On a Galaxy there is no single parental control: there are four tools. Two are Samsung's — Samsung Kids, a closed space that opens and closes with a PIN, and the child account in your Samsung account. Two are Google's — Digital Wellbeing, the timers that live in the phone's own Settings, and Family Link, which acts on your child's Google account and is run from the app on your phone. Two of them come out of the same menu — Settings > Digital Wellbeing and parental controls — and from there Samsung enables Google's controls on One UI 2.0 or later. Samsung publishes no support page explaining how they combine with each other, or which one wins if two time limits overlap, so the sensible thing is to pick a single tool for limits and leave the others to what they do.
Searching for how to put parental controls on a Samsung and ending up in a menu that doesn't exist on your phone is common: there are four different tools and Samsung changes menu names between versions and between countries. Here they are in order, with the paths taken from the official documentation and the version of each one when the manufacturer declares it. What is the same on any Android lives in the site's general guide (/guias/configurar-control-parental-android); here goes what belongs to the Galaxy, including the second internal space that none of these tools reaches.
The division that works is by where each one acts: Samsung Kids and Digital Wellbeing live on the phone, and whoever has it in their hands can reach them; the Samsung child account and Family Link act on an account, and that is why they are run from yours. Since the documentation doesn't say how they combine, or which one wins when two time limits overlap, the practical rule is not to split them up: pick a single tool for limits — Family Link if your child already has their own Google account, Samsung Kids if they are little — and leave the other one for what it does. Before going on, the version. Samsung warns that the process may vary depending on the Android version, and its Spanish-language pages almost never declare which one each path corresponds to. To check it, Samsung Colombia gives Settings > About phone > Software information — without declaring, there either, which version that path belongs to. What Samsung does declare: Samsung Kids requires Android 9.0 (Pie) or later; Google's controls from the Galaxy, One UI 2.0 or later; those of the child account, One UI 5.1 or later. For Digital Wellbeing there is no minimum version to cite: Google publishes none. And Family Link's requirements are set by Google, they apply to both sides and are, with their figures, in the site's general guide (/guias/configurar-control-parental-android): you don't need a Galaxy to supervise a Galaxy.
It opens from the Quick Settings panel — swiping down with two fingers from the top of the screen — and tapping the Kids icon; if it isn't there, Samsung says More options > Edit buttons and drag it onto the panel. That is the path Samsung publishes for the mode, which requires Android 9.0 (Pie) or later; the first time, a PIN is set. And it makes two things clear: that "Samsung Kids may not be included depending on the provider", and that "available services may vary depending on your country and device". On cost: Samsung publishes no fee for the mode and there is no documented charge. Samsung Kids+ is a different thing — a subscription service with movies, series, games and books for children aged 3 to 8 — and its price does not appear on the official support pages; the amounts going around in press pieces are not documentation. The controls are inside: main screen > More menu, top right > Parental controls > PIN. The Spanish-language page declares no version and documents three functions: Activity, usage time per day and per app; Set screen time goal ("Establecer objetivo de tiempo de pantalla" on the Spanish-language page), the daily play limit for each day of the week; and Allowed content, which limits apps, contacts, media and music. Inside it there is also a store, "More kids apps", with free and paid apps for children: look at it yourself first. Samsung describes all of that as the content shown inside the mode, and you leave the mode with More options > Close Samsung Kids and the PIN. That those limits go on applying outside it is stated nowhere, and it doesn't document how to recover that PIN if you forget it either.
The menu is Settings > Digital Wellbeing and parental controls: screen time, Focus mode, Bedtime mode and app timers, which is the most useful part. That Spanish-language page from Samsung Mexico declares no version, and Google doesn't publish a minimum for the feature either. The timer path does change with the version, and it is the only case Samsung separates out. On Android 15: App timers > give it a name and tap Tap to select item ("Pulse para seleccionar elemento" on the Spanish-language page) > choose an app or category > Done > + Add schedule > tick the days and the limit > Save. On Android 14 and earlier: App timers > choose the app or Category > Set timer > tick the days and the limit > Done. Bedtime mode is in two places depending on the page: Samsung US takes it to Settings > Modes and Routines > Sleep and doesn't say which One UI version that path corresponds to; Samsung Mexico still calls it Bedtime mode inside Digital Wellbeing, also without a version. This lives in the Settings of the phone itself and doesn't ask for a parent account, so in principle whoever gets into Settings changes it. Google documents the key: "If you want to set app limits on a device that only you can change, you can set up a PIN". The path is Digital Wellbeing > App limits > App limit PIN; four digits, which Google warns should not be shared, and it is turned off from that same option. That page doesn't declare a minimum Android version either. With the PIN set, the timers stop being a suggestion.
