If my child is 13 or over, I can still add supervision to his/her Google account, but he/she himself/herself can just remove the supervision, with me notified and his phone locked for 24 hours, they I understand after 24 hours all functionalities are restored without supervision?

So how would this in practice would work out if I want to supervise the Google account of my child 13 years or older?

Would I add supervision, then he/she would remove it and wait 24 hours, then I would re-add it, then he/she would remove it again and wait 24 hours, and so on in an endless war?

  • Some 13 year olds can break the supervision and sometimes without you even realising...
    – Solar Mike
    Feb 5 at 16:40

Functionally, things like this should be treated the same as any other parenting tool: as a tool to help you and your child. Hopefully you're not having a "war" with your child on bedtimes, or eating their vegetables, or going to school, right? Treat it the same way.

Having a phone is a privilege, and if you feel that the right way to monitor that privilege is to have Google Supervision turned on, then make sure they understand why that's important. Talk to them about why you want to use the tool, and establish boundaries. Make this a conversation, and make sure you hear them in that conversation, and there won't be a war.

As to the direct, technical question: yes, your child can turn it off (see here for answers about that). You cannot turn it back on, though, without the child's participation, unless you have their device and their password. Once they're over the legal age in their country for using the internet unsupervised (or, 13), they could (permissibly) create a Google account on their own without your participation, anyway, hence the ability to remove supervision. (Below 13, it's impossible to remove supervision, even for you.)

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