This is general guidance to help you think things through. It is not legal, medical or other professional advice. Device menus change often: if a step looks different, look up the setting’s name on the maker’s own help pages.
Phones and tablets
iPhone and iPad (Screen Time)
- Set up Family Sharing (Settings, Family; on older versions, your name, then Family Sharing) and add your child with their own Apple Account.
- Open Settings, Screen Time, and pick your child.
- Downtime: set bedtime and school hours. App Limits: minutes for each kind of app.
- Communication Limits: who they can call and message (for example, only contacts).
- Content & Privacy Restrictions: age ratings for apps, movies and music, and under Web Content, Limit Adult Websites or Only Approved Websites.
- Ask to Buy (Settings, Family, your child’s name): you approve every download and purchase.
Android (Google Family Link)
- On your phone, open Google’s Family Link and follow the steps to supervise your child’s Google Account and device.
- Under Controls: Screen time (daily limit and bedtime), App limits, Content restrictions (Google Play age ratings, Chrome sites, SafeSearch) and purchase approvals.
Computers and Chromebooks
- Windows: Settings, Accounts, Family. Give your child their own Microsoft account, then set screen time, app and game limits, web filters (they work in Microsoft Edge) and spending in Microsoft Family Safety at family.microsoft.com.
- Mac: System Settings, Screen Time, pick your child (with Family Sharing), then Downtime, App Limits, Communication Limits and Content & Privacy.
- Chromebook: your child signs in with their Google Account supervised in Family Link, so the same limits apply. As the owner, go to Settings, Security and privacy, Manage other people, and turn off Guest browsing so the limits can’t be skipped.
- Keep computers in a shared room, like the kitchen or living room, especially for younger kids.
Game consoles, TVs and Wi-Fi
- Xbox: Settings, Account, Family settings, or Microsoft’s free Xbox Family Settings app. Set play time, age limits, who they can talk to and play with online, and asking before buying.
- PlayStation: Settings, Family and Parental Controls. Set play time, age levels, chat and messages, and a monthly spending limit.
- Nintendo Switch: System Settings, Parental Controls, or Nintendo’s free Parental Controls app. Set daily play time, an age level and who they can talk with. Limit spending in your Nintendo Account.
- Smart TVs and streaming: make a kids’ profile in each streaming service, set its age rating, and put a PIN on the grown-up profiles and on purchases. Many TVs also have a parental lock in their settings.
- Home Wi-Fi: many routers have family controls in their app or settings page (look for Parental controls, Family, Schedule or Access control). You can pause the internet for a device at bedtime. Phones on cell data skip the Wi-Fi rules.
- Search: turn on SafeSearch in Google (Filter) and Bing (Strict); supervised accounts keep it on. Turn on Restricted Mode in YouTube.
Which settings, by age
- Ages 3 to 7: you set up every device. Only apps you chose, only approved websites (or no web browser), purchases locked, and screens used where you can see them.
- Ages 8 to 12: filters for adult websites, Ask to Buy or purchase approval, calls and messages only with people you know, downtime at bedtime, and no social media accounts yet.
- Ages 13 to 17: loosen step by step as trust grows, and agree on the rules together. Keep bedtime downtime and purchase approval. Go through the privacy settings of each new app together.
Settings help, but no filter catches everything. Talking often matters most.
Talking about online life
- Trusted grown-ups: together, name three to five grown-ups your child can go to (you, a grandparent, a teacher).
- Say it often: “You can tell me anything, and you won’t be in trouble for telling me.” Stay calm when they do, so they keep telling you.
- Surprises and secrets: a surprise is fun and ends soon, like a birthday present. A secret that feels bad, or that someone says to keep from parents, is one to tell.
- Private things stay private: full name, address, school, phone number, passwords, where they are, and photos of themselves.
- Bullying: don’t answer back, save it with a screenshot, block, report and tell you. If they see someone else being bullied, they can tell you too.
Strangers, gifts and pressure online
- People online are not always who they say. Someone very friendly and full of compliments can still be a stranger.
