Google Wallet’s new kid-friendly payment system is a win for parents -

Google Wallet now has a built-in payment system for kids
Parents can monitor their child’s transactions and enforce limits
The update is rolling out over the next few weeks

Allowing your kids access to your phone’s wallet can be a surefire way to quickly lose your savings, but there are also times when you might want to let them in, such as when they need to use a digital library card. So, what can you do to get it right?

Well, Google thinks it has a solution of sorts. It’s just announced a new feature for Google Wallet that grants kids access to limited funds while ensuring that parents are still in control. The feature is being rolled out to users in the US, UK, Australia, Spain, and Poland “over the next few weeks,” Google says.

According to Google’s press release, parents and guardians can “allow their children to access digital payments on their Android device with appropriate supervision.” In practice, that means “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.”

The update comes with built-in parental controls. “A child’s payment cards can only be added with parental consent,” Google says, “and parents will receive an email whenever their child makes a transaction. Parents can also easily track recent purchases, remove payment cards and turn off access to passes right in Family Link.”

Financial independence

(Image credit: Shutterstock / sdx15)

This isn’t the first time Google has implemented a kid-friendly payment system with parental controls included. In the company’s Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch, for example, children can tap to pay for items, while parents can monitor purchases and reward their youngsters when chores are completed.

Apple also has a similar feature built into Apple Cash. Parents or guardians can view a child’s recent card transactions, choose who they can send money to, receive notifications when a payment is made, lock the child’s Apple Cash account, and more.

Financial literacy is a great life skill for children to have, so it makes sense to allow them some degree of independence here, as Google and others are doing. The built-in controls should go some way to reassuring parents, although each family will need to work out an arrangement that works best for them.

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