Keep your kids safe on their phones with the best parental control apps 2020
During this period of national lockdown, it’s clear that parents are experiencing challenges to control children’s devices. Parental controls help you to block or filter upsetting or inappropriate content, and control purchases within apps. You can install parental control software on your child's and family's phones or tablets, games consoles, laptops and your home internet. Parental controls can help you to:
- plan what time of day your child can go online and how long for
- create content filters to block apps that may have inappropriate content
- manage the content different family members can see.
Today’s children have never known a time when they couldn't connect to the entire world by the internet. In fact, they probably spend more time online than anyone else—certainly more than their parents. If you are a parent, this presents a problem, as there are explicit, disturbing, and illegal websites and apps that you don't want your children to encounter. Parental control services can help you manage the ever-increasing number of devices that your kids use.
Therefore, after been queried by parents, I had a look around the Internet for a suitable solution, and here is what I found.
What you need from a parental control service mainly depends on how old are the children. If the children are under 12 yrs. old, you would want to block objectionable websites.
If you've got teenagers, you might want to let them have a look at objectionable things online, but only if you're aware of it. You might also want to see whom your teens are talking to in messenger apps, and to see where they are if late for home. And you might want to consider a service that monitors your children’s Windows and Mac devices as well as their smartphones.
The best parental control apps will offer, at a minimum,
- a website filter,
- location tracking,
- screen-time limits including a scheduler,
- an app blocker that works at least on Android.
Useful extra features include geofencing, which alerts you if a child's phone leaves a designated "safe" area like school or a relative's house. Some of these apps let you block and log the calls and texts a child makes and receives, but only on Android.
A couple even let you read a child's text messages, but none lets you listen in on call, because that's illegal. And most let you monitor your child's phone from a desktop computer web interface as well as your own smartphone.
Check, too, that any limits on the number of child profiles or devices won't be a problem. Large families, for example, will appreciate that Norton Family and Kaspersky Safe Kids work on an unlimited number of devices. Most parental control software operates as a subscription service, so pricing tiers tend to align with device limits, though some offer free versions for basic protection on a limited number of devices. If your kids are strictly smartphone users, take a look at our roundup of mobile parental control apps.
At the very least, a good parental control tool features content filtering—the ability to block access to websites matching categories such as hate, violence, and porn. This type of filtering only really works if it's browser-independent and works with secure (HTTPS) sites.
Reccommended Parental Control Software List 2020
| Qustodio | Details |
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Pros: Well-designed web interface. Comprehensive time restrictions. App blocking on desktop and mobile platforms. Cross-platform support. Intuitive apps. |
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Cons: Does not work on Macs. No geofencing. Time restrictions apply per device. Lackluster social media tracking. |
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Bottom Line: Parental control app Qustodio is a highly configurable, easy-to-manage tool for keeping track of your child's activity on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, though it comes at a premium price. |
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| Norton Family Premier | Details |
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Pros: Affordable. Good web dashboard. No limit on number of monitored devices. Easy setups and configurations. Great web filters and monitoring |
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Cons: Expensive. VPN breaks web filter on desktop browsers. Social media tracking limited to Facebook. |
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Bottom Line: Norton Family's wealth of features and easy setup make it easy for parents to track and manage their children's activity across many devices, though it doesn't work on Macs.
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| Kaspersky Safe Kids | Details |
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Pros: Affordable. No limit on devices or child profiles. Flexible control of device and app usage. Robust web filtering. Geofencing. Extensive alert system. |
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Cons: Several iOS limitations. Content filtering limited to specific browsers. Social monitoring only covers Facebook and VK. Sluggish web interface.
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Bottom Line: Kaspersky Safe Kids is a full-featured, affordable parental monitoring system for desktop and mobile platforms that doesn't impose limits on the number of devices you can monitor. Safe Kids comes as part of Kaspersky Total Security.
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| Net Nanny | Details |
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Pros: Simple setup. Capable screen time options. App-blocking. Custom web filters. Hides profanity. Great design, near parity between Android, ios |
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Cons: Expensive. Web filters defeated by VPN, Tor. Disorganized web dashboard. Relatively few preset web filters. No geofencing. |
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Bottom Line: Net Nanny boasts customizable web filters along with solid screen time and app blocking features, but it's a bit pricey and suffers from a sub-standard web interface. |
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