- Warning signs to teach: asking to move to another app or a private chat, asking for photos, asking to keep things secret, wanting to meet, or offering gifts, money, gift cards or game currency.
- Grooming is when someone builds a child’s trust, bit by bit, in order to harm them: lots of attention, “nobody understands you like I do”, then secrets, pictures or a meeting.
- Sextortion (for older kids): someone gets or fakes a private picture, then threatens to share it unless the child sends more or pays. Tell your teen: it is never their fault; don’t pay, don’t send more, stop replying, save the messages and come to you. There is help, and it can be fixed.
- By age: with little ones, keep to “tell me if anyone asks for a secret or a picture”. With 8 to 12, add “people online can pretend”. With teens, talk plainly about pressure, nude pictures and sextortion.
Screens, sleep and social media
- Charge phones and tablets outside bedrooms at night. Screens off about an hour before bed helps sleep.
- Make a simple family plan together: when, where and how long. It helps a lot when grown-ups follow it too.
- Social media: most services require users to be at least 13, because of a US law (COPPA) that protects children under 13 online. Waiting longer is fine.
- When your teen starts, set the account to private, go through the settings together and agree on who they accept as friends.
Safety off screen
- Correct names for body parts: they help a child tell you clearly if something happens.
- OK and not OK touches: private parts are private. Nobody should touch them, ask to see them or show theirs, except to keep a child healthy (like a doctor, with a parent there). Your child can say no to any touch, even a hug from family.
- A family code word: anyone unexpected who comes to pick them up must know it.
- Practice their full name, address and a parent’s phone number (a little song helps).
- If they get lost: stay where they are and ask a worker with a name tag, or a parent with children, for help.
- No secrets that feel bad: they can always tell a trusted grown-up, even if someone said not to.
- Teens: they share where they are going and with whom, and have a code text that means “come get me”, with no questions asked that night.
Warning signs
A child may be having trouble online if they:
- Hide their screen or switch apps fast when you come near, or become very secretive about a device.
- Have new gifts, money, gift cards or game currency you can’t explain.
- Talk about a new “friend”, often older, but won’t say who it is.
- Seem upset, scared or angry after being online, or pull away from family and friends.
- Sleep less, use devices late at night, or change in mood or schoolwork.
One sign alone doesn’t mean something is wrong. It is a reason to check in, gently.
If something happens
- Stay calm. Thank your child for telling you, and say it is not their fault.
- Keep the evidence. Take screenshots of the messages, the username and the profile. Don’t delete the account or the chats yet. Never save or forward a sexual picture of a child, even to report it: report it instead.
- Block and report the person in the app or game where it happened.
- If your family uses OllyOlly: tap Report a problem (in Settings, or under any help text), and look at the Review tab and the safety alerts for your child.
- Get help from the places below. Your child may need extra care and time for a while.
Where to get help (United States)
- A child in danger right now: call 911.
- NCMEC CyberTipline (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children), to report online exploitation, grooming or sextortion: report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678.
- Take It Down, free help to remove nude or sexual pictures of someone under 18 from the sites that take part, without sending the picture to anyone: takeitdown.ncmec.org.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, for a child or grown-up in crisis or thinking about suicide: call or text 988, any time.
How OllyOlly helps
- Your family’s space is yours alone. Only people in your child’s circle can reach them, and you choose who is in it. Having an OllyOlly account never lets anyone see or reach your child: someone joins only when you invite them, and you can take that back at any time. Two kids connect only when both families say yes.
- No search, no directory, no public lobbies and no strangers. Only games and apps we host ourselves.
- Messages, story pages and names are checked for warning signs, from grown-ups too. Grooming, meeting in person, self-harm and abuse always reach you.
- You set daily limits, quiet hours and who can send drawings and photos.
- No ads, no selling and no tracking.
OllyOlly is one safe place. The settings above and your conversations help keep your child safe everywhere else.
OllyOlly is a private family clubhouse for kids 3 to 17, where each family’s space is its own and only the people a family invites can reach its kids. See how it works. Free to print and share.