Questions & answers.

A subscription that lets you supervise your child's Android phone from your own. You set it up at home on the phone your child already has, with our setup program for Windows or Mac and a USB cable. You decide what's allowed, including texts, apps, websites and places, and you hear about what needs you. Your child can't remove it, and we can't read your family's messages.

Yes. That's how Paired Parent works: you set it up at home on your child's own Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel, with Paired Parent Connect and a USB cable. Their photos, apps, texts and phone number stay. More about this: Can I put Paired Parent on a phone we already own?

Paired Parent works on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones running Android 15 or newer. To check, open Settings, then About phone (on a Galaxy, then Software information), and look for Android version. An iPhone can't be the child's phone. Phones from other makers haven't been tested by us yet, but you're welcome to try: Paired Parent Connect tells you so before it starts, and we'd like to hear how it went. A phone managed by a school or employer can't be set up. We haven't tried every model ourselves, so Paired Parent Connect checks your child's phone before it changes anything and tells you in plain words if it can't be set up. If the setup can't finish, it offers to take Paired Parent off the phone again, and we'll help you finish it or refund your order. More about this: Will my child's phone work?

Your child's phone (a Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel running Android 15 or newer, charged to at least 20%, with at least 400 MB free), a Windows or Mac computer, a USB cable that carries data (a cable that only charges won't work), and your own Android phone for the Paired Parent app.

Subscribe, and we email you a setup code with the links to download Paired Parent Connect for your computer and the Paired Parent app for your phone. Plug your child's phone into the computer with a USB data cable and follow the steps in Paired Parent Connect. When it asks, type your setup code; the setup takes about four minutes. Then turn the phone on, and in the app on your phone tap Scan the code on the child phone, point your camera at the code, say how old your child is, and choose a PIN. For a child under 13, you also confirm you're an adult, through Kids Web Services, part of Epic Games.

Paired Parent Connect walks you through it one step at a time and moves on by itself when it sees a step is done. First you get the phone ready: turning on USB debugging, signing out of the phone's accounts, and turning off a few features if the phone uses them. How long that takes depends on the phone. Then you type your setup code, and the setup itself takes about four minutes, with one restart. Last, you scan a code with your phone to pair the two.

No. Photos, apps, texts, the screen lock, the phone number and the carrier all stay. You sign out of the phone's accounts during setup and sign back in afterwards. Cards in Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet may have to be added again after you sign back in. Secure Folder, Dual Messenger and Private Space have to be removed first, so move anything you want to keep out of them before you start.

Android lets Paired Parent be set up only on a phone with no accounts signed in, whether Google, Samsung, a work account or an app's own. Paired Parent Connect lists each one it finds and waits while you sign out. When setup is finished, you sign back in, and the accounts work as before.

It's the Android setting that lets Paired Parent Connect, on your computer, talk to the phone over the cable. Paired Parent Connect shows you where to find it. On a Samsung phone you turn off Auto Blocker first, because USB debugging can't be turned on while it's on. Once the phone is paired with yours, Paired Parent blocks USB debugging, so the cable can't be used to get around it.

No. Family Link supervision has to be turned off before setup, from the Family Link app on your own phone. Paired Parent Connect tells you if the phone is still supervised.

Setup needs a Windows or Mac computer, and a borrowed one is fine. After that you won't need it day to day. If the phone ever needs a repair over the cable, Paired Parent Connect does it, on any Windows or Mac computer. If you'd rather skip the computer altogether, a Galaxy A16 from us arrives with Paired Parent already set up.

If the setup can't finish, Paired Parent Connect offers to take Paired Parent off the phone again. Then write to us at info@pairedparent.com with your setup code, and we'll help you finish it or refund your order.

No. Your child's phone has to be an Android phone: a Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel running Android 15 or newer.

An Android phone running Android 11 or newer. An iPhone version of the parent app is in development; see “Does the parent app work on iPhone?” below.

Not yet. The parent app runs on Android phones today. An iPhone version is in development.

From Google Play. The link is in the email we send when you subscribe.

For a child under 13, US law asks us to check that the parent setting up supervision is an adult. Kids Web Services, part of Epic Games, does the check: it emails you a link, and you confirm with a credit or debit card, a 5-cent charge that is refunded, or with your Social Security number. We never see either. Until you confirm, web filtering, Location and Places stay off for that child, and problem reports and your judgments on alerts aren't sent to us. You can confirm later from the app. For a child aged 13 to 17 you aren't asked.

Paired Parent is built to tell you when a message needs a parent, not to send you every message. When screening flags one, your phone gets an alert with the conversation around it. Your child's full message history stays on their phone, where you can always pick it up and read it. More about this: Can I read every message my child sends?

Each text is checked on your child's phone. If it looks like something a parent should see, your phone gets an alert. Messages are never sent to our servers to be checked.

No system does, ours included. Screening can miss things, and sometimes it flags a message that turns out to be fine. Think of it as a second set of eyes, not a replacement for yours. You can mark each alert as right or wrong.

