Parents, take note: Google will begin phasing out a parental controls program on its Chrome browser this Friday.
“Supervised Users,” which launched in beta in 2013, allowed for individuals to supervise other Chrome users — like their children — in order to limit their access to certain websites.
Google told its users that it is “deprecating” the program as it makes way for something else.
“We’ve learned a lot in these four years, and heard feedback about how we can improve the experience for you and your children,” the company said in an email to users of the program this week. “Based on this feedback, we are working on a new set of Chrome OS supervision features specifically for the needs of families to launch later this year.”
On Jan. 12, individuals will no longer be able to create new accounts or add new users. (They will be able to use existing Chrome Supervised Users on Chromebooks, Windows, Mac and Linux.)
On Jan. 15, individuals will no longer be able to change existing settings for supervised users.
In the email, the company also pointed individuals to Family Link, a newly launched program that allows users to create Google accounts for children and manage their browsing experience in Chrome on Android devices.
Family Link is currently only available in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States.
