A tablet or smartphone is of course not intended for children's hands, but we can well imagine that you give the device to your child in connection with the fun games and apps. Apart from the fact that this is of course risky in connection with fall damage, you also want to prevent your child from accidentally buying apps or sending / deleting emails. Fortunately, you can set this up fairly easily.
01 Set PIN code
It starts with the basics, of course, and there's no easier way to secure your Android tablet or smartphone than with a PIN. With such a pin code, your child can of course do nothing with the device, but it in any case ensures that there is no playing or messing around at times when you are not paying attention.
Setting up a PIN is very easy in Android. In this article we take the Nexus 7 as an example. You set a PIN code by pressing Institutions / Security / screen lock. You can choose that Face Unlock (so facial recognition, but this is not watertight) or for example Pin. As soon as you press Pin you have to enter a code twice, which will serve as your pin code for this device from now on.
A PIN is the fastest way to deny access to the device.
02 App Lock
You can set a PIN for Android as a whole, but not for individual apps. Fortunately, there is an app for that (as they would say at Apple). There are even many apps for this, but we find the most pleasant by far App Lock. With this free app, you can lock access to specific apps with a PIN code in no time. All you need to do is download App Lock, launch the app, and simply turn on the toggle for the apps you want to lock.
With App Lock, you can lock access to specific apps.
03 Profiles
You can of course board up that entire smartphone or tablet, but that is not pleasant if you want to get back to work yourself. A handy app that enables you to manage profiles centrally is Setting Profile Lite. This is the free version of a paid app, but the only thing that the paid version allows you to do is create more than one profile. In this case we only need one extra profile (namely for children) so the free version is sufficient.
Download the app from the Play Store and press Menu / New profile (for example create a profile Children's settings). You can then easily turn off all wireless connections, lock the volume, and so on for this profile.
Profiles allow you to centrally manage all settings for one specific profile.
04 Famigo Sandbox
Finally, there is another fantastic app called Famigo Sandbox. This app does exactly what it takes to provide your kids with a protected environment: literally set up a protected environment. Within the app (which children cannot simply close) you place apps that the children are allowed to open (in addition to a selection of apps that the makers of Famigo Sandbox deem suitable). Then the kids can't open anything but the apps you've prepared for them. It doesn't get any safer than that, of course. You will of course find Famigo Sandbox in the Play Store.
With Famigo Sandbox you are in control.
