The best parental control apps for Android and iPhone 2022
The best parental control apps for Android and iPhone 2022
The best parental control apps for Android and iOS permit you take a wait at what your kids exercise online, giving you some peace of mind. Many of our top picks besides offering Windows and Mac software for your kids' computers, providing an all-encompassing view.
If you've got young children or teenagers, you know it tin can be hard to encounter what your kids do online. Do they take Snapchat, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger on their phones? Practise you even know what those apps are?
Or do your children hide their screens every bit soon every bit you walk into the room? If so, then they're probably hiding something from y'all and you lot definitely demand one of the best parental control apps.
- Best GPS trackers for kids: Keep rails of the little ones at all times
- The all-time (and worst) antivirus software for parents
- All-time Android apps for kids
The best parental control apps for iOS and Android can also help y'all find a child'due south physical location or tell y'all if the kid isn't in school during school hours.
They can also tell you who your kids talk to online, schedule and limit kids' net-admission fourth dimension and cake inappropriate websites. A couple of these apps can log calls and texts or fifty-fifty bear witness you the content of texts and instant messages, although Apple and Google now make it more hard to do so.
Overall, these apps work all-time when they're part of a comprehensive approach to teaching kids how to acquit responsibly both online and off. Talk to your children near how to human activity online and to be wary of uncomfortable situations. Mind to them if they think your approach is too heavy-handed. And be clear with them that you'll be monitoring what they practise online.
I note: We don't review any parental-control app that can run in "stealth" way so the child doesn't know information technology's there. Such apps are often used not to monitor children, merely to spy on spouses or other adults, and this so-called "stalkerware" can be a cistron in domestic abuse.
We also stay abroad from apps that can record phone conversations. Doing so without the consent of at least ane party involved is illegal throughout the The states, and several states require all parties to consent.
There's no parental exception to phone-recording laws. Courts have ruled that a parent cannot record a child'south conversation with another person unless the parent truly believes the child is in immediate danger.
What are the best parental command apps?
No parental-control app is perfect, only Net Nanny consistently delivered the best mix of web filtering, location tracking and app management on both Android and iOS devices. It also works on Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, Windows, Macs and Chromebooks that back up Google Play.
Kaspersky Prophylactic Kids was a close runner-up, offering full-featured back up on an unlimited number of Android and iOS devices, plus Macs and PCs. Its gratis tier includes web monitoring, time limits and app management, and its full-featured paid programme is just $15 per year.
Norton Family unit offers about all the features a parent could desire, including recently added geofencing, although its app-management abilities don't work on iOS. Along with smartphone and tablets, it also monitors Windows PCs but not Macs.
Many antivirus products, including some from Norton and Kaspersky, take parental controls built in. To see how well those stack up against the stand-alone services, please see our overview of the best (and worst) antivirus software for parents.
All these parental-control apps tin can come across and do more than on Android than on iOS, due to Apple's tighter app restrictions and arrangement control. If you're really serious about keeping tabs on what your kids practice online, get them Android phones.
Simply be wary of any Android parental control app that you demand to "sideload" on your own. There'southward unremarkably a good reason that app isn't in the official Google Play shop. (Nosotros'll make an exception for Qustodio, whose sideloaded version has abilities the Google Play app doesn't.)
Parental-control-app news & updates
— Norton has added geofencing and automatic location alerts, plus customizable schedules for school days.
— Qustodio has added support for Chromebooks using Google Play and a browser extension.
— ESET Parental Command for Android is cutting its subscription rates for multiyear plans, with two years of service going for $45 and 3 years for $60, representing discounts of 25% and 33%, respectively.
The best parental command app you lot can go
Net Nanny, which we think is the all-time parental control app, has a modern, intuitive pattern and excellent web-filtering applied science that analyzes pages rather than just blindly blocking them and lets you create filters of your own.
Among the parental-command apps we tried, Net Nanny comes closest to having feature parity between its iOS and Android versions. It can rail your child's location, brandish their location history, and set fourth dimension allowances and schedules every bit well on both platforms.
The iOS version lets y'all block more than 100 apps on your kid'due south phone; the Android ane lets you block them all. The congenital-in App Advisor gives you a heads-up on which new apps you should watch out for. (Tom's Guide readers save $10 off each of Net Nanny's plans.)
