Settings and apps can filter a lot, but none of them replace knowing what your child does online and making sure they will come to you when something goes wrong. Use both.
On an Android phone or tablet: Google Family Link
Family Link is free and made by Google.
- Install Google Family Link on your own phone.
- Create a Google account for your child, or add their existing one, and follow the steps to link their device.
From your own phone you can then:
- approve or block apps before they are installed,
- set daily screen-time limits and a bedtime,
- filter websites in Chrome and turn on SafeSearch,
- see where the device is.
On an iPhone or iPad: Screen Time
- On the child's device go to Settings, Screen Time, and choose This is my child's iPhone, or set up Family Sharing from your own iPhone.
- Use Content & Privacy Restrictions to limit apps, websites and purchases by age.
- Set Downtime for night-time and App Limits for games and social media.
- Turn on Ask to Buy so every purchase and download needs your approval.
YouTube
- For young children use YouTube Kids, a separate app with its own content filters and a timer.
- For older children, YouTube offers supervised experiences linked to your account, with a content level you choose.
- Turn off autoplay. Many problems start several videos away from where the child began.
Games and social media
- Most social media apps require users to be at least 13.
- Set accounts to private, turn off location sharing, and limit who can message the child to friends only.
- In games like Roblox and Free Fire, use the parental controls to restrict chat.
- Block in-app purchases, or require a password for them, so a game cannot empty your card or airtime.
The conversations
- Keep phones and tablets in shared rooms, and out of bedrooms at night.
- Tell them clearly: if anything online makes them uncomfortable, or someone asks for photos, to keep a secret, or to meet, they can tell you and they will not be punished for it. Children hide problems when they fear losing the phone.
- Explain that people online are not always who they say they are, including other "children".
- Agree rules together, and review them as they get older.
If something has already happened
Keep the messages and screenshots, block and report the account on the platform, and report it. In Ghana, the Cyber Security Authority takes reports on 292; see reporting cybercrime in Ghana. Anything involving sexual content with a child should also go to the police.