Ring and Nest cameras: what your teen can see and share

Never give a child the account owner’s login for a home camera. Ring and Google both let you invite a family member with their own account and a narrower access level. On Ring, the Limited level lets a teen watch live video and look back through event history, but not download or share recordings, change Modes, or receive real-time alerts. On Google Home, a Member sees camera history only if you switch on their Activity permission, and Google turns that permission off automatically for children’s accounts.

Why camera access needs more thought than a speaker

A doorbell or indoor camera records everyone who passes it: your children, their friends, the friends’ parents, delivery drivers, and whoever your teenager does not want you to know came round. Whoever holds the account can usually watch live, scroll back through the day, save a clip and send it anywhere. Handing over the owner login hands over all of that, plus the power to delete recordings and change who else has access.

The useful question for a parent is narrower than “should my teen see the camera?” It is which of three things they need: to see who is at the door, to get an alert when someone arrives, or to save and send clips. Ring splits exactly those apart, and the split is not obvious from the invite screen.

Ring: choosing an access level for a teen

Ring’s terms of service set a minimum age of 13, and say anyone aged 13 to 18 may use Ring only with the consent of a parent or guardian who agrees to the terms on their behalf. A teen invited as a shared user creates their own Ring account to accept, so this applies to them. Below 13, Ring’s own terms rule out a shared-user account.

Ring’s comparison table, as published on its Managing permissions for users page, breaks the three family levels down like this:

• Limited: live view, event history, device control, and arming or disarming Ring Alarm at the keypad. No sharing or downloading of recorded video, no Mode controls, and no real-time notifications.
• Standard: everything in Limited, plus Mode controls, real-time notifications, sharing recorded video and downloading recordings.
• Advanced: everything in Standard, plus changing device settings, managing other users, and adding or removing devices.
• Owner only: deleting recordings, managing the account and subscriptions, and deleting the location.

The trade-off sits in Standard. A teen who wants a ping on their phone when a friend rings the bell needs Standard, and Standard is also the level that can download and share recordings. If alerts are not the point, Limited covers “check who is at the door” without the share button. No level below the owner can delete a recording, so a teen cannot quietly remove a clip of their own arrival time on any level you can invite them at.

1. In the Ring app, tap the menu (☰) › Settings or Control Center › User Permissions › Invite User › Family, friend or employee.
2. Enter your teen’s name and email, then select only the devices they need. Access is granted device by device, so a doorbell can be shared without the indoor cameras.
3. Choose Limited unless your teen needs alerts, and send the invite. Invites can only go out at Standard or Limited; Advanced has to be set later by changing an existing user’s level.
4. Under the menu (☰) › Settings › Modes, decide whether Shared user Access to Modes should be on. Modes switch cameras between Disarmed, Home and Away, so this is the control over whether anyone but you can change what records.
5. To change a level later, open User Permissions, pick the person and the location, and choose Standard, Limited or Advanced. To remove someone, tap their name, the address, then Remove user from this location.

Google Home and Nest: Members, Activity and Settings

Google Home has two roles. An Admin has full control of people, devices and services. A Member cannot add or remove people or devices, and two separate permissions govern the rest: Activity lets a Member check device history, including camera history, and Settings covers device controls, which Google’s own example describes as turning cameras on or off.

• To invite a teen, open the Google Home app, tap Add › Home Member, enter their email, choose Member, and set Activity and Settings before tapping Invite.
• Accounts belonging to children under 13 (or the age of digital consent in your country) are Members by default, with Activity and Settings switched off automatically. Only a parent in the child’s Family Link group can invite a child’s account.
• Activity is the camera-history switch. Leave it off if your teen only needs to control the lights and speakers in the house.
• To remove someone, tap your profile picture › Home settings, tap the person, then Remove this person. Only Admins can do this.

Face recognition catalogues your children’s friends

Both platforms sell a paid feature that recognises faces at the door, and both work differently from what most parents assume.

