The Parental Controls Already on Your Child's Device
Short answer: every major platform ships a free parental control, and on Chromebook and Android it is Google Family Link, on a Galaxy it is Samsung Kids alongside Family Link, and on Windows it is Microsoft Family Safety. They work at the level of the account or the device: what can be reached, for how long, and by whom.
The two facts worth knowing before you start are the ones the setup guides bury. On a Chromebook, supervision does more than people expect: Google locks SafeSearch so a child cannot change it, and turns Incognito off. On Windows, the filter does less than people expect: Microsoft states its web and search filters only work in Microsoft Edge, so a child who installs Chrome is not blocked, they are simply outside the filter.
None of these tools shows you what is said inside a chat app. That is a different job, and the honest order is to use the free controls first and decide about monitoring afterwards.
Which tool does your child's device use?
The first job is naming the right tool, because the answer depends on the device in front of you rather than on any product you buy.
| Device | Built-in tool | What it does | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chromebook | Google Family Link (supervised account) | Locks SafeSearch on, turns Incognito off, filters sites in Chrome, screen time | Cannot read messages; on a school-managed account the school sets the rules |
| Android phone or tablet | Google Family Link (supervised account) | App approval, screen time, location, same SafeSearch and Incognito rules | Cannot see inside chat apps; a second, unsupervised account ends the coverage |
| Samsung Galaxy | Samsung Kids (a mode on the device) plus Family Link | PIN-gated child zone, up to 6 profiles, playtime schedule, bedtime, allowed content | It is a separate zone, not a filter over the whole phone |
| Windows PC or laptop | Microsoft Family Safety | App and game age limits, activity reporting, web and search filtering | Web and search filters work only in Microsoft Edge |
| iPhone or iPad | Screen Time (covered in our separate iPhone guide) | Content and privacy restrictions, app limits, downtime | Limits can be ignored by default until Block at Downtime is on |
Every capability and limit above is the platform's own published description, not our testing. We name these companies to inform and do not link to them.
Chromebook: the controls live in the account, not the laptop
This is the single most useful thing to understand about a Chromebook, and it is why parents hunt for a settings menu that does not exist. There is no parental lock on the machine. The controls attach to your child's Google Account, and once that account is supervised through Family Link the rules travel with it onto whichever Chromebook they sign in to.
Two of those rules are stricter than most parents assume, and both are Google's own wording. On search, Google states that SafeSearch filtering is "turned on and locked by default" for a child's account, and that once you set up supervision it is "locked so that your child cannot change the setting". On browsing, Google states that Incognito mode "is turned off when your child is signed in to Chrome with an account managed by Family Link".
That second one matters more than it sounds. Private browsing is the usual way a filter gets walked around, and on a supervised Chromebook account it is not available to walk around with. Site filtering is separate: if Try to block explicit sites is on for your child, Chrome tries to block sexually explicit sites.
Google does not oversell any of it, and the plainest caveat on the subject is Google's own:
"No filter is perfect, but this should help hide sexually explicit sites."
Our guide to blocking inappropriate websites goes further into filtering specifically, and how web content filtering works covers why no filter reaches everything.
The school Chromebook is a different machine, even if it looks the same
If the Chromebook came from school, expect the controls to sit outside your reach, and expect that to be by design rather than a fault you can fix. Google documents school accounts separately from family accounts, and states that "school administrators can update SafeSearch filtering at any time" from their Admin Console.
The sentence that follows is the one worth reading twice, because it describes where the control goes when the school relaxes it:
"When SafeSearch enforcement is turned off, students can manage their own SafeSearch preferences."
So on a school device the setting may belong to the school, and if the school stops enforcing it, it moves to your child rather than to you. We are being deliberately narrow here: SafeSearch is the case we verified in Google's own documentation, and we are not going to tell you that a parent can change nothing on a managed device, because we did not check the rest. If the school device is your real concern, the school's IT contact is the person who can say what else is locked, and it is a reasonable thing to ask.
Android phones and tablets
The same account supervision covers Android, which is the tidy part of Google's setup: one supervised account, the same SafeSearch lock and the same Incognito rule, plus app approval, screen time and location on the phone side.
The gap is the one every account-based control shares. Supervision follows the account, so it ends where the account ends. A second profile, a guest session, a friend's tablet or a device signed in with a different account is outside it, and none of that requires any technical skill from a child.
Samsung Galaxy: Samsung Kids is not the same thing as Family Link
On a Galaxy you have both, and they are commonly confused because they overlap in what they promise. They are different kinds of tool.
Samsung Kids is a mode on the device. Samsung describes it as turning "your Galaxy phone or tablet into a child-friendly zone", it is gated by a PIN, it supports up to 6 profiles, and inside it you get a playtime schedule, a bedtime, an allowed-content list and an activity view. It runs on Galaxy phones and tablets on Android 9.0 and above.
Family Link, as above, supervises the Google Account wherever it goes.
The distinction is worth holding onto when you decide which one you actually want. Samsung Kids suits handing your own phone or a shared tablet to a younger child for a while: they are inside a walled area and a PIN gets them out. Family Link suits a child with their own device and their own account. They are not alternatives, and using both is normal.
Windows: the filter is real, but it is tied to one browser
Microsoft Family Safety covers a Windows PC or laptop with app and game age limits, activity reporting, and web and search filtering. By default it blocks mature websites and filters searches in Bing.
Then there is the constraint, which Microsoft flags as Important on its own support page and which changes what the feature is worth:
"Microsoft Family Safety's web and search filters only work with the Microsoft Edge browser."
Microsoft states separately that family members "must use the Microsoft Edge browser while signed into their Microsoft accounts" for the filters to apply. Read literally, that means a child who installs Chrome or Firefox has not defeated the filter or weakened it. The filter simply is not present in that browser.
