On a Motorola, real parental control means Google Family Link. The only page where Motorola documents how to turn it on comes down to this: open Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls, tap "Set up parental controls", and the section closes by referring you to Google Help. The brand's own app, Family Space, has a shutdown date announced by Motorola itself: December 31, 2026. If you have it running today, the prudent order is to take it down first and only then add your child's phone to Family Link, because Motorola asks that no other family management app be active when you add a device.
This guide has an uncomfortable conclusion and it is better said at the start: Motorola adds almost no parental control layer of its own. Its system, My UX, stays very close to stock Android, and the only tool the brand has of its own — Family Space — has an announced shutdown date. Below is what Motorola really documents, with links to its support pages: the referral to Google, how to take Family Space down and in what order to do it, what can knock the setup over without you noticing, and whether or not the brand is a reason to buy. The generic Family Link material is not repeated here: it lives in this site's Android guide.
Motorola has a single support page about parental controls, and what it does is send you to Google. Its text reads, word for word: "Para establecer los controles parentales en este teléfono: 1. Ve a Configuración o Ajustes > Bienestar digital y control parental. 2. Toca Configura el control parental para otro niño/a" — go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls and tap Set up parental controls — and the section closes like this: "Para obtener más información, consulta la ayuda de Google", for more information, see Google Help. On phones set to English, the English-language version of that same guide — the second source linked at the end — gives Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls > Set up parental controls. Motorola does not state which version of Android or of My UX that path applies to, and the fact that it offers two names, "Configuración o Ajustes" — two Spanish words for Settings — suggests it covers several versions without committing to any. It also warns about something worth knowing before you start: "Tendrás que establecer los controles parentales en el dispositivo de tu hijo y en el tuyo", you will have to set up parental controls on your child's device and on your own. That referral is the most useful fact in the whole guide. What you switch on from that menu is Google's parental control: the time limits, the content filter, the download approvals and the location live in your child's Google Account, not in the phone. How Family Link is set up, what it requires on each side — including on your own phone, which according to Google does not have to be an Android — and what it does not do are in this site's guide to parental controls on Android, at /guias/configurar-control-parental-android. This page does not repeat that: it deals with what is specific to Motorola.
Family Space is Motorola's family app: preinstalled on phones with Android 13 or later and installable from Google Play on any phone with Android 12 or later. And it has a shutdown date. The first line of its Google Play listing, published by Motorola Mobility LLC, is in capitals: "IMPORTANT: THIS APP WILL BE DISCONTINUED ON DEC 31st, 2026". The App Store listing repeats it and adds two sentences that matter: "Service will end on December 31, 2026" and "All managed devices will be released after the end date". Managed devices are released: the limits and blocks you have configured come undone on their own. That notice appears on none of Motorola's own channels. It is not on the "About Family Space" page, nor in the frequently asked questions the brand publishes in Spanish, and the Motoverse marketing page still promotes the app. Anyone who researches only on motorola.com never finds out, and builds their parental control on a tool that stops working. That leaves the operational question: if you have Family Space running today, do you take it down first or set up Family Link first? Motorola publishes no migration procedure, so there is no documented answer. What it does publish is a warning: when you add a device, no other family management app should be active. From that follows a practical order — take Family Space down first and only then add your child's phone to Family Link — so you don't leave two layers fighting each other without a clear error. Before you take it down, write down what you will want to rebuild on the other side: schedule, daily limit, blocked apps and saved places. That configuration does not travel on its own. To remove it, Motorola publishes the page only in English, and the first step is to remove the child's profile from the account. If the app came preinstalled it cannot be uninstalled: you disable it at Settings > Apps > See all # apps > Family Space > Disable. If you installed it from Play, Storage & cache > Clear cache, then Clear storage and Delete, and finally Uninstall. The data is erased from the administrator's phone at menú > Cuenta > Borrar Family Space, and the account at menú > Cuenta > Administrar cuenta > Borrar cuenta. Motorola publishes those last two only in Spanish; they read as menu > Account > Delete Family Space and menu > Account > Manage account > Delete account, but that English wording is this guide's translation, not a menu name the brand publishes. One loose end: Spaces — the feature for lending your own phone to a small child with a limited set of apps — live inside Family Space, and Motorola does not document what happens to them after December 31, 2026: its notice talks about managed devices and nothing else. Until it documents that, don't rest anything on Spaces that you need to keep working in 2027.
Two things that are easily confused live in that same menu. Digital Wellbeing exists so that whoever uses the phone can manage their own time, and Motorola documents it like this: Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls to see the day's usage chart; Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls > Dashboard > App timers to limit an app, with the alternative the brand itself gives, the screen-time entry under Settings > Apps ("Tiempo de uso o Tiempo de pantalla" on its Spanish-language page); Focus mode to pause apps; and Bedtime mode ("Modo hora de dormir o Modo Descanso") to schedule the night. Here too Motorola does not state which version the paths apply to. Google, for its part, publishes no minimum version for Digital Wellbeing and makes clear that the steps and the options change depending on the device: if you can't find it in Settings, that path is not documented for your model. The problem is described by the brand itself: "Para utilizar la aplicación antes de la medianoche, ve otra vez al temporizador en Ajustes o Configuración y extiende la cantidad de tiempo o borra el temporizador" — to use the app before midnight, go back to the timer in Settings and extend the amount of time or delete the timer. Whoever uses the phone can undo it whenever they like, and a timer with no lock is not a limit. The lock is documented by Google, not by Motorola, and the page consulted here is its Spanish one: Bienestar digital > Límites para apps > PIN de límites para apps — Digital Wellbeing > App limits > the app limit PIN — "si quieres establecer límites de apps en un dispositivo que solo tú puedes cambiar", if you want to set app limits on a device that only you can change. It is a four-digit PIN, Google warns that it should not be shared, and it is switched off from that same option. If it does not appear on your phone, assume the timer is reversible. Something similar happens with Moto Unplugged: it belongs to Motorola, it is only on some versions sold in certain countries, and the optional password is set by whoever starts the session, for themselves. It is there so that someone can disconnect on purpose, not so that you can set a limit for someone else.
