Today’s children have never existed in a world where they couldn’t connect with everyone through the internet. They are probably on the internet more than anyone else, especially their parents. You don’t want your children to have access to harmful, disgusting, and illegal sites and apps. Before you start controlling the number of devices your children use, you should understand how they use technology. As part of establishing protections, you should talk to your child about their privacy, as you respect it. By doing this, you’ll make sure that they find a way around any protections, even if you have their best interests in mind. When it comes to technology addiction, it’s critical that children do not just understand the value of good device habits but that they live it as well. Keeping that in mind, we will share the top parental control software you can use to make sure your kids stay on the right path.
The Best Parental Control Apps and Programs
- Net Nanny – Best Parental Control Features
- Kaspersky Family – Best Search Monitoring for Parents
- Norton Family – Best for Parents Tracking Locations
Net Nanny
- Pros: Instant reports, location tracking, pause button sync, impressive website blocking
- Cons: Not budget-friendly, most advanced features have to be purchased
How It Protects Children
You can monitor and control settings on your child’s device remotely using this parental control app. You can track locations, read through online searches, block websites, and track screen time using Net Nanny if you want. You can control what content you want to keep off your child’s device by blocking apps, websites, or content categories. It is excellent that as much as you block material for young children, you can still leave more mature material for yourself. You don’t have to worry about new websites with this software. In real time, the solution will filter out material from future websites.
Whenever your child tries to access inappropriate content via this software, you will receive an email notification. You will also be notified about screen time, locations, and online searches. If you are concerned that your children are spending too much time on their phones, you can use this parental control software. You can set curfews and schedules to keep an internet-life balance. You’ll be able to see where your child is if you use this software.
In addition to a family map, you can also control each member’s device remotely. Using this software, you can monitor and control your child’s online activities. You can identify any problems your child may be having by monitoring their online searches. You can also identify what your child would like for Christmas or be aware of serious issues that you may need to address. You can flag down searches for violence, pornography, drugs, suicide, and other unsuitable content, as well as identify what your child wants for Christmas.
Kaspersky Family
- Pros: Has safe search, great value, kids can ask for access to certain content, supports a variety of OS
- Cons: No location history available, cannot limit app usage
How It Protects Children
You can monitor your child’s internet activity, including YouTube, using this cell phone and computer parental control software.
You can log in to Facebook whenever necessary using this feature. You can monitor your child’s Facebook account in addition to seeing who they’re friends with and what they post. You may filter out up to 14 categories of content on your child with this software. It can filter any content that relates to pornography, alcohol, violence, and other types of content. Whenever your child leaves a certain location or visits websites with questionable content, this software will notify you. It will also notify you if he or she accesses websites with questionable content.
Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to monitor areas where your young child may roam? The software lets you specify specific areas, and you will be notified if your child moves out of them. This feature covers a three-mile radius.
The interface is simple to use and overall very user-friendly. Setting up the proper parent-child profiles, however, is critical. Despite the fact that this application has a clean interface and is user-friendly, you must remember to do so. Children cannot change settings without their parent’s approval because of this requirement.
Norton Family
- Pros: Has a free trial version, good customer support, very easy to use, simple price plan structure
- Cons: Not discreet
How It Protects Children
Norton Family keeps an eye out on the websites your child visits to make sure they’re not visiting anything inappropriate. Norton Family monitors videos from YouTube and Hulu. When a website you’ve authorized suddenly posts harmful advertisements, Norton Family will block the content but allow your child to continue viewing the rest of the website.
You will receive notifications about your child’s internet activities if you provide an email address. If you are concerned about how much time your child spends online, Norton Family may be of assistance. You can set time and data limits on your child’s internet usage with this software.
Norton Family is one of the best parental control apps for teens because it tracks down the apps that your child has downloaded. Hackers and other unsavory characters are always searching for opportunities to coerce your children into giving out private details. Norton Family prevents your children from giving out sensitive data such as their school, phone number, home location, and email address.