Creating google accounts for kids to replace my accounts on their phones

dogbert27

Hi,

setting up my kids android devices the did not have google accounts so I used my google accounts on each of their phones.

Their getting old enough that I want to set them up with their own google child account now. One of the problems I think I will face though is that they have all their games installed through my google play.

If I switch them to their own google accounts and sign out of my google account on their device will they lose all their saved game play, e.g. Minecraft, Brawl Stars, etc.?

dogbert27

Answering my own question, I just found that I cannot sign out of my google account and leave it on their phones, I have to remove the account completely.

I can't do this unfortunately as it is linked to their Pokemon Go apps. I guess I can set up their google accounts so but have to leave my accounts still open on their phones.

TheCrank

Games aside, this is a great chance to take some control over your children's phones. When you create their accounts you can also create a family group with you as the head. Install Family Link on all devices and you're in business. You can set time limits and bedtimes on their phones and age controls on apps and content and control it all from your own device. It is fantastic.

piplip87

https://www.google.com/search?q=google+family+link+share+apps&oq=google.family+link+sha&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i22i30l2j0i390l4.9424j0j4&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

You can link upto 5 people in your family and share games and apps etc

robinph

Not got as far as giving the kid their own Android device yet, but comparing the ratings and reviews for the two Family Link apps show that it must work well.

The parents app getting nearly 5 star ratings and the companion app on the kids phones getting 1 star ratings and all the reviews saying that it's terrible... Then you spot that it's the kids complaining about being limited in what they can access. Worth a giggle to have a look at their reviews.

dogbert27

Dragging this up again.

I changed one of my google accounts to my daughters information so everything that was linked is now in her name. The only thing that sticks out is the gmail address but she's still too young to be using email.

I've set up Family Link on her phone and I can control her screen time with that.

I've also set up my son's google account and have it on his tab and I can control the screen time on that device.

I'm still stuck though with having my google account on my son's phone.

As per my original post, all his games are linked to my google account and it says for me to set up his google account on his phone I would need to do a factory reset which means he loses everything.

Is there anyway of saving his game information remotely and transferring back to his google account?

DopeTech

You don’t need to factory reset to add his google account. Just sign in and then afterwards sign out of yours.

TheRona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120060616#Comment_120060616

To set up a child account with parental controls, you can only have the child's account on the device, which is probably why you're forced to factory reset when setting it up.

dogbert27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120060783#Comment_120060783

Thanks. Yeah I removed my account first from the phone and then tried to sign in with his but I kept getting an error. That's why i think I need to do the factory reset.

Unfortunately that will remove all the app data on the phone that he has for his games under my google account