Screening covers the words in texts sent and received in Messages, your child's texting app. Photos themselves aren't checked, only their captions, and other messaging apps aren't screened. New apps wait for your yes, so you decide whether to allow them, and when. More about this: Does it check WhatsApp, Snapchat or other messaging apps?

New contacts, and calls and texts from people you haven't approved, wait for your decision. You get them as approval requests on your phone. If you approve, nothing they sent while you decided has been lost; if you block, it’s deleted.

A schedule that holds your child's texts, overnight for example, and delivers them when it ends. Calls don't ring through. The people you star, plus 911 and 988, always get through. More about this: What are quiet hours?

Deleting a message on your child's phone needs your PIN.

They can, but a new app stays closed until you approve it. If you say no, you choose whether it's removed or blocked.

Yes. Give any app a daily limit, allowed hours for weekdays and weekends, or a pause, or block it. When an app's time runs out you can add extra time. Your child's phone tells them when the app comes back.

Yes. Pause all apps with one tap, or set an app quiet time that pauses them on a schedule. The essentials keep working: phone, messages, contacts, keyboard, home screen, settings, the Play Store, clock, calendar, reminders and emergency calling.

No. Setup makes Paired Parent part of how the phone is managed, not an app in the list your child can uninstall. It can't be force-stopped or have its data cleared either, and the phone can't be reset from Settings. More about this: Can my child delete Paired Parent?

The usual ways don't work. Paired Parent can't be uninstalled, force-stopped or have its data cleared, the phone can't be reset from Settings or started in safe mode, and USB debugging is blocked once the phone is paired. The web filter works across the phone rather than in one browser, it blocks VPNs from the Minimal level up, and any new app, a VPN or another browser included, waits for your yes. Deleting a message needs your PIN. What your child can still do: turn the phone off or switch on airplane mode, and your app tells you if the phone hasn't been heard from for 20 minutes. Like any Android phone, it can also be wiped completely from its recovery menu. More about this: Can my child get around it?

Yes. Choose a filter level, from Monitor only to Strict, and allow or block any site yourself from Browsing history. The filter works across your child's phone, not in one browser, and a new browser waits for your yes like any app. A blocked site simply doesn't load. More about this: Can I control which websites my child visits?

Five days, on your phone only. It shows which sites were looked up, not the pages or searches inside them. The server that filters websites keeps each lookup for at most 24 hours.

Yes. Locate your child from your phone, and add places like school or home to hear when they arrive or leave.

No. Your phone keeps only the most recent position. Places report arriving and leaving, not a trail of everywhere your child has been. More about this: Do you keep a history of where my child goes?

Both parents see the same places, and each of you chooses whether to be notified.

No, unless you choose to share. Messages are locked on one family phone and only unlocked on another, and our server passes them along without being able to open them. If you agree to share the messages you review, to help improve the screening, we can read the ones you share, with phone numbers and email addresses removed. More about this: Can Paired Parent read our messages?

A random channel number for your pairing, which way each package went, its size and when it arrived, the token that wakes a phone, the internet address a phone connects from, the child phone's model and software versions, which kind each of your consent records is, the setup code your child's phone was set up with, whether its subscription is current, whether your child's phone is paired with more than one parent's phone, when each phone last contacted the server and whether the service that wakes phones up has reported our app is gone from your child's phone, if someone at your child's phone asks for an emailed code, that it was asked for, a masked form of the address and a scrambled copy of the code, deleted a day later, and the age band you gave for your child, with, for a child under 13, where confirming you're an adult stands.

Yes. Nothing is hidden. Their phone says it's supervised. More about this: Does my child know the phone is supervised?

It stops your child getting into the controls on their own phone. If someone keeps entering the wrong PIN, you get an alert.

The main parent can reset the PIN on your child's phone from their own phone.

Yes. Turning the phone off or switching on airplane mode isn't blocked. Alerts and changes wait until it's back on. If the phone isn't heard from for 20 minutes, your app tells you. More about this: Can my child turn the phone off?

Your child's messages stay on their phone for 12 months, and a missed payment doesn't change that. Alerts stay on your phone for 60 days, or 7 days after you judge one. Browsing history stays on your phone for 5 days, and your phone keeps only the most recent position. Your order and account details are deleted 24 months after your service ends, and the record of what you agreed to five years after. Anything deleted from our servers can stay in our encrypted backups for up to 90 days.

Removing or releasing a phone deletes its pairing from our server. Problem and crash reports that name it are kept on their usual schedule, so use Delete My Data, in the parent app under Advanced Settings, first: it deletes every problem and crash report your phones have sent us, but only while the pairing still exists. We keep the record of what you agreed to until five years after your service ends. For anything else, write to privacy@pairedparent.com.

With two parents, each gets their own alerts, and approved contacts, quiet hours and places are shared.

Yes. Add a brother or sister in the same app and swipe between them. Each phone or tablet needs its own subscription.