Net Nanny also includes 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 practise on a smartphone is monitor calls or texts. No apps we tested can practise that on iOS, but a couple all the same practice on Android.
Read our full Internet Nanny review .
Like Internet Nanny, Kaspersky Safe Kids lets yous monitor and control your kids' activities on PCs and Macs also as on smartphones. Even better, Kaspersky's paid tier is only $xv per year (there'southward a 7-twenty-four hours complimentary trial) for an unlimited number of child devices, and its free plan lets you lot set up screen-time limits, filter websites and manage other apps.
The paid program monitors social networks and offers location tracking and geofencing that work in both iOS and Android, as do Kaspersky'south web monitoring and device scheduling. But app management is limited on iOS to blocking apps that take age restrictions.
As well, a feature that lets you block specific kinds of YouTube searches, and review YouTube search history if y'all're a paid user, works on Windows, iOS and Android, including the YouTube Android app — simply not on Macs.
The drawbacks, and they are pocket-sized, are that the mobile apps are clumsily designed, the web portal can be slow, and the web filters may not work with lesser-known browsers. Still, if you lot don't experience a need to read your kids' text letters (and in which instance you lot'd need Qustodio), so Kaspersky Rubber Kids is well worth considering.
Read our full Kaspersky Safe Kids review .
Norton Family's ability and features are ideal for Android (and Windows) households with many children, offering nearly every characteristic a parent could want from 1 of the best parental control apps, including recently added geofencing.
This service'due south location-tracking, time-scheduling, and web-filtering and -monitoring capabilities work on both iOS and Android, merely Norton's time allowances are only for its Windows and Android software. App management doesn't piece of work in the iOS app at all.
However, Norton Family has very potent web filters, even on iOS, monitors Hulu as well as YouTube, and has a new feature called School Time to keep children focused during remote-learning class time.
Norton Family comes gratis if you jump for ane of Norton's more expensive antivirus suites, such equally Norton 360 Deluxe, which is often discounted to as fiddling as $50 per year. At that cost, getting Norton Family unit forth with Norton's excellent antivirus protection is a no-brainer, unless your kids happen to utilise Macs.
Read our full Norton Family review .
One time the most powerful parental-command app for iPhones, OurPact'south abilities take been whittled downwardly a fleck by Apple, which temporarily threw OurPact out of the App Shop. However, it can all the same manage or block whatever iOS app, just as it can on Android.
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. Its Premium Plus plan lets you get screenshots from the kid'southward device, fifty-fifty on IOS, and you tin can block messaging and texting apps even if you tin't read the letters themselves.
Even so its website filtering only blocks porn, and the fourth dimension-management interface is a flake clunky. OurPact volition tell you where your child is, and its geofencing will tell y'all when a child arrives or leaves specific locations, just it can't tell you where your child has been.
Despite these drawbacks, OurPact's well-designed interface and intuitive features make it a joy to apply, especially if your kids have iPhones.
Read our full OurPact review .
Google Family Link is the only choice on this page that'southward totally gratuitous. You may be pleasantly surprised past how powerful and useful it tin can exist — every bit long equally your kids happen to take Android phones or tablets.
Google Family Link gives parents control over the organization permissions each individual app has on a child's Android device. No other parental-control app nosotros've reviewed has that ability. It besides lets you decide which kind of apps, or any apps at all, your child can download from Google Play.
There's no iOS version of the Google Family unit Link child app, only parents tin can use either iOS or Android to monitor kids' devices. Nosotros recommend Android for kids' apps anyhow, every bit the Android versions of all these apps give parents much more insight and control.
A few drawbacks: Google Family unit Link has just one spider web filter, against "mature sites," and it doesn't work perfectly. The same unmarried filter is bachelor for YouTube. Location tracking is a fleck primitive, and there's no geofencing. But the time-management features work well.
If y'all're primarily concerned near the apps your kids utilize, Google Family Link may be everything you demand. And if you want an app that can practise more, Google Family Link will work well alongside ane of the other options on this page.
Read our total Google Family Link review .
Qustodio supports iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire tablets, Macs, PCs and Chromebooks. Information technology also lets you set time limits for individual apps and individual devices.
