Parental Control Software: How to keep your kids safe online
I’ve always thought that children should gain as much autonomy and independence from an early age. But this isn’t equivalent to the lack of parents’ implication in education, supervision, and shaping attitudes and behavior. Moreover, every parent wants to protect and keep their kids safe. And since the online environment seems to host more threats than real life, the concern is reasonable. Children are exposed to a great amount of information.
Some of them are harmful, others dangerous, and most hide threats that might shape their attitudes into deviant behaviors. Thus, parents can rest their fears due to parental control software without feeling guilty about invading kids’ privacy.
Best parental control apps
A kid’s phone and computer are the portals to a rich world. Rich in good and constructive information and dangerous content at the same time. Likewise, the gaming world might seize a child’s life. This is why apps that limit screen time provide web filters and block spyware apps are a gold mine for parents who want to keep their children protected. Thus, we compiled a list of useful parental control software that keeps track of child phones and personal computers.
Qustodio
Nowadays, parents have to face and keep control of kids’ tech addiction. Therefore, it is important to choose the best parental control app to deal with this issue. Qustodio is an assistant and monitoring solution for kids’ computers and mobile. This parental control software provides computer and phone filters to restrict specific content. To be clearer, Qustodio limits daily screen time usage and establishes a plan for when devices and gadgets cannot be used. When the kid exceeds the screen time limit, you have two options: getting a notification or blocking the device.
Besides being a screen time app, Qustodio monitors the child’s activity on the phone in real-time, allowing you to check their messages, call logs, geolocation, and installed apps. Moreover, Qustodio sends parents a daily report via email with this information. In addition, this app can track every activity, such as time spent playing games, web searches, YouTube monitoring, and web browsing.
Net Nanny
If you’re asking yourself, ‘How to track my kids’ phones to protect them from harmful online content?’ the answer is simple. Net Nanny is a reliable parental control software to monitor your kid’s phone. Net Nanny is a filter app suitable for kids’ social media accounts. You can adjust a set of forbidden keywords for the social platforms so that you’ll receive alerts when your kid is using them in posts and comments due to its accurate web filters.
This parental control software allows parents to limit screen time usage on up to ten devices and restrict iPhone, Mac, Android, and Windows apps. However, the web blocker option doesn’t work for Mac and iOS devices. Thus, Nanny’s websites ensure internet safety for children by blocking adult content and offensive words from emails, text messages, and social media channels.
Kaspersky Antivirus
Kaspersky Antivirus is another great parental control software to ensure family security and block harmful content from kids. This parental control app offers real-time virus protection preventing any malware infection. In addition, it has a virus scanner that detects malicious programs running on your computer or suspicious activity. Moreover, the Total Security package includes Kaspersky Safe Kids, another parental control software. It offers parental control services such as limiting kids’ screen time and tracking their online activities.
In addition, this tool prevents kids from accessing web content that is not appropriate for them. Furthermore, Kaspersky parental control software has great features, including GPS tracking, YouTube safe search, and other website filters. This computer and mobile control app ensure that your child is not exposed to inappropriate and dangerous behavior and content over the internet.
Bark
Parental control software that doesn’t infringe too much on kids’ privacy is a must-have for parents who want to watch their activity without being too intrusive. Thus, Bark monitors 24 social media platforms giving notifications when kids and teens access harmful content and use inappropriate words. Unlike other computer and mobile control services, parents can use Bark parental control software on unlimited devices. In addition, the Bark monitoring app sends alerts when kids reach the screen time limit.
Moreover, what is impressive about this parental control software is that it encourages parents to have honest and open conversations with their kids about good practices over the Internet. At the same time, Bark parental control software is AI-based, meaning that the web filters do not rely exclusively on keywords, but the app screens social media channels, texts, and emails. It might sound like the best filter app, but it is not for sure until you test it!
OpenDNS FamilyShield
Another family security tool comes from OpenDNS Family Shield. It is a straightforward and free solution to protect kids across the neverending amount of digital content. FamilyShield parental control software manages to block unwanted web content and sites. Moreover, if you feel that FamilyShield blocked a web page incorrectly, you can report it to OpenDNS.
This app comes in free versions and paid plans, and you don’t need to be tech-savvy to install it. However, the paid plans are more customizable than the free versions. For example, the former is pre-configured to block adult content. All in all, this parental control software does a good job when it comes to protecting children from inappropriate web content.
It is hard to hold your kids off the internet in a digital world. The best thing a parent can do is reach out for parental control software to limit screen time usage and keep them safe from inappropriate and harmful content. This is why it is important to choose the best filter app for your child’s phone and computer. These five tools might give you back control over your child’s web activity.
