Parental controls for 12 AI chatbots, step by step

A parent links to a teen's account and can reduce sensitive content, turn off memory, model training, voice and image making, set quiet hours and Study Hours, and get safety notifications. Linking does not show you your teen's chats.

1. On the web, open Settings, then Parental controls
2. Choose Add family member and invite your teen by email or phone
3. Your teen accepts the invite
4. Turn off model training and image generation
5. Set quiet hours, for example 10 pm to 7 am

Watch for: Common Sense found alerts and teen detection unreliable in Oct 2026 tests. Pair it with regular check-ins.

You decide whether your child can use Gemini at all. When it's on, Google adds filters for minors, blocks the bot from claiming feelings, and turns off Keep Activity. You get an email the first time your child opens it.

1. Open the Family Link app or familylink.google.com
2. Pick your child, then Controls, then Gemini
3. Switch Gemini Apps on or off
4. Wait a few hours, then restart Gemini on the device

Watch for: Not available in the UK, EEA or Switzerland. Filters are not perfect, Google says.

Teens on their own Google accounts get Gemini with teen protections, and school accounts depend on the school admin. If your teen is still supervised in Family Link, you can manage apps and screen time there.

1. Check whether your teen uses a personal or school Google account
2. For personal accounts, review apps and time in Family Link
3. Open Gemini's Activity settings together and choose what is kept
4. Agree on what Gemini is for: schoolwork and projects

Watch for: Common Sense rated the teen version high risk in Sept 2025, calling it the adult product with extra filters.

Teens 13-17 get no personalized ads or results, and their chats aren't used for training. Parents can block the app or website, set time limits, and choose features like image making, voice, group chat or AI companions.

1. Add your teen to your Microsoft family group
2. Open Microsoft Family Safety
3. Block Copilot or set a time limit
4. Turn off features you don't want, such as AI companions
5. On iPhone or iPad, use Screen Time

Watch for: Some controls need your teen in your Microsoft family group. Group chats can show your teen's messages to others.

Since April 2026, parents who supervise a Teen Account see an Insights tab with the topics their teen raised with Meta AI in the past week. Meta also paused teens' access to its AI characters in January 2026 while it rebuilds them.

1. Set up supervision from Instagram or Facebook settings
2. Your teen accepts the supervision invite
3. Open the Insights tab in supervision
4. Use the topic list to start a conversation, not to quiz

Watch for: Topics only, no transcripts. Self-harm alerts were still in development when announced.

My AI is built into Snapchat's chat. In Family Center, a parent can stop My AI from replying to their teen. Family Center also shows who your teen talks to and their privacy settings.

1. Download Snapchat and make your own account
2. Add your teen as a friend
3. Search "Family Center" in Snapchat and invite your teen
4. Once they accept, turn off My AI replies

Watch for: Your teen must accept the Family Center invite. Turning My AI off is the only AI control.

Screen Time can allow or block Apple Intelligence features and the ChatGPT extension that lets Siri hand questions to OpenAI. This is the main switch for AI on a child's iPhone or iPad.

1. Open Settings, then Screen Time on your child's device or yours
2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn it on
3. Tap Intelligence & Siri
4. Set ChatGPT Extension to Don't Allow
5. Block any other features you don't want

Watch for: Other AI apps your child installs are separate. Use app limits and Ask to Buy for those.

The Parent Dashboard sets daily time limits, approved contacts, content, and shows what your child asked Alexa. Kids mode blocks voice shopping and explicit music by default, and Alexa+ adds extra moderation for child profiles.

1. In the Alexa app, turn on Amazon Kids for the device
2. Create a voice ID for each child
3. Open parents.amazon.com to set limits
4. Turn off voice purchasing in the Alexa app settings

Watch for: Voice purchasing on the adult profile can still be used by a child. Turn it off or add a PIN.

After lawsuits, Character.AI ended open-ended chat for under-18s from November 24, 2025 and offers a guided Stories mode instead, with age checks. That makes it a rare case where the honest parental control is "not this app."

1. Ask your child if they use it or similar character apps
2. Check the age set on their account
3. Remove the app from younger kids' devices
4. Use app limits in Screen Time or Family Link to block reinstalling

Watch for: Age checks can be dodged. If your child uses it, talk about what they miss and why it changed.

Anthropic requires every Claude.ai user to be 18 or older and uses app store age signals in some US states to block under-18s. There are no teen settings because teens are not allowed.

1. Don't create a Claude account for anyone under 18
2. Block the app with Screen Time or Family Link for kids
3. If you use it with a child, stay at the keyboard yourself

Watch for: A parent's account is not for a child to use on their own.

An AI search tool that cites sources, which teens like for research. The terms bar under-13s and require a parent to accept for teens, but we found no built-in parental controls, so device controls do the work.

1. Read the terms with your teen
2. Decide together whether it's allowed
3. Use Screen Time or Family Link for time limits
4. Teach your teen to click through to the cited source

Watch for: App store age ratings may not match the terms. Check sources it cites before trusting them.

Included so you know what to look for on your child's phone or in X. xAI's terms allow teens with permission and offer a Kids Mode, but Common Sense's Jan 2026 test found explicit content and harmful advice even in Kids Mode.

1. Check your child's devices for the Grok or X app
2. Block it with Screen Time or Family Link if found
3. Talk about why some chatbots are off-limits

Watch for: Age is self-reported and not checked on the website. We don't recommend it for kids.