Thankfully, most parental control apps help you keep an eye on your children’s activities, so you can rest easy. However, there are more than a few available which makes it that much more difficult to discern which ones are actually right for you. If you are looking for an app to help you monitor your children, we’ve vetted the best parental control apps for your family. Also: The best GPS trackers for kids Before you can monitor your child’s activity, you need the right devices. Check out our expert picks for the best smartphones, the best computers, and the best laptops! Qustodio is our pick for the best overall parental control app, offering a whole suite of features to help keep your children safe. Included are daily screen time limits that you can personally set and manage, controlling how much time a day your child uses the device. There is also app blocking to keep your child away from the wrong websites and the wrong apps. App monitoring includes the ever-popular YouTube, so your children do not risk accessing the wrong videos. The Control App serves as your gateway to several different tools, including child tracking and advanced reporting. Simply download the app on your phone and the companion app on your child’s phone, and the two will sync from there. Qustodio works on a variety of devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktop devices, and works with multiple platforms, including MacOS. With the free app, you get to supervise a single device, but you can upgrade for monitoring up to 15 devices. Bark is meant to help control your child’s mobile device with in-depth, comprehensive monitoring. Its content monitoring covers a whole bunch of different communication types, including text and email. It also covers YouTube, as well as more than 30 apps and social media platforms. You can still block adult sites, but you also have the option to choose from specific categories like streaming services and online gaming. Bark is a multi-faceted tool that goes far beyond just adult content, specifically looking for signs of cyberbullying, sexual predators, suicidal ideation, and threats of violence. If such an issue exists, an alert will be sent to warn parents of the activity. You can also control your children’s use with custom time limits and schedules that monitor not only cell service connections but those via Wi-Fi, too. If you purchase the companion Bark Home, you can also monitor all Wi-Fi-connected devices in your home, including smart TVs, laptops, and video game consoles, for comprehensive protection. Kaspersky Safe Kids offers many of the best features but without any of the cost. In addition to adult content and sites like YouTube, you can choose from several different ready-made categories to make parental controls that much easier. You can also create your own premade list of sites and even games, giving you full control over which sites your child can access. Determine how many hours per day your child can access a device, plus access your child’s location via GPS for peace of mind when your child is out of sight. With Kaspersky, you can monitor up to 500 devices, giving you hardly any restrictions and eliminating the decision of which devices to monitor. If you feel like you could benefit from guidance, check out the advice from top child psychologists. Net Nanny has a pronounced focus on social media with detailed screen time monitoring. It also allows you to track your child’s activity in real-time, whether it is through an app or online. You can see what your children access with immediate alerts when your child accesses the wrong types of sites. Special alerts are in place to let you know immediately when your child accesses specific sites or content relating to drugs, pornography, weapons, or suicide. There are also time limits that you can assign based on specific times, allowing you to keep up with normal sleep and study schedules. Family Feed serves as your main summary, allowing access to the latest reporting so you can see exactly which apps your child has visited. Meanwhile, the Family Map lets you check your child’s location anytime for extra reassurance. Norton is known for its fantastic antivirus protection, so it makes sense that it would have great parental controls, too. Norton Family Premier helps you monitor the sites and apps that your child visits while also giving you the opportunity to block specific sites. Also: The 5 best antivirus software and apps You can see exactly which videos your child views, as well as any search terms that give cause for worry. If your child needs the Internet for school (which, let’s face it, most kids do these days), turn on School Time mode so your child can access topics relevant to assigned homework. You can also set limits based on your preferred schedules for your children, allowing them access when you see fit. Geo-location features help you always to know where your children are with location tracking. You can also access weekly and monthly reports via email or the Parent Portal. plans start at $39.99/year plans start at $49.99/year
As this table illustrates, ZDNET has a diverse offering of the top parental control apps, designed to help you stay one step ahead of your child, while also keeping them from accessing harmful content.
Tools: Each app has different features to help you monitor your child’s activity, whether it is screen time limits or content monitoring. Compatibility: I look at device compatibility to ensure that there is an app that will work with your device. Location tracking: Many of the best parental control apps offer GPS capability, so you can locate your children at any time as long as they have their phones.Cost: Affordability is a large concern to ensure that parents on a tight budget still have a solution for parental control.
Be sure to carefully review the terms and conditions to be sure that they work for you. Parental control apps are a wise way to help keep your child safe online. And they also give you the opportunity to speak with your children about implementing best practices for online use. Meanwhile, Kaspersky offers a product designed for parents, where you can block access to specific websites, track your child’s location, and set screen limits for $15 per year. While there are cheaper or free options, they might not offer all the tools you need that the best parental control apps offer. And in the case of some of the ones we chose like Kaspersky, it’s less than the cost of a cup of coffee per month to have access to the features you want. You can access the parental controls through your console settings. To demonstrate, PlayStation allows you to set up family management, where you can impose restrictions for each specific user. With this in mind, you can have a sub-account under your family umbrella for each child and set restrictions that coincide with their age level. Not only does this affect the kind of content they’ll be able to access, but it also limits their ability to message or voice chat within the game, share content they created, and more.
