Companies producing technology are making huge strides to empower and equip parents to play a crucial role in guiding children to digital health. Rather than rating the technical prowess of innovation of these differing approaches to online safety, we have four simple measures that make a difference to real families:. For families, the devil really is in the detail. Parents need to be able to specify limits for particular activities rather than blanket cut off times on everything. Families need simple ways to solve complex problems. Internet safety apps need to address the multi-device and multi-platform reality of family life.
To avoid repeatedly setting up controls on different systems, parents need one device that controls everything, as much as possible.
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This also means fewer ways for children to cruise devices when time limits have been used up. Cost is always important to families. Parents are happy to spend money on solutions that work efficiently and simply freeing up their time and reducing time spent arguing about technology.
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Whichever of these monitoring apps you choose, they are an excellent way to better understand and discuss technology and gaming with your child. Implementing limits are a good first step but will only ever be a short-term solution. The iOS platform is of high-quality, have innovative features and security, the built-in features offer great robust great family controls for free and at the operating system level. The Screen Time features built into iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad devices offer great family controls for free and at the operating system level. Although other services provide app locking and time limits, having this as part of the Operating System OS makes more sense and is much easier for parents to set-up.
The features built into iOS 14 allow parents to set up and manage Apple Watches for kids through Family Setup which is designed to let kids use an Apple Watch without the need for an iPhone. The privacy settings allow password monitoring and the option to download a privacy report which allows you to view how websites handle your privacy.
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Unlike other solutions here, this is a hardware device that hooks into your internet. Monqi is an all-in-one solution. Parents download a control app for their own smartphone and can set time limits, track location, limit apps and browse activity reports on the Monqi device remotely. This offers a good level of control, not just at the internet access level, but down to specific app usage time. Some have found that the battery life is not good on the hardware, which is an issue. Once installed, Boomerang lets you control access to the internet and apps in a detailed fashion.
You can set bedtimes and off times, and specify certain apps to be available longer than others. It provides excellent YouTube and Search history results. Safe browsing of the internet, as well as other filters, are provided. It also logs text messages and calls to and from the phone.
It pulls the data in easy to read dashboards and lets you set limits. It includes the ability to location track your child and set geographical limits. You can also block specific apps from a limit list that does include Fortnite but not Roblox. OurPact will, like similar services, track calls, and texts and monitor a range of online activities.
It works for iOS and Android devices. There is some setup to do to get app blocking working on iOS devices. Parents are also able to remotely lock down the device when its time to play, study or sleep. It can take up to 30 minutes as there are many steps to go through. You can add multiple children to the parental account but all children must use one device. So if you're really serious about keeping tabs on what your kids are doing online, get them Android phones. Just be wary of any parental control app that you have to sideload — there's usually a reason it isn't in the official Google Play store.
Among all the parental-control apps we tried, it comes closest to having feature parity between its iOS and Android versions. Its iOS abilities don't seem to have been affected by recent Apple policy changes.
Net Nanny can track your child's location, display their location history, and set time allowances and schedules equally well on both platforms. The iOS version lets you block several dozen apps on your kid's phone; the Android one lets you block them all.
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Net Nanny recently added content screening that works within social media apps and services, including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, instead of blocking or allowing them entirely. The only thing Net Nanny can't do on a smartphone is monitor calls or texts. No apps we tested can do that on iOS, but several do on Android. Read our full Net Nanny Parental Control review. Norton Family's power and features are ideal for Android and Windows households with many children, offering nearly every feature a parent could want from one of the best parental control apps.
This service's location-tracking, time-scheduling, and web-filtering and -monitoring capabilities work on both iOS and Android, but Norton's time allowances are only for its Windows and Android software. App management and text-message monitoring don't work in the iOS app at all. There's no geofencing on either mobile platform. At that price, getting Norton Family along with Norton's excellent antivirus protection is a no-brainer, unless your kids use Macs instead of Windows PCs.
Read our full Norton Family review. Kaspersky's location tracking and geofencing work in both iOS and Android, as do its web monitoring and device scheduling. But app management is limited on iOS, and the iOS app can't monitor calls or texts at all. Likewise, a new feature that lets you block specific kinds of YouTube searches , and review YouTube search history if you're a paid user, works on Windows, iOS and Android, including the YouTube Android app -- but not on Macs.
Still, if you don't feel a need to read your kids' text messages, then Kaspersky Safe Kids is well worth considering. In March , Kaspersky Lab filed an antitrust complaint against Apple for allegedly forcing the removal of features from Kaspersky Safe Kids, part of a crackdown on parental-control apps. Apple in June relaxed some of those restrictions , but the Kaspersky case continued. In August , the Russian antitrust authorities ordered Apple to reverse its changes.
We'll have to wait and see what Apple does. Read our full Kaspersky Safe Kids review. It also lets you set time limits for individual apps and individual devices. This service's limited location tracking works on both iOS and Android, and Qustodio finally added a geofencing option in the fall of A Family Locator feature that shows you where all your kids are at once was added in September You can manage only a few dozen apps on iOS, as opposed to all Android apps.
Web filtering is more powerful on iOS, while monitoring texts and calls works on only Android. Read our full Qustodio review. Once the most powerful parental-control app for iPhones, OurPact was hobbled by an Apple rule change in late that nixed the service's geofencing, location tracking and time allowances on iOS.
At its peak, OurPact was the only parental-control app we tested that could manage or block any iOS app.
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It can still do so for Android devices. OurPact also gets kids involved in managing the daily allowance of screen time that you give them, and it does a good job of scheduling. Yet, its website filtering simply blocks porn, and it can't monitor calls or texts at all, even on Android. However, you can block messaging apps, and OurPact remains a joy to use. Read our full OurPact review. Screen Time -- not to be confused with the "Screen Time" feature in iOS -- does an excellent job of managing and scheduling kids' device access.
Unfortunately, it doesn't do a whole lot else, at least on iOS devices. App management and web filtering are for Android only. Screen Time also has baffling upcharges for location tracking and web filters, both of which are arguably essentials and come standard with other parental-control apps. You can get both features in the day Screen Time premium trial. We did like how Screen Time lets you dole out additional, yup, screen time to kids who perform chores or good deeds. But you can't block apps on iOS, and there's no call or text monitoring at all, although geofencing and location history were recently added.
Read our full Screen Time review. ESET Parental Control for Android sticks to a single platform, but it doesn't shine even there, lacking text-message- and call-monitoring and number blocking features and implementing clunky controls on what it does have. The app management and time management you receive with the free version of ESET Parental Control for Android do work well, as do the location tracking and geofencing you'll get if you pay for a subscription. There's a day free trial, plus steep discounts for multiyear plans.
And we liked the feature that lets a kid send an SOS message to designated phones with a single tap. MMGuardian has nearly every parental-control feature you might want on Android phones, but its abilities are somewhat limited on iOS and the user interfaces are outdated and frustrating on both platforms. The iOS and Android smartphone apps offer location tracking and excellent web filtering, and MMGuardian now has an artificial-intelligence component to spot nudity in saved images.
On an Android phone, the parent can use MMGuardian to read every text and block any number. Unfortunately, time management and screen-time scheduling are Android-only, and the separate MMGuardian app for Android tablets has no location tracking.
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However, it recently added SMS and instant-message monitoring via a desktop app connected via Wi-Fi to a child's iPhone. Read our full MMGuardian review. What you need from a parental-control service mainly depends on how old your kids are. If you're the parent of children under 12, you absolutely want to be able to block objectionable websites, but you might also consider an app that's available on Amazon Fire tablets. 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 late on a Friday night. And you might want to consider a service that monitors your kids' 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, and 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.