Family Link Settings for Kids Games on Android

By the JMH Developers editorial team · Published: August 5, 2026 · Last reviewed: August 5, 2026 · About 7 min read.
Disclosure: JMH Developers publishes kids’ games, including titles linked in this guide.

On Android, Family Link is the layer that decides which games your child can install, how long they can play them, and whether a tap on a purchase button ever reaches your card. Setting it up takes about fifteen minutes and touches three separate places: the Family Link app, Google Play's own content restrictions, and a device setting called app pinning. This guide covers each of them, then the case most parents actually have - a tablet shared between children.

What Family Link manages, and what it does not

Family Link supervises a Google account, not a piece of hardware. You create a Google account for your child, link it to yours as the parent, and sign the child into their phone or tablet with it. Every device signed in with that account inherits your rules; a device where your child uses your account inherits nothing.

Once supervision is active, you get a fairly wide set of controls, described in Google For Families Help under managing your child's screen time:

• Approval of every app install and, optionally, every app update from Google Play.
• A daily screen time budget per device, plus a bedtime window when the screen locks.
• Per-app limits and the ability to block a single app without uninstalling it.
• Content restrictions in Google Play, set by age rating.
• Purchase approval, including in-app purchases.
• Device location, plus filters for Chrome and Google Search.

What it will not do is reach inside a game once it is installed. Family Link cannot see that a puzzle app interrupts play with video ads, or that a colouring app opens on a subscription screen. You make those judgements on the store listing, before you approve the install. Our guide on how to choose age-appropriate games covers what to read there; this one covers the switches.

App approval before install

With supervision on, a child browsing Google Play sees a request button rather than an install button. Tapping it sends you a notification, and you approve or decline from your phone. Open the listing yourself before approving, because two details on it tell you most of what you need to know.

The first is the "Contains ads" badge. If it is there, the game shows advertising, and on a children's title that usually means full-screen interstitials between levels. The second is the Data safety section, which states what the app collects and shares; a game aimed at under-eights should have very little to declare. Google's Families programme requirements for developers set the policies child-directed apps must meet on Play, including rules on ads and data.

For reference, 29 of the 30 JMH titles on Google Play carry no "Contains ads" badge: no banners, no interstitials, no rewarded video, no ad networks. The exception, Kids cooking games 2+ year old, is declared ad-supported on its listing, and its page on this site says so. They are free to download with optional in-app purchases behind a parental gate. Our Android games for kids page lists what is on Play, and there is a wider set of ad-free games for children. Every one of those listings is published under the JMH Developers OÜ developer account, so the publisher name on the store matches the name on this site.

Daily limits and bedtime

Family Link offers two clocks that work best together. The daily limit is a budget, say 40 minutes, counting down while the screen is on and unlocked. Bedtime is a window, for example 19:30 to 07:00, during which the device locks regardless of any budget left over.

A few practical notes:

• Set limits per day of the week. A weekday number that also applies on Saturday gets overridden by hand, and overrides erode the system.
• Use per-app limits sparingly. Blocking one game usually moves the child to the next; a device-wide budget is easier for a young child to understand.
• Warn before the cut-off. The device shows a countdown, but a heads-up from you prevents most of the friction.
• Grant bonus time deliberately rather than editing the daily limit.
• Offline play still counts. Screen time is measured by the device, not the connection, so a game that works in aeroplane mode is not a loophole.

Content restrictions and purchase approval in Google Play

This is the part people miss: Play's content restrictions are separate from Family Link's app approval, and they are configured per device inside the Play Store app. Google Play Help documents how to set up content restrictions on Google Play. In short, open Play Store settings on the child's device, go to Family, choose Parental controls, turn them on and set a PIN the child does not know. You then set a maximum age rating for apps and games, and separately for films, TV and books.

The ratings come from the IARC system, so the labels differ by region: PEGI in much of Europe, ESRB in North America. Set the filter to the lowest tier that still leaves room for what your child actually plays, then test it by searching for something clearly above the line and confirming it is hidden.

In the same area, set purchase authentication to require your password or biometrics for all purchases, in-app purchases included. Do this even if your child has no payment method attached, because a family payment method can reach their profile through Family Library. Choose authentication for every purchase rather than the default grace window, which can let several taps through after one unlock.

App pinning: the Android answer to a single-session lock

App pinning locks the device to one app until you unpin it. It is the Android equivalent of Guided Access, which Apple Support describes in its guide to using Guided Access on iPhone or iPad, and it is the tool for handing a phone to a three-year-old in a waiting room.

Enable it in Settings, under Security and privacy, then More security settings, then App pinning; the exact path varies by manufacturer and Android version. Turn on the option to ask for the PIN or pattern before unpinning - without it, pinning is a convenience rather than a control. To use it, open the game, open the recent apps view and pin the app from its icon menu.

Pinning is per session, not a policy: it does not survive a restart and it does not replace the Play restrictions above. What it does well is remove the accidental exit, along with notifications pulling the child into another app. It pairs neatly with offline games for kids, since a pinned session on a plane or in a car should not stall on a loading screen.

Shared family tablets with more than one profile

Android tablets support multiple users, and this is where carefully built supervision quietly stops applying. Check these before you trust the setup:

• Which profile is the child actually using? Rules follow the supervised account, so if they play on your profile, none of your settings apply.
• Is the parent profile locked with a PIN or biometrics? If not, switching profiles from the lock screen bypasses every limit in one tap.
• Is guest mode off? A guest session is unsupervised.
• Are Play parental controls set on each profile? They are per-user, so a second child's profile needs its own PIN-protected settings.
• Are two children sharing one profile? That means one age rating filter and one screen time budget for both. Separate profiles are worth the setup time.
• Is Family Library sharing paid apps or a payment method into a profile you have not restricted?

A checklist before you hand the tablet over

Work through this once and the rest is maintenance:

• Child signed into their own supervised profile, parent profile locked.
• Family Link app install approval on, updates included.
• Daily limit and bedtime set, with separate weekday and weekend values.
• Play parental controls on, with a PIN the child does not know and an age rating filter you have tested.
• Purchase authentication required for every purchase, in-app purchases included.
• App pinning enabled, with the PIN required to unpin.
• Installed games checked for the "Contains ads" badge and their Data safety section.

Then do the thing no setting can replace: play the game yourself for five minutes before your child does. For a first run through the approval flow, Toddler Games for 2+ Year Old is a tap-and-match collection that works offline and needs no account, and our safety and privacy notes for parents explain what our games do and do not collect.