build healthy, positive digital habits together.
Family Link’s new look and features
Over the last five years, the Family Link app on Android and iOS have been helping families stay safer online. Whether it’s with your child’s first Android phone or exploring content on YouTube and Google TV, we’ve provided parents with the tools to set screen time limits and guide children to age-appropriate content.
Based on parents’ feedback, we redesigned Family Link to bring our tools to the forefront and make them easier to use. Across the Controls, Location and Highlights tabs, you’ll find new experiences like “Today Only” screen time limits, alerts for when your children arrive and leave a location and recommended content from trusted partners around online safety.
For easier access, parents and their children can also access Family Link online in a new web experience. Stay tuned for these changes to start rolling out today and complete over the next few weeks.
More ways to explore content with Google TV
Google TV is an entertainment experience made for the whole family and its kids profiles are easy to use for kids of all ages. With the addition of managed watchlists, Google-powered kids recommendations and supervised accounts on YouTube, Google TV’s kids profiles just got even more helpful.
Bringing recommendations and watchlists to kids profiles makes it easier to find the perfect shows and movies. Kids can easily browse top entertainment from their approved apps, and you can build a “must watch” list just for them from their TV and mobile device. And for parents with older kids who are ready to move on from YouTube Kids, their tweens can now use a supervised Google Account to start exploring YouTube on their Google TV kids profile. These updates will also start rolling out today and complete over the next few weeks.
Regardless of the brand or device, we believe you should be able to benefit from the same quality experiences. Whether it’s for entertainment on Google TV or to help guide your child’s online experience with Family Link, we hope you’ll check out and enjoy these new updates on your devices.
Source: Android
A new look for Family Link, plus new features to stay safer
Five years ago, we introduced Family Link to give families tools that respect their individual choices with technology and enable them to create healthy, positive digital habits. Since then, we’ve seen how Family Link’s controls and settings, including screen time limits and content filters to find age-appropriate content, have helped families across the world find the right balance for them.
Today, we are announcing a new Family Link experience that offers the same flexibility and choice, and helps make it easier for you to keep your family safer online.
A new experience, streamlined for parents
We have redesigned Family Link to bring our most-used tools to the forefront. Parents will find their favorite features (like screen time limits and blocking and approving apps) in an all-new experience, and a central place for viewing requests and notifications. We’re also bringing new features that parents are asking for.
Parents have told us that some of Family Link’s most helpful features are tools to manage screen time and guide kids to age-appropriate content. Now, we’ve made them easier to use. The Controls tab enables parents to supervise with the ability to set screen time limits for each device or for specific apps, set content restrictions and manage app data permissions.
We understand there are times when you just want to temporarily change screen time settings in case your child needs a bit more time, like if you’re on a vacation or they simply must finish the last two minutes of their favorite show. Parents can now set “Today Only” screen time limits that override general screen time settings, and adjust them for one day without changing the rest of the settings and limits.
Having peace of mind about where your child is goes a long way. On the Location tab, you can see all of your children on the same map with their device location. You’ll also find other useful features like battery life and the ability to ring your child’s device to find it – like when it’s hidden between the couch cushions. And now, you can turn on notifications to be alerted when your child arrives at or leaves a specific destination like school or soccer practice.
We know parents are busy, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what kids are doing. The Highlights tab shows a snapshot of your child’s app usage, screen time and recently installed apps, so you can understand how your child has been using their device. We’re also adding resources from trusted partners like Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely and the Family Online Safety Institute to help you navigate conversations around online safety at home. We’re just getting started with the Highlights tab, and will be updating this section over time with more helpful insights and content.
We’ve created a central place for you to receive requests from your child and view your notifications. By tapping on the notifications bell at the top of your app, you’ll be able to keep an eye on important updates and see requests from your children for app downloads, purchases and access to blocked websites.
Family Link is also now available on the web for you and your children. If you’re away from your phone or don’t have the app, you’ll still have access to the features you need online. For your children, their Family Link web experience will help them better understand their parental control settings.
These updates will start rolling out today and will be complete over the next few weeks. Keep an eye out and learn more at g.co/familylink.
Source: Android
When should you talk to kids about online safety?
Parenting today involves raising kids who are surrounded by technology and smartphones. As a mother of two young kids, making sure they understand online safety is a top priority of mine. Children are spending more time than ever looking at screens, and at younger ages. Finding that balance of online and offline, setting boundaries, and having those conversations are critical for creating a healthy and safer experience online.