You can release the phone, and it becomes an ordinary phone again. No new phone to buy. More about this: What happens when my child is ready for their own phone?

Yes: a certified refurbished Samsung Galaxy A16 5G, unlocked, with Paired Parent installed and set up before it ships: $309.98 for the phone and 15 months of Paired Parent (3 months free, then a year), in one purchase. Pay in full, or pay over time with Affirm or Klarna at checkout. After the 15 months, Paired Parent renews at $109.99 a year until you cancel. As a second or later device on your account, it is $265.98, then $65.99 a year. When it arrives, you turn it on and scan one code from your phone; no computer is needed.

No. It's a certified refurbished Galaxy A16 5G: a pre-owned phone that has been tested and restored to full working order before it reaches us. Then we update it to Android 15 or newer, install Paired Parent over the cable, check that every protection is on, then switch it off and pack it.

Yes, within 30 days of delivery, in original condition, with all its accessories and the original packaging. Email returns@pairedparent.com first, with the reason and your order number, and we send a return label. If the phone is faulty, the label is free and we send a replacement once we receive it (or, if we can't, refund the phone's price and the original shipping). A replaced phone keeps its 15 months. If it isn't faulty, we refund the phone's price after inspecting it, less a 10% restocking fee ($20.00) and the cost of return shipping (the label and its insurance), and we refund the $109.99 for its 15 months of Paired Parent in full: supervision ends and nothing renews. The original shipping isn't refunded.

Ours: 30 days from delivery against hardware faults. If it develops one, email returns@pairedparent.com and we replace it the same way as a faulty return.

It's yours to keep. When the subscription ends, supervision stops, and you can release the phone into an ordinary phone with your PIN and a code we email to you.

It's the unlocked US model, so it works with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, and with the prepaid carriers that use their networks. Phone service isn't included: it uses your carrier, plan and number.

Yes. Put their SIM card in the phone from us, or ask your carrier to move the number to it. Paired Parent doesn't change the number or the plan.

Yes. Once you've paired the phone and chosen a PIN, your child can sign in to their Google account, for the Play Store and their own apps. New apps still wait for your yes.

$10.88 a month, or $109.99 a year, for one device (a child's phone or tablet), plus sales tax where it applies. Every device after the first on your account is 40% off: $6.53 a month or $65.99 a year. Paying yearly saves 15%, $20.57 a year. Every feature is included, and so is Paired Parent Connect, the setup program. Phone service isn't: your child's phone keeps its own carrier and plan.

Each subscription covers one device, a child's phone or tablet, and each setup code sets up one device. A child with a phone and a tablet needs two. Other parents' phones, paired to the same child, are included. Every device after the first on your account is 40% off.

Checkout is handled by Stripe, so we never see your card number. Choose monthly or yearly on the pricing page.

No. The Paired Parent subscription covers supervision: alerts, approvals, filtering, places and the apps. Your child's phone keeps the carrier, plan and number it already has, and so does a Galaxy A16 from us: it uses your carrier's SIM.

Yes. Setup doesn't touch the SIM, so the phone keeps its carrier, plan and number.

Yes. One device on your account is full price, and every other device is 40% off its Paired Parent, on every renewal, for as long as it stays subscribed: $6.53 a month, $65.99 a year, or a phone from us for $265.98 ($199.99 for the phone and $65.99 for its 15 months), then $65.99 a year. Monthly and yearly devices count together. Your order confirmation has one too. If your full-price device is cancelled, your next oldest device becomes full price from its first charge at least 30 days later, and we email you first. Your devices renew together: one charge a year for your yearly devices, and one a month for your monthly ones.

To stop one device, use "Stop this device's renewal" on its renewal page (the link in our emails), or email info@pairedparent.com from the address on your account. Your other devices carry on. Your cancellation takes effect for billing on the day we receive it: no renewal is billed after that, and any renewal charged after it is refunded. Supervision continues to the end of the period you've already paid for. A period already paid for, or partly used, isn't refunded, except where the law requires it.

If you cancel, supervision carries on to the end of the period you've paid for. If a payment is missed, it carries on for seven days while your app warns you. Then supervision stops: your child's phone is no longer supervised or filtered, nothing more is sent to you, and its lock screen no longer says it's monitored. Nothing on the phone is deleted. Ten days after the unpaid date (the day the payment was due, or the paid period ran out), and never less than three days after the phone learns of it, you can factory reset the phone yourself. To keep it as an ordinary phone instead, release it at any time on the phone with your PIN and a code we email to you. Paying later starts supervision again from that day.

Open Paired Parent and use Locate now to see where it is, or where it last was. On the same screen, Ring the device makes it sound loudly for up to five minutes, even on silent. If you think someone else has it, the main parent can lock it from Advanced Settings: nothing on it opens until you unlock it, though emergency calls still work. If the phone is switched off or has no signal, this waits and takes effect as soon as it reconnects. Paired Parent can't erase the phone remotely, so if it's genuinely gone, contact your carrier to suspend the line. More about this: What if my child's phone is lost or stolen?