If you want to remove Google Family Link from your child’s device, you’re not alone. Many parents didn’t choose to use it on purpose — it just gets set up automatically when you create a phone account for a younger child.
The problem is that what starts as a helpful safety tool often becomes a source of frustration. Especially as kids grow older and need more independence, Family Link’s restrictions can feel excessive for both parents and children.
Let’s be clear, removing Family Link is not as simple as just deleting the Family Link app from your child’s device. Google has built-in safeguards that keep supervision in place even if the app is removed. But you don’t need to go to extremes like deleting your child’s Google account, resetting the device, or starting over with a new profile.
There’s a way to turn off Family Link supervision while keeping your child’s existing account and all their data intact.
Let’s walk through how to do it, step by step.
Whether you can turn off Family Link easily depends on your child’s age — and the rules Google follows in your country.
In most places, when a child turns 13 years old, they’re allowed to manage their own Google account and ask for Family Link supervision to stop. But in some countries, the minimum age is different because of local laws. For example, in some places it might be 14 or 15.
United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom: 13 years old
Ireland: 16 years old
Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg: 16 years old
France, Greece, Denmark: 15 years old
South Korea: 14 years old
Vietnam: 15 years old
Visit the Google Support page to have the most up-to-date information about this.
If your child meets the minimum age requirement, ending supervision is straightforward. However, if they’re under the required age, Google doesn’t allow it—which means a workaround is necessary.
If your child is younger than Google’s minimum age, you can’t simply turn off Family Link supervision. You officially have to wait until your child is considered old enough by Google to independently manage their Google Account and quit Family Link.
The extreme option here would be to delete your child’s account from their device and create a new one with a higher age. But this would mean that your child would lose all their data and information (or you’ll have to cope with much more complexity to save and transfer data between old and new accounts).
Fortunately, there is a workaround that still works in 2025.
All you have to do is change your child’s birth date in their account settings so they appear to be above the minimum age the next day. This way, Google will recognize that your child has aged enough to be removed from Family Link supervision.
Note that if you change the age immediately without waiting a day, this often causes the system to block the change.
Once Google’s system recognizes the new age, you can proceed to remove supervision.
Let’s take this step by step.
Make sure to write the code down somewhere safe—it will expire after a short time.
Go back to your child’s device and enter the code. Google will then inform you that Family Link supervision stopped on your child’s device..
Once Family Link has been removed, you may want to fill that gap with a parental control system that still provides structure, but with more flexibility and transparency. That’s where Salfeld Child Control comes in.
Salfeld Child Control makes it easy to set daily time limits and restrict specific apps based on your own family’s needs. One of its standout features is its reward system and the ability to “share time budgets” across devices, which is ideal if your child uses more than one screen.
With Family Link gone, this is also the perfect time to reset expectations. Sit down with your child and create a fresh Family Media Agreement. Define when and how devices can be used, what types of content are okay, and what the consequences will be if those boundaries are ignored. Getting buy-in from your child now helps reduce friction later.
Transitioning away from Family Link doesn’t mean giving up on guidance—it just opens the door for the type of parent supervision you feel good about.
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