Xiaomi documents two routes to parental controls — through “Digital Wellbeing & parental controls” and through the Google menu — and warns, in those words, that the route varies depending on the device model. Both end at Google Family Link, which belongs to Google and not to Xiaomi: its requirements and its limits are in the parental controls guide for Android. Here is what is specific to the brand: App lock, Second Space and imported handsets that arrive without Google services.
Here is what Xiaomi and Google officially document, and nothing more. Every route carries its source and the version the manufacturer attributes to it; when none is declared — which is almost always — that is said too. The generic Family Link material lives in this site's Android guide.
Xiaomi renamed MIUI to HyperOS and some menus moved with the change. The only way the brand documents for finding out which one you have in front of you is Settings > About phone, and that page was not updated for the name change: it still talks about the MIUI version. What is on your screen wins, not the support page. That page does not state which version the route corresponds to either. There is no official list of which models moved to HyperOS either, and the same goes for Redmi and POCO. Xiaomi settles it with a sentence of its own, translated from the English original: the parental controls route varies depending on the device model.
The first goes through the menu Xiaomi calls “Digital Wellbeing & parental controls”: Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls > Set up parental controls for another child > choose Yes or No. The page does not say which version it applies to; on the Xiaomi 14T, which ships with HyperOS, that step is labeled simply “Set up parental controls”. The second goes through the Google menu: Settings > Google > All services > Parental controls, and there you pick your child's account. It is the sounder of the two, because Google documents that same route; neither source says which version of Android, HyperOS or MIUI it applies to. The third one is here as a warning and not as a route: Settings > Additional settings > Parental control > Turn on > draw the pattern. Xiaomi documents it, but does not say what it restricts, whether your child can turn it off, or on which models it exists. Nor does it state which version of HyperOS or MIUI it corresponds to. What the manufacturer does not publish is no use as a safety net. Both of the good routes end at Family Link, and that is where this site's Android guide picks up: requirements, price, time limits and what Google documents about your child's consent, which depends on whether you create the account for them or supervise one they already have. What is specific here: Xiaomi documents that its flow asks for your child's password at one step.
Redmi and POCO handsets imported outside the official channel are sold across the region, and some carry software from another region, without Google services. With no Play Store there is no Family Link — it is downloaded from Play — and with no supervised Google account there is nothing to set up. Xiaomi's user guide says the opposite: that the Play Store comes preinstalled. The check is documented by Google: Play Store > profile icon > Settings > About, where the certification status appears; the page does not say which version of Android or of the Play Store it applies to. “Only devices that are Play Protect certified can include Google apps, such as the Google Play Store”, it explains, and it warns that devices without it may not receive Android system updates and that the Google apps they come with “are not properly licensed”. Pulling those packages from a forum means putting exactly that on a kid's first phone. Xiaomi does not document what to do with a unit from another region sold outside it; it does publish that its international warranty covers designated models in designated markets. Before buying, ask the seller whether it is the global version, the one that comes with Google services.
App lock is Xiaomi's own: Settings > Apps > App lock > Turn on > set the pattern > add or do not add the Xiaomi account > select the apps; the page declares no version. That account step looks optional and is not: with it, a forgotten pattern is reset with the account password; without it, the only documented way out is recovery mode and wiping the whole phone. Anything installed outside Play does not go through age rating. Xiaomi documents the route, also without saying which version it applies to: Settings > Privacy protection > Special permissions > Install unknown apps > choose the app > Allow from this source. Its warning: with unknown apps, the phone and personal data are left more exposed to an attack. And one clarification about Digital Wellbeing, because the claim usually circulates the other way round: its timers cannot be removed without a password. Google documents a four-digit PIN at Digital Wellbeing > App limits > App limit PIN; it publishes no minimum version and it notes that the steps vary depending on the device.
Second Space is, in Xiaomi's words, “a completely separate and isolated environment within a single device”, which the brand also presents as a guest mode. It is at Settings > Additional settings > Second space — a route Xiaomi declares for HyperOS on the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G — and it depends on the model: the Redmi 9 does not have it. It may also not appear in the first space's Settings, so not seeing it is no proof that it does not exist. Xiaomi explains how to create it and how to delete it, not how to stop your child from creating it. Android user profiles are a different thing, and Google covers them: in the Kids Space help it warns that “if you add other profiles, the Family Link settings on your child's account will not apply to them” and it asks for “a screen lock for each new user you have created”. There is a switch that closes that door, and the route is in the parental controls guide for Android. Dual Apps (Settings > Apps > Dual apps, with no version declared) are copies of an app that run alongside the original, with a different account. Hide apps, documented for the Xiaomi 14T in the Security app and also without a version, takes an app off the home screen without uninstalling it. None of the three is a trick: they are factory features.
Neither Xiaomi nor Google documents what happens to Family Link supervision inside Second Space, whether time limits reach a copy made with Dual Apps, or what is left of parental controls after a factory reset. When something is not documented, ask Xiaomi's official support in your country before trusting that it works.
There is none documented for phones. The only official pages titled “Kid Mode” belong to other products of the brand: the projector, the desk lamp and the TVs. If you search for “Xiaomi kid mode” you will land there, and it may look as though your phone has it.
Check in Settings > About phone, which is the only way Xiaomi documents for finding out. Almost none of its parental control pages states a version, and the brand settles the ambiguity with a single sentence: the path varies depending on the model. The only exception is the Second Space page for the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G.
It may cover more than people tend to say: it lives on the phone itself, but Google documents a four-digit PIN for app limits. Family Link is a different thing: you manage it from your phone and it adds location, download approval and content restrictions.
Not Family Link, because it is downloaded from Play and needs a supervised Google account. Pulling Google services from a forum does not fix it: that question goes to Xiaomi's official support in your country.
If it has a password and you do not know it, you will not be able to open it. Xiaomi documents two ways to delete it — from inside, with its password, or from the first space, in Settings > Additional settings > Second space > trash can icon, with the Xiaomi account password — and that erases everything inside. Before getting that far, the sensible thing is to ask.
This guide relies solely on the official Xiaomi (mi.com) and Google documentation published as of the review date. Menu paths change with system and Google app updates, so an update after that date may move or rename any of these options. Xiaomi also warns expressly that the parental controls route varies depending on the device model, and almost none of its pages states whether it applies to HyperOS or to MIUI, so the menu names on your phone may not match exactly. Several Xiaomi support pages in languages other than English warn that they are machine-translated from the English original and mix labels in both languages; that is why the menu names here are given as Xiaomi publishes them in English. If an option is not where the guide says it is, do not go looking for it in forums: check with Xiaomi's official support in your country. This guide covers supervision tools for a minor child in your care and with their knowledge; it is general information about system features, not legal, medical or psychological advice.
Related guides: Parental controls on Android · Set up parental controls on a Samsung Galaxy · Set up parental controls on Motorola · Alternatives to Google Family Link · Talking to your child about parental controls · Is it legal to monitor my child?