Google Wallet Begins Rollout of Parental Controls for Payments and Passes

Google Wallet is rolling out a new experience that gives parents and guardians a way to allow their children to use their Android device to make payments and store passes with appropriate supervision.

The company will roll out this update over the next few weeks in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Spain and Poland, according to a Wednesday (March 19) blog post.

The update enables parents to ensure that payments cards are added only with their consent, receive an email every time their child makes a transaction, track recent purchases, remove payment cards and turn off access to passes, according to the post.

Parents can perform these actions in Family Link, Google’s app that also provides them with a suite of tools for setting children’s screen time limits, approving or blocking apps, managing and securing accounts, seeing their location, and getting notifications when they arrive or leave a certain location.

With this parental supervision, “kids can use Google Wallet to securely tap to pay in stores and keep supported passes like event tickets, library cards and gift cards in one convenient place,” Dong Min Kim, director of product management, Google Wallet, wrote in the post.

Consumers are increasingly relying on digital wallets like Google Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal for frictionless transactions, whether shopping online or in-store, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “How People Pay: Consumer Preference for Connected Technology.”

The report found that even “mainstream tech consumers” increasingly use mobile devices for purchases, with 26% having used a mobile device to make one of their most recent purchases.

Apple Cash Family lets users “set up Apple Cash for the children and teens in your Family Sharing group so they can make purchases and send and receive money in Messages or Wallet.” This tool also enables users to limit who their child can send money to, get notified when their child makes transactions, and lock their child’s account.

PayPal-owned mobile payment service Venmo launched the Venmo Teen Account in May 2023, saying this offering gives “parents and legal guardians the ability to open a Venmo account for their teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17-years-old so they can send and receive money.”