The Family Space shutdown comes first, and it is not a fault: it is a date. Second, while it is still working, Family Space depends on accessibility services. Its listing says that the time limits and the app blocking need them, and that permission lives in the Settings of your child's phone, not in yours: if the limits stop applying, that is the first thing to switch back on there. Third, blocking an app does not remove it. It stays installed, with its session inside, and comes back exactly as it was if the block falls. Fourth, calls. Google does not promise that the phone will still be a phone during the lock; what it says is that the device "podrá responder llamadas telefónicas y presionar Emergencia para hacer una llamada si el dispositivo tiene un plan de llamadas (solo en teléfonos Android)" — it can answer phone calls and press Emergency to make a call if the device has a calling plan (Android phones only). That is the whole sentence, with its conditions, and it promises no more than that. Fifth, a second user of the phone inherits nothing of what is configured on the main one. Google documents a control for closing that door, with a scope worth reading before you rely on it; the path and that scope are in the guide to parental controls on Android. Sixth, if you create a Space without requiring an exit password, Motorola says that whoever uses it "puede salir de este y tener el mismo acceso a tu teléfono que tú" — can leave it and have the same access to your phone as you do. And seventh, My UX includes Moto Secure, which allows apps to be kept in a secure folder, to have their icon and name changed, and to have the folder hidden from the app drawer. It is not a security hole: it is a legitimate privacy feature for whoever uses the phone. But it means that a glance at the home screen proves very little, and what that calls for is a conversation. One contradiction from the brand remains: Motoverse and the Play listing promise supervision of how your children use their apps, while the support documentation says that the administrator "puede ver una lista de las aplicaciones instaladas en un dispositivo administrado, pero no puede ver cómo se usan esas aplicaciones" — can see a list of the apps installed on a managed device, but cannot see how those apps are used. Between the two, the one that documents is support.
If you are about to buy your child a phone and you are comparing brands on parental controls, this guide's verdict is that Motorola should not tip the scales either way. What you are going to use is Family Link, which is Google's and works the same on a Motorola, a Samsung or a Xiaomi. And the only thing the brand has of its own shuts down on December 31, 2026, so it does not count as a reason to choose it either. Looked at from the other side, there is a good side to that: a Motorola gives you no less parental control than any other Android, and because it stays so close to stock Android there are fewer proprietary layers stepping on each other and fewer menus renamed by the manufacturer. Choose on price, battery, camera or years of updates, and leave parental controls out of that comparison.
Barely. The only thing of its own is Family Space, and Motorola announced its shutdown for December 31, 2026. Outside that app, Motorola's two support pages about parental controls —the same guide in Spanish and in English— open Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls and refers you to Google Help. On a Motorola, parental control means Family Link.
Before. Motorola publishes no migration procedure, so there is no documented answer, but it does publish a warning: when you add a device it asks that no other family management app be active. Family Link and Family Space running in parallel can step on each other without giving a clear error. First write down what you will want to rebuild — schedule, daily limit, blocked apps and saved places — then take Family Space down, and only then add your child's phone to Family Link.
Motorola says it on its store listings: the service ends on December 31, 2026 and managed devices are released, which means the limits and blocks come undone on their own. About Spaces — the feature for lending out your own phone with a limited set of apps — it says nothing: the notice talks about managed devices and nothing else. Until Motorola documents it, don't rest anything on Spaces that you need to keep working in 2027.
Motorola documents nothing of the kind. Family Space does not read messages, or calls, or conversations, and the brand offers no other feature of that sort. Family Link doesn't show chat contents either. What does exist on a Motorola is time limits, app blocking, age-based content filters in Google Play and device location.
You can. Google distinguishes two paths: creating a Google Account from the Family Link app for a child under 13, or adding supervision to an account they already have. For the second case, which is yours, Google asks that your child and their phone be nearby during setup. Google does not document a consent step on the child's screen for the first case, so this guide does not claim there is one. The full detail is in this site's guide to parental controls on Android. With a teenager, in any case, Family Link starts with a conversation.
This guide rests solely on official Motorola and Google documentation current as of the review date, and every menu path was verified by opening those pages. Paths age: an update to Android, to My UX or to Family Link can move or rename any of these menus without notice, and Motorola does not state which version of Android or of My UX its Digital Wellbeing paths apply to; in its own Spanish-language documentation it gives alternative names ("Configuración o Ajustes", "Modo hora de dormir o Modo Descanso", "Tiempo de uso o Tiempo de pantalla"), a sign that the menu changes between versions. If the name on your phone doesn't match, search in Settings and compare against the linked source before taking anything for granted. The Family Space shutdown date — December 31, 2026 — is the one Motorola Mobility LLC publishes on its Google Play and App Store listings; Motorola does not publish it on motorola.com, nor has it published a migration procedure, so the order this guide proposes is a reading of its own warning about family management apps running in parallel, not an instruction from the brand: for your specific model, check with Motorola support.
Related guides: Parental controls on Android · Set up parental controls on a Samsung Galaxy · Parental controls on Xiaomi · Alternatives to Google Family Link · Is it legal to monitor my child? · Talking to your child about parental controls