Google Home

The Complete Guide to Google Home Parental Controls

Google Home is a Wi-Fi speaker that also works as a smarthome control center and an assistant for the whole family utilizing G0ogle’s artificial intelligence (A.I.)-supported Google Assistant.

You can use it to playback entertainment throughout your entire home (YouTube, music, movies), effortlessly manage everyday tasks, and ask Google things you want to know. Prices start at just $29 for the mini-Home device which is similar to its primary competition, the Amazon Echo.

Google Home Parental Controls

By linking your Home device to your Google account, you have the ability to enable a few parental controls that should prevent most kids from accidental access to inappropriate voice-activated content. As a default, Google Home bleeps out most common swear words.

Step 1: Enable Digital Wellbeing controls on the Google Home Assistant.

We don’t need to recreate the wheel, so we’re going to send you to this blog post from The Ambient with details about Digital Wellbeing. This is the Google response to the growing outcry to unplug from digital devices.

Step 2: Use your kid’s voice to create their own account.

This feature utilizes the Family Link set-up that we’ve talked about on other posts on our website. Like most things Google, it’s a little wonky to set up, but it will allow your Home Assistant to recognize your child’s voice and enforce certain controls over his/her access.

The wonky part is that you need TWO Android devices in order to set-up the child’s Family Link account. I know. It’s weird.

1. Download the Family Link app on both your smartphone and the second phone and follow the set-up process. You’ll have to create and sign-in a new Google account on the second device, followed by a pairing process.
2. Once you have the second device running the child account, you want to tap the icon at the top right and make sure you’ve selected their account.
3. When you’re on the child page, tap the three dots at the top right and hit “Sign in to Google Home.”
4. Walk through the setup. Here you can choose which devices will be able to recognize your child’s voice – and which won’t.
5. Go through the voice set-up and you’re all set.

Once you’ve linked your Google Home, you’ll see it appear in the Family Link app on your smartphone. Tapping on it will let you make a couple of changes.

You can also restrict your kid’s access to third-party apps by following these steps:

1. Open the Family Link app on the parent phone and tap on Manage Settings.
2. Tap on Google Assistant.
3. Toggle “Third-party apps” to off.

Good! Now, keep going with a few more steps.

Step 3: Turn off Pay with Assistant.

If you don’t want you kids buying a Lamborghini, then follow these steps.

1. Open the Google Home app and select Settings for the speaker you want.
2. Scroll down and tap on More.
3. Tap on Payments then simply toggle ‘Pay with your Assistant’ to off.

Step 4: Turn on YouTube Restricted Mode.

Kids aren’t watching videos through Google Home, but they can listen to music through YouTube Music. These steps will control the overall device, regardless of who is using it. If you set up your child’s voice-activated access to only use YouTube Kids through Family Link above, then Google Home will default to the strictest settings – in that case, the YouTube Kids restriction.

1. In the Google Home app, hit the Menu bottom at the top left corner.
2. Tap on More settings.
3. Select the device you want to put the restriction on.
4. Scroll down to where it says YouTube Restricted Mode and toggle it on.

Google Support Page: Play YouTube using Google Home

Google Support Page: Control Restricted Content Help Page

Step 5: Exclude explicit songs in Google Play.

Same principle here. If you use Google Play’s streaming service (some Google Home devices default to it), you’ll want to exclude songs with explicit lyrics.

1. Go to the Google Play Music site and sign in with the account used on your Google Home.
2. Click the menu button at the top left and click on Settings.
3. Scroll down to the ‘General’ section where you’ll see an option to “Block explicit songs in radio.” Click the checkbox.

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*There are affiliate links throughout this post because we’ve tested and trust a small list of parental control solutions. Our work saves you time! If you decide that you agree with us, then we may earn a small commission, which does nothing to your price. Enjoy!