Google has announced a new feature called “School time” for Android phones and other devices that empowers parents.
The feature will be helpful for parents who do not want their children distracted at school but still want to be able to get in touch in case of emergency, according to the company.
“School time enables parents to set their child’s personal device to a dedicated home screen with limited functionality during school hours, which helps reduce distractions during class,” Google said in a blogpost.
“Parents can schedule and select which apps are allowed during School time in Family Link, our parental controls app. Parents will also have the option to allow calls or texts from specific contacts,” it added.
The tech giant has introduced School time on Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatches. Over the next year, it will bring the feature to even more devices including select Android phones, tablets and Samsung Galaxy Watches to promote a productive learning environment, the company mentioned.
Moreover, Google said that the School time feature can also be turned on outside of class when it may be time to focus or take a break from screens.
“For teens who are not supervised by a parent through Family Link, we also offer Focus mode on Android devices to prevent notifications and limit distractions during a specific time period,” it noted.
The tech giant further mentioned that new supervision features for parents of teens will be coming to YouTube.
In an update rolling out later this summer, parents and teens will be able to link their accounts, enabling parents to gain visibility into their teens’ activity on YouTube, the company said.
In addition, for all users under 18, Google has default safety settings in place, which include turning SafeSearch on, implementing content restrictions and turning autoplay off on YouTube.
The company also recently introduced new safeguards that limit recommendations of videos with content that could be “problematic, especially for teens, if viewed in repetition – such as content related to body image”.