Google's native parental controls break free from Pixel, coming to every Android phone

With Android 16 last year, Google brought native parental controls to Pixel devices. With Android 17 today, the tech giant is taking down the hardware walls.

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The biggest OS release of the year has started

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By  Andy Boxall

For reference, the update last year took away some of the Family Link reliance by bringing parental controls to your Pixel's Settings.

The rest of the Android smartphone ecosystem, however, still had to rely on the app. That's changing now.

The native controls will be available on all Android smartphones that update to Android 17. So if you're a parent, and you update your child's device to Android 17, you'll be able to go into their device and set up controls.

Said controls will be PIN protected, which means your child will not be able to tweak them.

Once in, you'll be able to set screen time limits, downtime schedules, control app usage, set app store and web content filters, and even add more usage time if a limit has been reached.

The same Android parental control Settings page also serves as a gateway to Family Link, which offers more in-depth controls like School Time, Google Play app purchase approvals, location alerts, and more.

Android 17 has just begun rolling out to Pixel devices. Expect the operating system to land on the rest of the Android ecosystem smartphones over the course of 2026.

The expanded parental controls coincide with Google increasing its US digital wellbeing fund to $50 million. Read more about the development here.