The Google app was supposed to protect phones and spoils them. Watch out for Family Link

We received an application for the editorial inbox, which signaled serious problems with the Google Family Link application. We checked it. In certain situations, this application can completely lock the child's smartphone, turning it into a paper button.

The Family Link application allows you to link your child's smartphone to the parent's phone and gives the guardian control over what the child is doing online and how much time he devotes to using the mobile device.

A similar solution has been available for a long time in Apple devices - eg in iPhones and iPads . Google prepared its Android counterpart with some delay, and then with an even greater delay made it available in Poland. However, from September 2018, Poles can install their Google Family Link smartphones on smartphones to check what the child is doing online and manage child applications - you can decide which appek to use the child and set time limits for specific applications and games. The icing on the cake is the location of the child's phone.

The Google Family Link app is undoubtedly useful and parents may regret having had to wait for it for so long.

Google Family Link blocks the phone

Unfortunately, not everyone is happy with how Family Link works. When reviewing the review of the application in the Play Store , it can be seen that among the reviews, which authors gave the lowest possible rating, there is often a notification describing the problem with the complete blocking of the child's device.

Let no one install this trash, because if you want to get rid of it from the child's phone, there is nothing you can do about it. This is the worst thing I could do - Agnieszka warns me in an emotional way.

The tragedy can not be uninstalled by the application of the child, which makes it impossible to recover the phone !!!! Never install - adds Magdalena.

Let no one install it, how to delete the account incorrectly will block the device on amen. Hard reset does not help !!!!!!! - the Sage of the East exclaims.

Tomasz, a reader, has contacted us about identical problems. He has been unable to cope with his son's blocked phone for two months. The child's device suggests that Tomasz's e-mail account has been disconnected without the consent of the parent. And on this message the phone ends its operation. You can not do anything - you can not re-connect your parent account, you can not enter any code or password. No way.

The Google - Family Link app has critical errors that completely prevent you from using your phone. There is also no way to get around them; the movie shows that the screen in which theoretically - maybe - you can switch the account from the children's account to adults, is displayed only for a fraction of a second and (I tried to reflex) is completely inactive - describes the problem Tomasz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1uUTKDkGO4

The child's mobile phone has been blocked for several weeks, during which Tomasz exchanged dozens of e-mails with Google's technical support. The last message he received was:

Good morning, Mr. Tomasz,
Thank you for providing information.
Our specialists are still involved in this matter and will contact you when I get more information.
Greetings,
Matthew
The Google Support Team

It contains zero particulars regarding the solution of the user's problem.

Google Polska comments

We managed to find out something more. Google officially admitted that the error exists and suggested how it is called.

We found an error in the Family Link service, which in some cases may block access to the child's device, especially when the child tries to remove the surveillance functions - explains the Google Polska representative in an interview with Spider's Web.

We were also able to obtain the promise that "this error will be corrected in the next few weeks".

For users whose smartphones were blocked by children and for long weeks lost the ability to communicate via text messages, instant messengers and voice calls, this is rather poor consolation. However, for others it can be a lesson so that you do not mix and bury in the settings of Google Family Link so as not to cause a similar error.

Google Polska announces that it will contact directly the reader Spider's Web, who drew our attention to this error in the application to make sure that the problem was solved.



The Google app was supposed to protect phones and spoils them. Watch out for Family Link

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