This is not a reason to skip Family Safety, and it is not a scandal; it is a design boundary that the product's own documentation states clearly and that setup articles tend to leave out. It does mean that on Windows the filtering step is only finished once other browsers are removed or blocked, and if you set the filter and stop there you may believe you have coverage you do not have.
What none of them do
Across all four platforms the built-in controls answer the same kind of question: what can be reached, for how long, on which account. Not one of them answers what is being said.
- Message content is out of scope. None of these tools shows you the text of a conversation, a direct message or an in-app chat. That is not an oversight in the products; it is not what they do.
- Coverage ends where the account ends. A second account, a guest session, a friend's device: all outside.
- A filter is a filter. Google's own caveat, quoted above, applies to all of them.
If what actually worries you is the content of your child's conversations rather than the hours or the sites, the free controls are not a weaker version of that. They are a different tool, and no amount of configuring gets them there.
Where a monitoring app fits
That gap is what monitoring products sell into, and it is worth being precise about the trade rather than presenting it as an upgrade. A monitor watches across many apps at once and flags concerning content; Bark is the one we cover in depth. What it sees depends heavily on the phone, and that is not a detail.
On Android it states it covers 30 or more platforms in depth. On an iPhone the picture is uneven rather than uniformly slower: Bark's own coverage table marks Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Discord and Roblox as apps it can block but not scan, while it does scan around a dozen others there, mostly by connecting your child's account. Device content such as texts and photos arrives through Bark Sync, the desktop app or a backup rather than in real time, so alerts can lag.
Our guide to what Bark monitors sets out which apps fall on which side, and the full Bark review covers pricing and the honest downsides. The order that works is the boring one: set up the free controls above, talk with your child, and treat monitoring as a layer on top rather than a replacement for either.
See Bark plans and what it monitors
Related reading
- Setting up parental controls on an iPhone, the same job on Apple's side.
- Parental controls by platform, for the controls inside individual apps like YouTube and Snapchat.
- How to check screen time, for reading the reports these tools produce.
- Dangerous apps for kids, which sorts risk by feature rather than by app name.
Frequently asked questions
How do parental controls work on a Chromebook?
Through the child's Google Account rather than through a setting on the laptop itself. Once you supervise that account with Family Link, the rules follow the account onto any Chromebook they sign in to. Google states that SafeSearch filtering is "turned on and locked by default" for a child's account, and that once supervision is set up it is "locked so that your child cannot change the setting". Google also says Incognito mode "is turned off when your child is signed in to Chrome with an account managed by Family Link", and that if "Try to block explicit sites" is on, Chrome tries to block sexually explicit sites. Google is candid about the ceiling in its own words: "No filter is perfect, but this should help hide sexually explicit sites."
Can I turn off incognito mode on my child's Chromebook?
You do not have to, because supervision does it. Google states that Incognito mode "is turned off when your child is signed in to Chrome with an account managed by Family Link". The important part is the condition at the end of that sentence: it applies while the child is signed in to that supervised account. A different account, a guest session, or a second browser is a different situation, which is the general shape of every account-based control on this page.
Why can't I change the settings on my child's school Chromebook?
Because on a school account the school administrator holds those controls, not the parent. Google documents school accounts separately from family ones and states that "school administrators can update SafeSearch filtering at any time" from the Admin Console. It also states what happens when they relax it: "When SafeSearch enforcement is turned off, students can manage their own SafeSearch preferences." So on a school-issued device the setting can sit outside your reach and, if the school turns enforcement off, it moves to your child rather than to you. We are describing the SafeSearch case specifically, because that is the one we verified; if a school device is your main concern, the school's IT contact is the person who can tell you what else is locked.
What is the difference between Samsung Kids and Family Link?
They are different kinds of thing and they work together rather than competing. Samsung Kids is a mode on the device: Samsung describes it as turning "your Galaxy phone or tablet into a child-friendly zone", it is gated by a PIN, it supports up to 6 profiles, and it carries its own playtime schedule, bedtime, allowed content and activity view. It is available on Galaxy phones and tablets running Android 9.0 and above. Family Link is account-level supervision that applies wherever the child signs in. The practical difference is scope: Samsung Kids is a walled area you hand the device over to, while Family Link governs the account itself.
Do Windows parental controls work in Chrome or Firefox?
No, and Microsoft says so plainly. Its own support page carries the line, marked Important, that "Microsoft Family Safety's web and search filters only work with the Microsoft Edge browser", and separately that family members "must use the Microsoft Edge browser while signed into their Microsoft accounts" for those filters to apply. By default Microsoft blocks mature websites and filters searches in Bing. The consequence is worth being blunt about: if your child installs Chrome or Firefox, the web filter is not weakened, it simply does not apply. Blocking or removing other browsers is what makes the Windows filter mean anything.
Are the built-in parental controls free?
Yes. Family Link, Samsung Kids and Microsoft Family Safety all come with the platform at no cost, and for a lot of families they are enough on their own. They also share one honest ceiling: they decide what a child can reach, for how long, and on which account. None of them shows you what is being said inside a chat app. That is a different job, and it is the only reason to consider paying for anything on top.
Every capability, limit and quoted sentence on this page comes from Google's, Microsoft's or Samsung's own support documentation, read on August 15, 2026. Where their wording is exact it is quoted and attributed; where we describe a feature in our own words, that is because the exact label was not visible in the source. We do not publish step-by-step menu paths we have not read, because interfaces change and a wrong path is worse than none. How we work is on our methodology page.
We earn a commission if you sign up to Bark through our link. Bark is presented as one monitoring option, and never as a replacement for the free controls above or for talking with your child.