A few clicks in the right direction...
Over the past two years, we’ve checked in with parents across the Asia Pacific region to see how they handle their kids’ technology usage. The survey results are encouraging: most parents (80%) are confident that their child would come to them with any problems online, and have already had conversations with them about online safety (73%).
Screentime has been steadily rising - and unsurprisingly, more than 60% of parents allowed increased screen time for kids, which has been essential for online classes (52%), learning new languages (33%) or even reading a book (31%).
… but not all compute.
Despite the optimism, one in three parents still worry their children might not be sufficiently informed about online safety. We also found that while children get their first mobile phone at an average age of 10, parents don’t talk to them about online safety until an average age of 13. This three-year gap could be why kids aren’t as informed as they could be— particularly at an age when they are most vulnerable to pitfalls and hard-to-break habits.
Never too early to learn
Parents believed having a casual conversation with their child (42%) was the most effective way to engage them on online safety, followed by establishing rules by using parental control features (30%). We also asked parents at Google about their own parenting tips.
Help kids be safer and confident online
As technology rapidly evolves, it can be difficult for parents to find the most up-to-date information on online safety. Close to half said they don’t know what tools to use to monitor their kids’ online activity, or haven’t been able to find any easy-to-understand online safety examples.
Here are some handy tools and free resources that parents can use:
- Be Internet Awesome provides tools and interactive games that teaches kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and online safety .
- Google’s Family Link helps set digital ground rules to guide your children as they learn, play, and explore online, and make the right screentime choices for them.
- SafeSearch on Google helps filter out explicit content in Google’s search results including images, videos and websites.
- YouTube Kids allows you to create profiles for your kids to surface relevant family-friendly content and manage screen time.
- Supervised experience on YouTube is a parent-managed version of regular YouTube. It comes with tailored content settings, adjusted features and digital wellbeing protections for younger viewers.
There is no one right way to have these important conversations with kids, but starting earlier and using these digital tools can put them on the path to establishing long-term healthy habits with technology.
Source: The Official Google Blog
Help kids learn to read with Read Along, now available on the web
Over the past three years, more than 30 million kids have read more than 120 million stories on Read Along. The app, which was first released as Bolo in India in 2019 and released globally as Read Along the following year, helps kids learn to read independently with the help of a reading assistant, Diya.
As kids read stories aloud, Diya listens and gives both correctional and encouraging feedback to help kids develop their reading skills. Read Along has been an Android app so far, and to make it accessible to more users, we have launched the public beta of the website version. The website contains the same magic: Diya’s help and hundreds of well illustrated stories across several languages.
With the web version, parents can let their children use Read Along on bigger screens by simply logging into a browser from laptops or PCs at readalong.google.com. Just like the Android app, all the speech recognition happens in the browser so children’s voice data remains private and we do not send it to any servers. You can learn more about data processing on the website version by reading our privacy policy.
The website also opens up new opportunities for teachers and education leaders around the world, who can use Read Along as a reading practice tool for students in schools. The product supports multiple popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Edge, with support for iOS and more browsers such as Safari coming soon. With the sign-in option, you can login from a unique account for each child on the same device. We recommend using Google Workspace for Education accounts in schools and Google accounts with Family Link at home.
In addition to the website launch, we are also adding some brand-new stories. We have partnered with two well-known YouTube content creators, ChuChu TV and USP Studios, to adapt some of their popular videos into a storybook format. Our partnership with Kutuki continues as we adapt their excellent collection of English and Hindi alphabet books and phonics books for early readers; those titles will be available later this year.
Reading is a critical skill to develop at a young age, and with Read Along Web, we are taking another step towards ensuring each kid has that option. Join us by visiting readalong.google.com and help kids learn to read with the power of their voice.
Source: The Official Google Blog
Girlguiding and Google: technology is for everyone
Technology has always been a huge part of my life. Growing up in the nineties and early noughties, I can’t remember a time without it. From chunky flip phones and CDs, to newer, sleeker gadgets with all sorts of capabilities, technology has changed rapidly and remarkably in my lifetime alone.
But, despite growing up around tech, I — like lots of my female peers — never really felt I could be involved in creating it. This needs to change. Technology can be made by anyone, and is for everyone. We need to make sure that girls and young women have the opportunity to pursue an interest in STEM subjects.
