These, days, there is no stopping a child from growing up without the influence of tech gadgets, online content, and the Internet in general. Being a parent is already a tough enough task, but shying away from the topic or completely shutting out technology from your children’s lives isn’t going to help.
What you can do however, is to have more control over what they are exposed to while on their gadgets, and this post will try to help you with that, particularly on Android.
Google Play Store may not have tougher restrictions than those found on Apple’s AppStore so if your kids own an Android device (or have access to your device at their liberty), you might want to set up some of these parental apps to help you monitor your kid’s online activities on the device. Some allow restrictions of online sites they can visit, the monitoring of their text or call usage, app downloads, location and how long they can spend on their devices.
1. Kids Place – Parental Control
Kids Place is a comprehensive parental control app. Some of its handy attributes include a customized home screen showcasing approved appsonly, the ability to prevent your child from downloading or buying new apps as well as a time feature to specify a schedule for using the smartphone.
On top of that, it’s also capable of blocking incoming calls and disabling all wireless signals. When you install and use the app for the first time, you have to first set a PIN for security purposes. [Get it here]
2. KuuKla Parental Control
KuuKla Parental Control App helps you tailor your Android device into one which is suitable for your child. It gives you the opportunity to select the applications that you want to appear for use on the home screen whiledisabling access to all other applications. It also allows you to define a schedule for using apps and the Internet on the smartphone.
Once you’ve download the app and registered your email address, a PIN code will be sent to the email address provided which can only be used by you to control the device. [Get it here]
3. Abeona – Parental Control & Device Monitor
The Abeona app actually comes with a complementary app called Device Monitor. Abeona – Parental Control allows parents to monitor the mobile apps usage of their child, view call logs and check whether the device of child is online or offline among other things.
The Device Monitor app must be installed on the child’s device in order for the parent to receive reports of device usage and location. The app is great for use on multiple devices, for instance if you need to get reports from multiple Android smartphones or tablets, all at once. [Get them here and here]
4. SecureTeen Parental Control
Worried about your teen being exposed to mature or adult content online? Try SecureTeen Parental Control which can filter out most if not all adult content. SecureTeen allows you to monitor your children’s online activities, applications they download and their location.
5. Screen Time Parental Control
As the name indicates, Screen Time is a helpful app which lets you manage how much ‘screen time’ your kids get. The key features of Screen Time includes blocking different apps according to the time.
For example, you can block only games at bed time but still allow readings apps then choose to block all apps when it’s time for lights out. Screen Time also allows you to set a daily time limit on the apps you want to restrict access to. [Get it here]
6. Kids Zone Parental Controls
Kids Zone is another handy parental control app. The chore mode gives you the capability to set a time limit that determines when your child can use the smartphone.
Other notable features include relocking the device after rebooting,blocking phone calls as well as text messages and Internet access, blockingapps installation and in-app purchasing, and various other features. [Get it here]
7. Parental Control Board
The Parental Control Board app helps monitor, manage and track a child’s activities on a mobile phone. It can monitor a list of all installed apps on the phone and you can even restrict some of them such as YouTube or Google Play, if you need to. Get the precise location of your child at any time and control and see all call logs and SMS that goes through their phone.
One of the useful things that this app has is the ability for parents to setup black lists and white lists of phone numbers for incoming/outgoing calls and messages. [Get it here]
8. Norton Family Parental Control
This Norton Family Parental Control app allows you to see which websites are visited by your child. You can also restrict access to pornographic and inappropriate websites and can setup email alerts that notify you whenever your child attempts to do something that he/she shouldn’t.
If you don’t mind spending a bit of money, you can get the premium version which lets you view logs of text messages, monitor the apps downloadedby your child and even block some of those apps amongst various other features. [Get it here]
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