Google Family Link vs OpenParental

Google Family Link helps parents guide a child’s online experience and build digital habits. Parents can set daily screen-time limits and School Time or Downtime schedules, set individual app limits, allow unlimited time for selected apps, or block apps. Controls cover Chrome, Google Play, YouTube, and Search, including site blocking and app approval. Activity reports and location tools add visibility: a child’s location appears when the device is powered on, recently active, and connected to the internet. Family Link can alert parents when a child arrives at or leaves a location, ring devices, and show remaining battery life. Parents can install the app on Android or iOS, and some settings are available on the web. Child supervision supports Android 6.0 or later, Chromebook with Chrome OS 71 or later, and compatible Fitbit devices. It cannot supervise iPhones, iPads, or computers other than Chromebooks, and it cannot manage Google Workspace for Education accounts. Purchase approvals apply only to purchases through Google Play billing. The service is free; some features require a compatible device.

OpenParental is free, open-source parental-control software for Android, built around visible, consent-based supervision for parents and teenagers. A parent creates a short pairing code, which the child app claims before receiving a scoped device token. Parents can remotely lock or ping a device, set app blocklists, configure per-app daily limits, and create schedules. The parent dashboard or alert feed can receive periodic location, daily per-app usage, newly installed apps, and tamper events. Alerts can cover tampering, a device going dark, new apps, and unblock requests. Live screen viewing uses a setup-time MediaProjection grant and sends JPEG frames through Socket.IO. The project excludes covert audio, camera, ambient recording, covert screen capture, server-side storage of minors’ photos, Device Owner, and device wipe. The backend is self-hosted with Node 20+, Docker, PostgreSQL 16, and Redis 7. The child app is a sideloaded Kotlin Android APK; the parent app is Flutter with a Play Store track.