This service's location tracking works on both iOS and Android, as do its geofencing and a Family Locator feature that shows you where all your kids are at once. Y'all tin manage almost half-dozen,000 apps on iOS, and all Android apps, merely the web filtering doesn't piece of work that well on either mobile platform.
Yet, Qustodio is one of the simply apps we've recently tested that tin withal log a child's texts and calls, view the content of text messages or block phone numbers, at least on Android — and you have to sideload a special version of the app from Qustodio'south website for it all to piece of work. But if these features are important to you, then Qustodio may be the app to get.
The biggest drawback is that Qustodio can get darn expensive, costing upwards to $138 per year for 15 devices. (Tom's Guide readers get a 10% discount.)
Read our full Qustodio review .
Screen Time -- not to be confused with the "Screen Fourth dimension" feature in iOS -- does an splendid job of managing and scheduling kids' device access. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a whole lot else, at to the lowest degree on iOS devices. App management and web filtering are for Android just.
Screen Time also has inexplainable upcharges for location tracking and web filters, both of which are arguably essentials and come standard with other parental-command apps. (You can become both features in the xiv-day Screen Time premium trial.)
We did like how Screen Time lets y'all dole out boosted, yup, screen time to kids who perform chores or practiced deeds. But you can't block apps on iOS, and there'due south no call or text monitoring at all, although geofencing and location history were recently added.
Read our total Screen Fourth dimension review .
ESET Parental Control for Android sticks to a single platform, but it doesn't shine fifty-fifty there, lacking text-bulletin- and call-monitoring (and number blocking) features and implementing clunky controls on what it does take.
The app management and time management you receive with the gratuitous version of ESET Parental Control for Android do work well, as do the location tracking and geofencing y'all'll get if you lot pay for a subscription. (In that location'southward a 14-day gratis trial, plus steep discounts for multiyear plans.) And we liked the feature that lets a kid ship an SOS bulletin to designated phones with a single tap.
Yet, the $30 yearly program is non worth shelling out for unless y'all become it bundled with ESET Smart Security Premium. That's because Kaspersky Safe Kids does more ESET Parental Control for Android on four times equally many platforms and at half the price.
Read our full ESET Parental Control for Android review .
MMGuardian has nearly every parental-control characteristic you might want on Android phones, including the ability to log, cake and read text messages, and log and block calls.
It'south also the merely app we know of that can still read texts and messages on iOS, although it tin't cake them, thanks to Mac and PC software that combs through an iPhone's backups.
Just 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.
Fourth dimension management and screen-time scheduling are Android-only, and the split up MMGuardian app for Android tablets has no location tracking.
On iOS, MMGuardian'southward app direction is primitive, and in that location is no telephone call blocking. But if you're actually interested in what your child is texting, especially on iOS, then MMGuardian is worth considering.
Read our full MMGuardian review .
How to choose the best parental command app for y'all
What yous need from a parental-control service mainly depends on how onetime your kids are. If you lot're the parent of children nether 12, you admittedly want to exist able to cake objectionable websites, but you might besides consider an app that's available on Amazon Burn tablets.
If you've got teenagers, y'all might want to let them take a look at objectionable things online, but simply if you're aware of it. You might also desire to see whom your teens are talking to in messenger apps, and to come across where they are late on a Friday dark. And y'all might want to consider a service that monitors your kids' Windows and Mac devices besides as their smartphones.
The all-time 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 telephone leaves a designated "safe" area like school or a relative's house. Most of these apps let you monitor your child'south telephone from a desktop reckoner web interface as well every bit your ain smartphone.
A couple of these apps let you block and log the calls and texts a kid makes and receives, and even read a child'southward text letters, but they crave extra steps to exercise so. But none lets you listen in on a phone call, because that's illegal.
Meet the chart below for what each of our reviewed parental control apps offers.
