Search engine giant Google has an app called as Family Link which is about a year old now and is designed to give parents more control over their kids and their use of Android phones. They can also be turned off while dinner time. The search engine is now expanding the app to support Chromebooks while adding many of the same features to that particular platform.
Parents will now be able to white-list the websites that they okay having their children visit. They can also set screen time, remotely lock devices, establish a bed time and monitor usage. Apart from the usual features, for the first time Chromebooks that are setup with supervised accounts will be able to gain access to Android apps from the Google Play Store.
The Android apps can be white-listed for use or hidden on the device and can also be useful for the shared devices. The parents can also be able to manage in-app purchases on the supervised accounts. If the users are aware of Android on Chrome OS, it is known to be mostly thought of a simple access to Google Play apps. But the fact is that many parts of Chrome OS itself have taken on the elements of Android. Which include the new quick settings menu and even the software keyboard. It can be possible that deeper integration can help to enable the new parental control features.
At the same time an interesting fact is that Google allows the users to set up supervised accounts for the teenagers. But the teens will have the ability to turn off the controls. The parents will get an alert when it happens. It has to also be noticed that Chromebooks do not make great tablets. As they do not have one very significant advantage over the iPad which is they are excellent as shared devices.
Photo Credits: CNet