That’s why, as a Ranger and Young Leader within Girlguiding, I’m really excited about Girlguiding’s newly expanded programme with Google which will give nearly 400,000 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers more opportunities to learn digital skills for their future.
Girls feel STEM is not for them
To encourage more girls and young women to pursue STEM subjects, we need to change attitudes from a very young age. Girlguiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey, found in 2021 that 52% of girls aged 11-21 saw STEM subjects as “for boys”. Girls of this age are at a stage where they’re making choices about their future, but sadly, preconceived perceptions are impacting their aspirations.
A third (34%) aged 7 to 21 feel there’s a lack of women role models in STEM. One in five (19%) aged 7 to 10 say girls who are interested in STEM subjects are teased. 27% of girls aged 11 to 21 believe teachers and career advisors often encourage girls to do different subjects to boys.
These numbers really highlight the need for groups like Girlguiding to work with organizations like Google to change this and enable more young people to feel empowered to pursue their interests.
Digital discovery badges
Google and Girlguiding first launched the Google Digital Adventure for Brownies and Digital design badge for Rangers in 2018. More than 15,000 girls have already taken part.
Now, we’re expanding our partnership to give more girls and young women opportunities to learn about concepts like coding and algorithms, with new activities co-created by Google’s women engineers.
The new activities include Happy appy for Rainbows to learn about app designs; Brownie bots to teach Brownies how to write code and fix bugs; Chattermatter to teach Guides about chatbots, and Build-a-phone, which aims to teach Rangers the basic principles of phone design.
The new activities will form part of Girlguiding’s national programme within the Skills for my Future theme. These span all four Girlguiding sections (age groups) and have been created to be completed offline to ensure they are accessible to all girls.
An exciting future for all girls
Our goal — to make sure the next generation of girls and young women are encouraged to pursue STEM subjects — may not happen overnight. But thanks to the Girlguiding and Google partnership, nearly 400,000 girls like me in the UK will get new opportunities to learn the essential skills they need to break through stereotypes and become tech pioneers.
In years to come, I hope to see the Rainbows or Brownies of today on the front cover of a newspaper showing off their incredible discoveries and inventions. Alongside Google, Girlguiding is working to help build a future where more girls and young women feel empowered to help change the world!
Want to find out more? Read all about the new Google and Girlguiding partnership at www.girlguiding.org.uk.
Source: The Official Google Blog
Santa Claus is coming to town — and we interviewed him
It’s 7 degrees below zero when we step off the Polar Express. There’s a slight breeze that feels almost cryogenic and a loud “crunch!” as our boots hit the snow. But the real first impression of Santa’s Village: the warm familiarity of visiting a place you’ve never been, but is exactly as you imagined.
It’s no secret that Google loves celebrating the holiday season. The Google Arts & Culture team have brought us the warmth of the Festival of Lights and the harmony of Kwanzaa; and they’ve taken us from Norway’s Trafalgar Square to the Christmas Lights of London. And of course, there’s Santa Tracker — with a few related easter eggs from the Search team that appear when users around the world search for “Christmas.”
Maybe all the free press is why this year, we’ve been invited to interview Santa. And perfect timing too: According to Google Trends, searches for “Santa Claus” are on their annual rise.
Thanks for having us! Let’s get started: Traditionally, people have been encouraged to write you letters. Any update on how to get in touch with you?
During the month of December, anyone in the world can use Google Assistant to get in touch with me directly. Just say “Hey Google, Call Santa” and we’ll have a chat, and maybe you can help the elves create a holiday song.”
Santa, have you been working on any North Pole launches lately?
A few! You’ve seen the historical depictions of me, but now you can color your own holiday works with Art Coloring Book. And it’s always fun to sing the songs of the season with your family, but you might want to give it some practice with the Blob Opera beforehand — ho, ho, ho!
Santa on Santa
We know people can call you from their Google Assistant…but you seem pretty busy. Is there a good way to check in without bothering you?
It’s never a bother! But all December we’re bringing back our North Pole Newscast. Just ask your Google Assistant “What’s going on at the North Pole?” and check in with Dimplesticks the Elf for reports from Santa's Village.
You’ve been so generous with your time. Any last thoughts?
Santa’s Village is live and everyone is welcome to join in the fun, and see what Mrs. Claus and the elves are up to! But — biggest of all — kids around the world can start following the Santa Tracker on the big night (December 24), and Google Assistant can help. Just ask, "Hey Google, track Santa" or "Hey Google, where is Santa right now?"
