How to Set Parental Controls on a Samsung Tablet in 2024

Toma Novakovic
Updated on: September 10, 2024 Writer

Samsung tablets have built-in parental controls called Samsung Kids that let you decide what apps and files your child can access and set screen time limits. There’s also the option of using Google Family Link, which adds decent web filtering and some YouTube monitoring and is a good option for tweens.

That said, I’ve tested lots of parental controls and can confirm that Samsung Kids and Google Family Link are pretty limited compared to third-party parental controls apps like Qustodio. With a good standalone parental control app, you get more granular controls over what your kid accesses and does on their device, plus extras like call and SMS monitoring.

Below, I explain how to set up parental controls on Samsung and how you can use its in-built parental controls alongside a parental control app for the most comprehensive control and monitoring of your child’s Samsung tablet.

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Are Samsung Tablets’ Built-In Parental Controls Good Enough in 2024?

Samsung Kids is the name for the built-in parental controls available on Samsung tablets that run Pie OS (Android 9.0) and above. They’re a decent pick if your child is super young and uses your phone to play games, watch videos, and take pictures.

But if your child is a tween or older and has their own phone, you’ll need a separate, reliable parental control app to monitor how your kid spends their time on their Samsung Tablet.

This is because Samsung Kids isn’t a typical parental control app. Instead, it operates like a “kids mode” setting.

Samsung Kids is essentially an app on Samsung tablets that opens an environment on the tablet in which your child can only use the apps you allow. It includes a few educational apps and games, it lets you set up daily time limits, and it provides a breakdown of your child’s screen time by app.

That said, it lacks a lot of important features that top parental control apps offer. For example:

• Samsung Kids can’t monitor or block any inappropriate messages your child might receive on allowed social network apps.
• It only filters websites through its My Browser app, so if you allow a third-party browser app or another app with a built-in browser, the filters won’t apply.
• It doesn’t have a location tracking feature.
• It doesn’t have any uninstall protection, save for a PIN that your kid needs to exit the app or change any rules. So if your kid figures out your PIN, they can uninstall Samsung Kids without you knowing.

I recommend combining Samsung Kids with a premium parental control app like Qustodio. It lets you set daily time limits for specific apps and create schedules, and it offers lots of website filters you can apply with 1 click across several browsers your kid might use on their Samsung tablet. Qustodio also has a separate feature for monitoring what your kid watches and searches for on the YouTube app and site on a Samsung tablet, and it even includes a Call & SMS monitoring feature.

How to Set Parental Controls on a Samsung Tablet

Preliminary Step: Download the Samsung Kids Installer

There’s a small chance that you might not be able to find Samsung Kids pre-installed on your kid’s Samsung tablet. If that’s the case, all you have to do is visit the Galaxy Store, look up the Samsung Kids app via the search function, and download the app.

Step 1. Configure Samsung Kids

Here’s how to set up Samsung Kids:

1. Go to Apps.
2. Find and tap on Samsung Kids. Launch the app.
3. You’ll be prompted to create a 4-digit PIN and input your child’s name and birthday. The PIN is used to access and leave Samsung Kids, so be sure to remember it well.
4. Read through the disclaimer and tap Accept.
5. That’s it, you’ve successfully set up Samsung Kids!

If you already use a PIN to unlock your tablet, you won’t have to enter a new PIN — Samsung Kids will automatically use your lock screen PIN. If you want to create a separate PIN for Samsung Kids, follow these steps:

1. Tap More options on the Samsung Kids homescreen.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Find Lock type for Parental controls and toggle the option to Custom PIN.

Step 2. Set Up Allowed Apps on Samsung Kids

Samsung Kids recommends a couple of educational games and apps, as well as allowing your kid to access the phone and the gallery app. However, you’ll have to add allowed contacts, images, and videos that are safe for your kids to use — they won’t automatically gain access to the full contact list and everything available in the tablet’s gallery.

You can swipe right to add more apps for kids from Samsung Kids, and you can add any app that’s available on the Samsung Tablet, like games, the calculator app, and social media apps. Here’s how to pick which apps will be available in Samsung Kids:

1. In the Samsung Kids homescreen, tap the Parental controls icon.
2. Enter your PIN when prompted.
3. In the Parental controls section, tap Apps. This will let you edit the Samsung Kids homescreen.
4. Tap the + button and accept the disclaimer.
5. Now, choose up to 30 apps from the tablet that will be available in Samsung Kids.
6. Tap + again to confirm, and tap Save.

Step 3. Set Up My Browser

Samsung Kids allows access to My Browser, a simple browser app. When you first set it up, it only allows access to a few websites, a news portal and a movie/book review site — all set by Samsung to be age appropriate. If you want to let your kid access more websites, just follow these simple steps:

1. Open My Browser.
2. Tap on the New website button.
3. Enter your PIN.
4. Here, you can type in website addresses you want to allow access to, as well as choose the name and icon for each website.

Step 4. Regulate Your Child’s Screen Time

Once you’ve set up the apps your child is allowed to use, you can also control how much time your kid spends on the tablet:

1. In the Samsung Kids homescreen, tap the Parental controls icon.
2. Enter your PIN to access the Parental controls section.
3. Tap Screen time.
4. Change the toggle to On. This way, you’ll be able to create either a single time limit that applies every day, or different screen time limits for different days of the week.

Note that there’s also an option to allow certain apps to bypass the daily time limit or only pick apps that your kid can’t use once their screen time is up. This is convenient if you want to make sure your kid can keep using apps they need to finish their homework or to ensure they don’t spend more than an hour a day gaming or on social media.