Feature comparing chart
| Feature (bold = gratuitous) | ESET Parental Control for Android | Google Family Link | Kaspersky Safe Kids | MMGuardian | Net Nanny | Norton Family | OurPact | Qustodio | Screen Fourth dimension |
| Price | Free to $thirty/year | Gratuitous | Free to $15/year | Up to $70/yr | Free to $ninety/yr | $l/year | Gratis to $84/year | Free to $138/year | Free to $40/year |
| Number of devices | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 to five | i to 20 | Unlimited | 1 to xx | i to 15 | one to 5 |
| Platforms | Android | Android | Android, iOS, Windows, Mac | Android, iOS | Android, iOS, Kindle Burn down, Windows | Android, iOS, Windows | Android, iOS | Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, Windows, Mac, Chrome Os | Android, iOS |
| Web portal for parents | Yes | Yes | Yeah | Yes | Yes | Yeah | Yes | Yep | Yes |
| Phone call logging | None | None | None | None | None | None | None | Android simply | None |
| Text logging | None | None | None | Yes | None | None | None | Android but | None |
| Text content | None | None | None | Yes | None | None | None | Android only | None |
| Call blocking | None | None | None | Android only | None | None | None | Android only | None |
| Text blocking | None | None | None | Android simply | None | None | None | Android merely | None |
| Geofencing | Aye | None | Yes | None | None | Yes | Aye | Yes | Yes, extra fee |
| Location tracking | Yes | Yeah | Yes | Yes | Yep | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yeah, extra fee |
| Location history | Yes | Yes | None | Android only | Yep | Yes | None | Aye | Yes, extra fee |
| Spider web monitoring | Yes | Yeah | Yeah | Yep | Yeah | Yes | None | Yes | Yes |
| Web filter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yep | Actress fee, Android only |
| Time limits | Yeah | Aye | Yes | Android merely | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (limited on iOS) | Yep | Aye | Aye | Yes | Yes |
| App management | Yes | Yes | Yeah (express on iOS) | Android merely | Yes (limited on iOS) | Android just | Aye | Yeah | Yes, Android simply |
| App blocker | Yes | Yep | Yes (limited on iOS) | Yes (express on iOS) | Yes | Android just | Yes | Yes | Android only |
How we test and rate the best parental control apps
Evaluation criteria
We focused on parental command apps that emphasize proactively setting upwards filters and limits earlier your child uses the telephone rather than merely tracking activities after the fact. We took the following criteria into business relationship.
- Price: What is the cost of the service and how many children and devices are covered?
- Installation: How easy is it to install and configure the app across each device?
- App management: What level of control does the app provide regarding the monitoring, blocking, or restriction of app usage? Does the app permit you lot encounter all the other apps on the child'south device?
- Filtering: What kind of filtering tools does each app offer? How effectively does the app filter out content that you deem inappropriate?
- Time management: What kind of tools does the app provide for restricting the amount of time your child spends on his or her device(south)?
- Texting and messaging direction: Does the app allow y'all encounter the content of your child's text messages? Can y'all create rules for, or block specific contacts? Are y'all notified of new contacts? Does the control extend beyond the built-in messaging apps? Can yous block messaging apps altogether?
- Location tracking: Does the app let you notice your child in an emergency? Does it log of their previous locations? Does the app let you create geofenced areas?
Our nearly contempo testing was done on a Lenovo Yoga C940 running Windows x, a Google Pixel 4XL running Android 11, and an iPhone 12 running iOS 14.2.
Nosotros tested each app on every platform that it supported twice, from installation to uninstall. We typically monitored action from the Lenovo Yoga C940, but for apps that offered control from a smartphone app nosotros tested those features typically from an iPhone.
The best Android parental-control apps remain considerably more robust than their iOS counterparts in most cases, with only OurPact offering feature parity amongst those apps that we tested.
Nosotros note areas in which there are discrepancies in the functionality offered on each platform, but we are not providing singled-out ratings and reviews for the iOS versus the Android version of each app.
With regard to call and text monitoring, Apple tree and Google take fabricated it nearly impossible for any app to practice so. Qustodio gets around this past offering a special version of the Android app that users tin can sideload; MMGuardian replaces the standard SMS app with its own on Android, and uses PCs or Macs to rummage through phone backups on iOS.
- The best VPNs to keep your online transmissions private
- Best antivirus software to protect your PCs
Brian S. Hall contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-parental-control-apps,review-2258.html
Posted by: morriscouttepore1968.blogspot.com
0 Response to "The best parental control apps for Android and iPhone 2022"
Post a Comment