Source: The Official Google Blog
Get festive this holiday season with new Android features
Special delivery! As we head into the busiest time of year, Android is becoming even more helpful with new features that make it a joy to create, capture, relive, and share holiday memories — all while strengthening security and personalization. Let’s take a look at what’s new.
Keep your family on track this season with Family Bell
Choose which devices you’d like to hear your reminders on in settings
Family Bell helps you and your family stay on track with your daily schedules, wherever you may be. Whether you set up Family Bell on your Android phone, home speaker or smart display, bells and notifications will alert you and your family when it's time for important moments throughout the day — helping you get out the door in the morning, pick up your kids from sports practice or get to bed on schedule. Family members will also be able to set bells on their own devices so they can stay on top of their individual goals too.
For the holidays, suggested bells for new activities include watering a tree, a family movie night or volunteering to support a local cause. Family Bell is always easy to edit, manage and customize from your selected device.
Get more out of your favorite Google apps with widgets
Home screen displaying a photo of a mother and child from the Google Photos People and Pets widget
Widgets make it easier to view the content and information from your favorite Google apps on your Home screen — and we’ve got three new widgets for you to enjoy this holiday season:
- Keep that holiday reading within easy reach, access your full library of books and even keep track of your audiobook progress with the new Google Play Books widget.
- Enjoy your favorite holiday tunes with the new YouTube Music widget — it puts playback controls and recently played tracks right on your Home screen.
- Feel closer to your family, friends, and favorite furballs. Starting to roll out next week, the new Google Photos People & Pets widget puts your family on your Home screen. Simply select a few faces and an appropriate frame, then the widget will do the rest, decorating your Home screen with your nearest and dearest.
Relive festive memories
Look back on great memories with Google Photos.
This week we’re rolling out new Memories in Google Photos that help you look back on the moments you celebrate. These Memories appear in your photo grid and feature a curated selection of photos and videos from holidays like New Year’s Eve or Halloween, to important milestones like birthdays and graduations. And because everyone has their own special traditions, specific controls allow you to rename, personalize, correct or even remove these Memories from your photo grid.
The best of Android, on the road
Whether you're driving home for the holidays or simply going to the store for some last-minute groceries, a suite of updates enhances just how helpful Android can be on the road.
Reply to messages in the car with a tap
You can now set Android Auto to launch automatically when you connect your Android phone to your compatible car to stay connected on every drive. And once you’re on the road, Android Auto helps you get things done so you can stay focused on the road. With smart reply options coming soon, you can respond to a text message more easily with the Google Assistant on Android Auto — simply tap to respond or create a custom message. And you can listen to your favorite music with a single tap of the new always-on play button, right on the Home screen. Coming soon, you’ll be able to use your voice to search for music faster in your media apps on Android Auto. Just tap the new search icon and say your favorite artist or song for easy listening.
Use your phone as a car key
We also continue to introduce new ways to bring your phone and car closer together. Starting today, you can use your Android phone to lock, unlock and even start your compatible car. Digital car key is now available in select countries on Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 for compatible BMW cars.
App permissions get a privacy boost
Get notified when app permissions are removed
Remember that mobile game you downloaded a few months ago? Probably not. With permissions auto-reset on Android, your device will automatically turn off runtime permissions—which allow apps to access data or take actions on your behalf—for downloaded apps you haven’t used in a while. You can always turn permissions back on anytime you like, either by opening the app again or through the settings menu. Starting next month, this feature expands support to billions more devices with Google Play services that run Android 6.0 or higher.
Share the love with new Emoji Kitchen combinations
Find the right combination that says how you really feel
Sometimes those end-of-year messages can have you lost for words—and one emoji doesn't always tell the full story. Emoji Kitchen lets you combine emoji into stickers to share with your friends, family, and loved ones. Celebrate the holidays by sharing your favorite emoji in a beautifully wrapped gift box ?. Or if you’re more of a dog person, make sure people know it with an all-new collection of furry friends ?. With thousands of new additions, Emoji Kitchen is the gift that keeps on giving and a great way to spread a little holiday cheer. The latest stickers are rolling out to Gboard Beta users starting today and will be available to all Gboard users in the coming weeks.
We can't wait for you to try out these new features while you celebrate the holidays. Learn more about each at Android.com.