Alternative Step: Set Up Google Family Link

Samsung tablets run Android, which means many of Google’s features come integrated with the device. One of these is Google Family Link, which is Google’s parental control feature for kids under the age of 13.

Family Link gives you control over what your child can access and download from the Google Play Store, so you don’t have to constantly check whether your kid is using a new app or where they might have hidden it. You can filter out apps that your child sees in the Play Store according to their age rating, and you can also prevent your kid from downloading any app without you approving it first.

Unlike with Samsung Kids’ My Browser, you can set Google Family Link to either categorically block access to all explicit sites, or create a list of websites that are always allowed or always blocked. I think it’s super convenient how there’s an in-app way for your kid to ask for access to a particular site because Google’s filters aren’t perfect and a harmless site could accidentally be blocked.

Family Link monitors the Chrome browser, and since it gives you control over what your kid downloads from the Play Store, your kid won’t be able to secretly get another browser to get around your controls. That said, parental controls like Qustodio are way more convenient, since they monitor most top browsers like Opera.

Note that Google lets your child opt out of Family Link when they turn 13. So I wouldn’t recommend using Family Link as your primary form of parental control, but you can definitely run it alongside a premium parental control app like Qustodio, which will work regardless of your child’s age.

Step 5: Install a Third-Party Parental Control App

If you have a tween or a teenager who needs more digital freedom, but you need better control than what Family Link can offer, I absolutely recommend getting a premium parental control app, such as Qustodio. This gets you more granular control over screen time and website and app access, plus you get features like location tracking, YouTube monitoring, and Call & SMS monitoring on your kid’s Samsung tablet.

1. Install the app on your device, like a mobile phone. Either find your chosen parental control app in the Play Store, or go to the provider’s website and download the installation file. Follow the on-screen instructions, and the whole process should take just 2–3 minutes.
2. Open the app. Create an account, and add a profile for your child.
3. Install the app on your child’s Samsung tablet. As you’ve done on your device, either install it from the Play Store or the provider’s website.
4. Open the app on your child’s Samsung tablet. Follow the on-screen setup instructions.
5. Now, you can configure the parental control app on your device to regulate your child’s web access, app access, and screen time.

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Tried Setting Up Samsung Tablet Parental Controls, But They’re Not Working? Try These Troubleshooting Steps

• Double-check your PIN. Samsung Kids can use either your lock screen PIN or a separate one. Make sure you’ve entered the correct PIN to access Samsung Kids and its parental controls section.
• Make sure you’re on the right user profile. You could have accidentally forgotten to switch to your child’s restricted user profile, where Samsung Kids is active.
• Check your software for updates. Both your parental control app and operating system have to be up-to-date to ensure they run smoothly and don’t run into any compatibility issues.
• Recheck your apps’ permissions. Parental control apps require various permissions to work properly. Sometimes your device will reset app permissions, so make sure that all the correct ones are granted.
• Confirm you’ve installed the app properly. If you’re using a third-party parental control app or if Samsung Kids didn’t come preinstalled on your device, ensure that the app is correctly installed on your child’s Samsung tablet (and on your control device, if applicable). Uninstalling and reinstalling the app carefully should help.
• Try contacting customer support. If all else fails, you could get in touch with the parental control app’s customer support.

Can Kids Get Past Parental Controls on Samsung Tablets?

Samsung Kids is hard to get around, because it’s an enclosed environment that you have control over. It requires a PIN to switch it on/off, as well as to access and modify all of its settings. That said, there are a few ways your child could get past Samsung Kids:

• Figuring out your PIN. If your child figures out your PIN, or sees you input it, they can easily get past Samsung Kids without you even knowing. Using a parental control app that has separate apps for the parent’s and child’s devices like Qustodio can help you prevent this.
• Uninstalling the Samsung Kids app through Safe Mode. If your child is tech savvy, they could reboot the Samsung tablet into Safe Mode, uninstall the Samsung Kids app, and then reinstall it later with you none the wiser. Qustodio requires you to input your login info in order to uninstall the app, so your child wouldn’t be able to do this without you knowing.
• Performing a factory reset on the device. This can also be done by rebooting the tablet into Safe Mode. On many models of Samsung tablet, you could only prevent this by encrypting the entire device (which is an irreversible process). That way, no one can access Safe Mode and reset the device without an administrator password.

Frequently Asked Questions

What age are the parental controls of Samsung tablets appropriate for?

It depends on which one you use. Samsung Kids’ native apps, interface, and content are appropriate for young children up to the age of 8–9.  If your child is older, I recommend getting a premium parental control app like Qustodio, which gives you granular control over their activities without being too restrictive.

Can I track my child’s location with Samsung Kids?

No. If you need to track your child’s location, you could instead get a top parental control app like Qustodio. Aside from showing you a timeline of your child’s location history, it also lets you create monitored zones, and you’ll be notified when your kid leaves or arrives at one of those zones.

Do Samsung tablets have their own parental controls?

Yes, many Samsung tablets come with Samsung Kids preinstalled. If your Samsung tablet doesn’t already have Samsung Kids, it’s easy to find on the Galaxy App Store.

Additionally, Samsung tablets run Android, so a lot of Google’s features come integrated with the device, including the option to set up Google Family Link, which is Google’s parental control feature for kids under the age of 13.

All that said, I still prefer getting a premium parental control app like Qustodio, since it has more useful features than Samsung Kids, like uninstall protection and location tracking, and it works for children of all ages.

What’s the best parental control app for Samsung tablets?

I believe Qustodio is the best parental control app for Samsung tablets currently on the market. It has a lot of features that Samsung Kids is missing, like location tracking and call and SMS monitoring.

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