The path, as Samsung Latin America publishes it in Spanish, is Settings > Digital Wellbeing and parental controls > Parental controls, and that page declares no version; Samsung US sets the requirement at One UI 2.0 or later and asks you to sign in with your child's Google account. Samsung documents where the door is; Google, what is behind it, and that is why it isn't repeated here: time limits, approving Google Play downloads, the Chrome web filter, device location and what changes when your child turns 13 are explained, with their paths and their limits, in the site's general guide (/guias/configurar-control-parental-android). If what you were looking for was "how do I keep them from installing apps", that is the way. The Samsung child account is created separately, from the family group, and it is the only one of the four that Samsung documents in English only: Settings > [your Samsung account name] > Family > Add family member > Create child account, declared for devices with One UI 5.1 or later; the Spanish-language page doesn't give that path or declare a version. The labels are in English because Samsung publishes this path only on its English-language site; on a phone set to another language you will read the local equivalent — on a Spanish one, "Familia", "Agregar miembro de la familia" and "Crear cuenta infantil" or something like it. What holds is the order of the steps, not the names. And if you set time limits in Samsung Kids and also in Family Link, Samsung doesn't document which one wins. Pick just one.
The same phone comes with Secure Folder: a second internal space, backed by Samsung Knox, with its own lock — pattern, PIN or password — different from the phone's unlock, and a Samsung account behind it. Samsung Canada places it at Settings > Security and privacy > More security settings > Secure Folder; the Spanish-language pages, with the previous menu name, at Settings > Biometrics and security ("Datos biométricos y seguridad") > Secure Folder, and the Mexican one calls that same menu "Biometría y seguridad". None of them declares which version its path corresponds to. What that implies is written by Samsung itself: the apps added there work independently of those outside, with separate accounts and data. The same phone can host a second copy of a messenger with another account, and none of the four tools above reaches in there. What to look at. The app drawer is no help: Samsung documents the option to remove the icon, so what is observable from outside is the entry in Settings. There is no parent view, nor any documented way to prevent or audit the creation of the folder; that lock is reset with the credentials of the Samsung account the space was created with, which need not be yours. At that point, what's left is to talk about it. The other similar door isn't Samsung's: the second user profile, common on tablets; Google documents a control for that, with its path and its scope, in this site's Android guide. Two more limits: with the Samsung Kids PIN you leave the mode, and the time-limit lock doesn't switch off the phone — Google says calls can be answered and Emergency used if the device has a calling plan, on Android phones only. And one with real risk, where the order matters. Removing your child's Google account from the phone takes the supervision setup off that phone, even though the account remains supervised. But deleting the account before removing it from the device can lock the phone and force a factory reset: first you remove it from the phone, and only afterwards, if that is what you want, you delete it.
Samsung publishes no fee for the mode and there is no documented charge, although it does note that "Samsung Kids may not be included depending on the provider". Samsung Kids+ is a different thing, a content subscription service, and its price does not appear on the support pages.
No. Samsung describes it as a closed space with its own allowed content, and you leave it with the PIN. For a teenager the tool that fits is Family Link, which acts on the Google account and not on a mode of the phone.
Inside Samsung Kids you limit what is shown to them with Allowed content > apps, but that applies inside the mode. What reaches the whole phone is supervision of the account: Google documents that with Family Link you can approve and block apps and restrict adult content in Google Play. The detail is in this site's Android guide (/guias/configurar-control-parental-android).
In part. Samsung declares Samsung Kids for "Samsung Electronics smartphones and tablets" with Android 9.0 (Pie) or later, and warns that "available services may vary depending on your country and device". What changes is that a tablet usually supports several user profiles, and that opens a separate door, explained in the Android guide.
Not in any documented way. That space has its own pattern, PIN or password, and Samsung publishes no parent view, neither in Family Link nor in the child account. What is observable from outside is that the entry exists in Settings; from there on, what's left is to talk about it with them.
This guide describes menu paths taken from Samsung's and Google's official documentation as of the review date: each path declares the version when the manufacturer declares it, and declares the absence when it doesn't. Paths change with updates, and Samsung renames and moves menus between One UI versions and between countries; if a name doesn't match what you see on your phone, the valid reference is the manufacturer's support site and not a tutorial. What appears here as not documented is exactly that — an absence in the documentation — not a claim about what the phone does or doesn't do. On what you may supervise of your minor child under the law of your country, see the guide "Is it legal to monitor my child?" (/guias/es-legal-monitorear-a-mi-hijo).
Related guides: Parental controls on Android · Is it legal to monitor my child? · Alternatives to Google Family Link · Parental controls on Xiaomi · Set up parental controls on Motorola · Talking to your child about parental controls