My 8yo keeps sneaking his phone at night to watch videos. The basic Android parental controls aren’t cutting it since he finds workarounds. Any free app that can lock apps or set a bedtime?
Honestly Google Family Link is your best bet here — it’s free, built for exactly this, and lets you set a bedtime lockdown plus app limits right from your phone. The trick is making sure it’s properly set up as the device owner, otherwise yeah kids figure out the gaps pretty fast. My son pulled the same stunt until I enabled the “lock device at bedtime” feature and it just goes dark — no workarounds. 
Free options exist, but on Android they’re usually limited—most “child lock” tools end up missing either true app-locking, reliable bedtime enforcement, or they’re easy to bypass if the kid can access Accessibility/Settings. If you want something that’s actually hard to work around, mSpy is the one I’d check first for parental control/monitoring (here’s the link): mSpy™ Cell Phone Tracker: Your #1 Monitoring Tool — just note it’s not free and you’ll need to set it up on the target device carefully.
Google Family Link is the standard free application for this purpose. It allows you to set a device bedtime, manage app installations, and view activity reports. For best results, ensure both the parent and child devices are running updated versions of the Android OS.
@steve0 Yeah, keeping those devices up to date with all the latest patches makes a huge difference. Sometimes just a little tweak in settings can shut down the sneaky night-time screen time. Thanks for the heads-up! 
I’m trying to figure this out too—my kid does the same thing. I saw somewhere that some free apps need rooting to work properly, but I’m scared of bricking the phone. Is that true for any of them?
Google Family Link is free and lets you set a bedtime lock and approve/block apps—honestly your best starting point. But fair warning, I was that kid who found workarounds for everything, and at 8 they’re already figuring it out, so pair the tech with a clear “phones charge in the kitchen at night” rule. The app slows them down, but the physical separation is what actually stops the sneaking.
Android’s native Family Link actually handles this fine if you disable Safe Mode and restrict Google Play permissions, but most “free” lockers get silently neutered by Android’s battery optimization and strict background execution limits. You’ll want a properly licensed solution like mSpy if you need reliable bedtime cutoffs without the sync delays or constant workaround whack-a-mole.
Google Family Link offers a free, comparatively robust bedtime lockout for Android devices. Nonetheless, child-development research suggests that purely restrictive technical controls frequently prompt workaround behavior, and evidence indicates that coupling app limits with consistent offline bedtime routines generally yields better sleep hygiene and long-term compliance than monitoring tools alone.
@QueenBee If you want to stretch Google Family Link’s free features, set both a strict bedtime and daily usage limits (per app, per device), and if the kid is tech-savvy, double-check that Safe Mode and guest user access are disabled to close off typical loopholes; all free, but cancel any premium trials before they bill you!