Any parent fears the technological advances in their kids’ everyday lives. The bottom line, however, is that the next generation is growing up surrounded by digital devices. Of course, that’s by no means a wild west! Google comes to parents’ assistance. Soon, their software Assistant application will provide caretakers with the chance to have considerable control over what a kid can do.

More on the Upcoming Parental Controls

Google Assistant was first launched in 2016 and will, for the first time, allow parents to control what their children can access. The application has 700,000 users. A Family Link app has previously allowed parents to create simple limitations, such as screen time, content, and apps. The new rollout is expected to be much more comprehensive, though.

Once the parental controls are implemented, parents will be able to restrict a kid’s phone call-making, as well as request videos and music from special sources. It’ll even allow control over how kids interact with Google Assistant devices. Other options included are setting downtime hours.

How to Access Google Assistant’s New Features

In order to gain access to the upcoming Google Assistant features, parents will need to perform several actions. Firstly, they’ll need to make an account using the Family Link app. The next step is to add the kid’s voice to all applicable smart devices. That way, the software will recognize who uses it. Plus, it’ll allow parents not to be restricted by the limitations they’ve set on their children.

Once these steps are completed, caregivers should return to the Family Link app and select the option allowing them to set content restrictions on Google Assistant. It’s important to mention that parental controls aren’t accessible on the software when it’s used via the caretakers’ smartphones. That’s due to the fact that Google doesn’t consider phones to be shared devices. So, parents who allow their children to use their smartphones must be cautious.

People often note that their own mothers like their kids more than they like them, and that seems to have been validated by a team of researchers who were looking into the matter. Apparently, a grandmother would naturally feel more empathy for her grandchildren than her own children.

Any Grandmother Is Naturally Compelled to Like Her Grandchildren

The fact that grandparents relish the opportunity to have extra-special relationships with their grandchildren is nothing surprising. According to the new study, a grandmother will naturally feel more connected with her grandchildren than with her own kids. To come to that conclusion, James Rilling, who led the study, recruited 50 women with at least one grandchild aged 3 to 12. The women were given photos of their grandchild, child, and something unrelated, and then the researchers used MRIs to scan their brains.

A Grandmother Would Feel More Emotional Empathy to Their Grandchildren

It turns out that when grandmothers viewed photos of their grandchildren, they activated brain regions that are associated with emotional empathy, showing that a grandmother may be predisposed to share her grandchildren’s emotional states. Meanwhile, photos of the women’s own children activated other areas of the brain that are linked to cognitive empathy, showing that there is more of a mental understanding of their child and less of an emotional one.

Rilling, who is a professor of anthropology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences, has previously done a similar study asking fathers to look at photos of their kids. Apparently, grandmothers have more emotional empathy and motivation than fathers, although that is not true for every case.

While the new study has given scientists a good insight into human mentality and physiology, family relationships can differ drastically and depend on many factors, so every family has different grandparent-parent-grandchildren dynamics. Some studies even show how grandparents with outdated health guidance who participate actively in the raising of the child could be unknowingly harming their grandchildren. Still, having a grandparent who is involved in a child’s life is a blessing for most parents.