Apps gather location, contacts, microphone, and camera data on your child's device by default. Walk through this short interactive guide once a month to keep them collecting only what they need.
Hold both your phone and your child's device. If you use Google Family Link or Apple Screen Time, double-check that both devices are connected to the internet before you start.
Changes you make in the parent app sync automatically to the child's device, so the connection needs to be active. This step is short, but skipping it leads to silent sync failures and changes that don't actually take effect.
Google Family Link works on Android 6.0 and higher. It gives you one place to review permissions across every app your child has installed.
Open Family Link, select your child's profile, and tap Controls → Signed-in devices → App permissions. Start with the three permissions that matter most.
After that broad sweep, pick two or three apps your child opens every day and look at the permissions each one holds. A math app that requests Contacts access has no business having it. Revoke anything that doesn't belong.
On iPhone and iPad, your starting point is Content and Privacy Restrictions.
Go to Settings → Screen Time → select your child's name under Family Sharing → Content and Privacy Restrictions → enter your Screen Time passcode.
Under Privacy, review Location Services, Contacts, Photos, and Microphone, and revoke access for apps that don't need it. Then set those critical permissions to Don't Allow Changes. That step matters more than the revocation itself, because without it a determined ten-year-old can quietly restore everything you just changed.
Go to Settings → Privacy → Permission Manager. This view lists every app with access to a given category.
Start with Microphone and work down from there. For each app, ask the same question: does this app actually need this permission to do its job? If the answer is no, revoke it.
Go to Settings → Privacy and Security. For each category, you can see every app that has requested access and revoke individually.
Start with Microphone and work down. For each app, ask the same question: does this app actually need this permission to do its job? If the answer is no, revoke it.
A single audit handles the backlog. What protects your child going forward is repeating it.
Set a monthly reminder and run this checklist again. That's twelve sessions per year, which adds up to less time than most families spend picking a movie on a Saturday night. Run an extra check whenever a new app becomes popular at school or lands on your child's wish list.
You've trimmed unnecessary permissions, locked critical settings, and set a recurring reminder. Your child's device is collecting only what it needs. See you again in a month.