• Ring Familiar Faces is off by default and needs a Ring Pro plan, a Ring trial or a Pro Intelligence add-on. Once on, any person whose face is clearly visible is automatically added to your Familiar Faces library, named or not. Unnamed profiles are removed after 30 days without recognition. Only the account owner can manage the library, and shared users see the names in alerts. Ring recommends telling the people you save, and notes that some laws require consent; the feature is not offered in Illinois, Texas, Portland (Oregon) or Quebec.
• Google familiar face detection needs a Google Home Premium subscription. Google says the app asks whether a newly detected face is someone you know, rather than saving everyone. Google also says all home members have access to the familiar face library, so a teen added as a Member can browse the faces saved there. Children’s accounts cannot manage the feature. It is not available for cameras in Illinois.

If a regular stream of teenagers comes through your front door, decide on purpose whether you want a face library of them. To delete one person on Ring, open the profile and tap the Delete icon, which Ring says permanently removes the profile, the facial recognition information and the images used for recognition. On Google, the Google Home app’s familiar face settings include Delete face library, which also erases the snapshots used for identification.

Indoor cameras and a child’s private space

An indoor camera that looks into a hallway can also look into a bedroom doorway or a bathroom. Both platforms give you ways to stop that.

• Ring Privacy Zones black out up to two areas per device in both live and recorded video: menu (☰) › Devices › the camera › Device Settings › Privacy Settings › Add Privacy Zones. Ring warns that motion behind a zone can still trigger a recording, that a zone stops covering the right spot if the camera moves, and that Privacy Zones are not available on the Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam, Stick Up Cam with Pan-Tilt Mount, Stick Up Cam (1st Gen) or Video Doorbell (1st Gen).
• Ring Modes let you choose, per camera, whether it records, sends motion warnings and allows Live View in Disarmed, Home and Away. Setting indoor cameras to do none of those in Home mode is the practical way to keep them off while the family is in. Some Mode features need a compatible Ring subscription.
• Ring audio: the Audio Streaming and Recording toggle under the same Privacy Settings screen stops sound being streamed or recorded. Ring says it needs a compatible subscription.
• Nest cameras can be switched off from the Google Home app: Home › Cameras › Turn off on one camera, or All off. Google says an off camera does not detect sound or motion, stream live video, or record.
• Nest automatic on/off turns the camera off when the first person with shared access comes home and back on when everyone has left, based on the phones opted in to presence sensing. Your teen’s phone counts if it is opted in. Google advises using either this or a camera schedule, not both.

When Ring and Nest clips leave the house

A saved clip of your child is easy to pass on, and two Ring routes are worth knowing about before anyone in the family uses them.

• Neighbors posts are public. Ring says anyone may see a post or comment, although the poster’s name and exact location are not shown. Posts cannot be edited once submitted, only deleted (menu › My Posts › ••• › Delete). Neighbors accepts videos from any phone, so a neighbour’s camera can post your child without your involvement.
• Community Requests cannot be undone. Verified local public safety agencies can ask Ring users in an area to share footage. Responding is voluntary, but Ring states that shared video cannot be retracted or deleted, and that your home address and the email on your Ring account go to the investigator with it. Email notifications can be turned off under menu › Control Center › Public Safety.

If a clip showing your child has been posted somewhere you did not agree to, start with the platform’s own report or deletion route, and see the family privacy audit for what else to check.

A sensible setup by age

• Under 13: no camera-app account of their own. Ring’s terms rule it out, and Google switches camera history off for children’s accounts anyway.
• 13 to 15: Ring Limited on the front doorbell only, or a Google Home Member with Activity off. Indoor cameras not shared.
• 16 to 17: Ring Standard if they need arrival alerts, after a conversation about not sharing clips of friends. Keep Shared user Access to Modes off unless they are trusted to arm the house.

For speakers and displays in the same house, see the Alexa and Google Assistant guides, and what your smart speaker keeps.