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Free parental controls: Family Link, Screen Time and Brazil's new law

How to set up free parental controls on Android and iPhone, what Brazil's ECA Digital now requires from platforms, and what to do if a child faces sextortion.

2026-10-31

Children get phones earlier every year, and risks range from unwanted purchases and inappropriate content to grooming and sextortion. Android and iOS include free parental controls, and since March 2026 Brazil requires platforms to offer family supervision.

What does Brazil's ECA Digital require?

Law 15.211/2025 took effect on March 17, 2026, as reported by Olhar Digital. It requires reliable age verification (self-declaration alone is not enough for adult content), parental supervision tools, linking social media accounts of under-16s to a guardian, and bans profiling minors for ads and loot boxes. The data protection authority ANPD enforces it, with fines of up to R$ 50 million per violation. Unlike Australia, it does not ban social media by age.

What can Google Family Link do?

Per Google, parents can approve or block apps, set daily screen limits and lock devices remotely, see location, turn on SafeSearch, filter Chrome sites and approve Play purchases. It cannot show messages, calls or search history. Children can end supervision at 13 (or the local age), but under-18s need parental approval.

What does Apple Screen Time offer?

With a Child Account in Family Sharing, Apple offers content and privacy restrictions, Ask to Buy, time allowances by category and Communication Safety, which helps prevent children from sending or receiving nude images, including on FaceTime. Ask to Browse is on by default for under-13s and adult-site limits for under-18s.

Feature	Family Link	Screen Time
App and purchase approval	Yes	Yes
Nudity filter in messages	Not described	Communication Safety
Cost	Free	Free

What if a child faces sextortion?

NCMEC received more than 456,000 online enticement reports, a category that includes sextortion, through October 5, 2024, according to NCMEC. Do not pay, keep the evidence, block and report the account, contact the FBI or NCMEC's CyberTipline, and use the free Take It Down service to help remove images. Support the child without blame. See sextortion, Brazil regulation and Tips.

Where does the law stand globally?

Brazil's approach relies on supervision and age verification rather than an outright ban, and the ANPD's rules on age verification methods are expected by the end of 2026. Whatever the law, the tools built into phones are free today and work in any country.

Five-minute setup

Create a child or supervised account and link it to yours.
Turn on app and purchase approval.
Enable content filters and, on iPhone, Communication Safety.
Set a screen-free schedule for sleep and study.
Tell your child they can report anything strange without fear of punishment.

Controls are a safety net, not a substitute for conversation. Review settings as children grow, explain why each rule exists, and revisit them together at least once a year or whenever a new device or app arrives at home.