Device setup guides

Where to start

Start with the device your child actually uses most, not the one you would most like to control.

One thing decides how well any of this works: whether their account was created as a child account in the first place. Screen Time, Family Link and Microsoft Family Safety are all built on that assumption. Bolting restrictions onto an adult account your child already made for themselves leaves gaps that look like the controls are failing. If that is your situation, start with the account section of the relevant guide rather than the list of restrictions.

Count the devices before you start, including the ones that do not feel like devices. Most households have more screens than they think: an old tablet in a drawer, a handed-down phone kept on wi-fi, a games console with a browser in it, a school laptop that goes home at weekends. A carefully configured phone next to a forgotten spare is a configured phone and an open door, and children find the open door quickly.

School-issued devices are the exception worth knowing about early, because the school’s management software usually outranks anything a parent sets and you may not be able to change it at all. Treat those as someone else’s device that lives in your house.