Best Parental Control Apps

Are you worried about the cell phone obsession of your teens? Is this annoying to find your younger children keep typing or watching something on their smartphones? Well, this is somewhat almost every parent face in this digital age. The widespread adoption of mobile phone and the internet technology has made the generation gap between millennial parents and post-millennial kids even wider. While the technological development has provided humans with more convenience, it has made parenting more challenging. The young digital citizens are more likely to face some horrible experiences. There are bullies, child predators, scammers, cat-fishers, sex offenders, pedophiles and scoundrels in hunt for adolescents.

The digital world has put extra burden on parents by enhancing their responsibilities and threats to their kids. Today, you are not just required to provide your kids with the latest smartphones but you are also responsible to make sure they use their phones securely and responsibly. However, you cannot always be there to supervise and protect them. Fortunately, there are monitoring and parental control apps that do the things for you. Read on to know about the most advanced and powerful parental control apps of the year that help you keep your kiddos secure in both real and digital world.

What are Parental Control Apps?

In general terms, parental control apps are mobile phone applications that are intended for parents to monitor, manage and limit the cell phone use of children. There are innumerable parental and monitoring apps rightly available on Google Play Store, Apple App Store and third party sources. Once you install a surveillance app on the mobile phone of your kiddo, you can take over the targeted cell phone to some extent. For example, you can choose which apps your kids should use or not. What type of content they should expose to and what not. How much time they should spend on their mobile phones screens? All this and many other things have become possible with the development of cell phone monitoring and parental control apps.

The main features of parental control apps include:

1. Content Filtering: These apps allow parents to block or filter inappropriate content such as websites, apps, or specific types of media.
2. Screen Time Management: Parents can set limits on the amount of time their children spend on devices. This feature helps in preventing excessive screen time and encourages a healthy balance between online and offline activities.
3. App and Game Restrictions: Parents can control which apps and games their children can access or download, ensuring that they are age-appropriate.
4. Location Tracking: Some parental control apps include GPS tracking features to help parents know the location of their children.
5. Social Media Monitoring: Parents can receive alerts or reports on their children’s social media activities, messages, and friend lists.
6. Remote Control: Many parental control apps offer remote management, allowing parents to make adjustments or monitor their children’s devices from a distance.
7. Usage Reports and Alerts: Parents can receive reports on their children’s online activities, including websites visited, apps used, and more. They may also receive alerts for specific activities or when predefined limits are exceeded.
8. Safe Search: Enabling safe search options ensures that search engine results are filtered to exclude explicit or inappropriate content.

Parental control apps can provide peace of mind to parents, helping them guide their children’s digital experiences and protect them from potentially harmful online content.

Best Parental Control Apps

We have reviewed several monitoring and parental control apps to help parents get the best application to keep the cell phone activities of kids under surveillance. While there are many popular names like Net Nanny, Norton and TheOneSpy, the short review of all these parental control apps can help the most appropriate software for child monitoring.

Read on to know which applications are on our list of best parental control apps in 2024.

Kaspersky Safe Kids: Empowering Parents for Safer Digital Exploration

Kaspersky Safe Kids emerges as a reliable and value-driven solution, designed to empower parents in navigating their children’s digital experiences.

Kaspersky Safe Kids strikes a balance between affordability and rich features, making it the best value parental control app. With a nominal yearly subscription fee, it offers a comprehensive suite of tools to ensure your child’s digital safety on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac.

Versatility is key in the digital age, and Kaspersky Safe Kids understands this. It extends its protective umbrella across various platforms, providing seamless monitoring and control on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac devices. This ensures a consistent and unified approach to parental oversight.

Kaspersky Safe Kids goes the extra mile by offering specific YouTube-related features. Parents can review YouTube search history, block specific types of searches, and exercise additional control over YouTube content. This ensures a tailored and safe video streaming experience for children.

Kaspersky Safe Kids benefits from the renowned cybersecurity expertise of Kaspersky Lab. With a history of delivering top-notch security solutions, Kaspersky Safe Kids inherits the legacy of award-winning protection, instilling confidence in parents regarding the app’s efficacy.

In conclusion, Kaspersky Safe Kids emerges as a cost-effective and feature-rich parental control app, providing a comprehensive toolkit for parents to navigate the digital landscape with confidence. From location tracking to content filtering, Kaspersky Safe Kids empowers parents to foster a secure and responsible online environment for their children.

Qustodio: Elevating Parental Control for Modern Families

In today’s digital age, safeguarding your child’s online experience is crucial, and Qustodio emerges as a leading solution, offering a suite of robust features.

1. Multi-Platform Coverage: Qustodio goes beyond the basics, providing comprehensive support for iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire tablets, Macs, PCs, and Chromebooks. This ensures a consistent and unified approach to parental control across a variety of platforms.

2. Location Tracking and Family Locator: Ensure your child’s safety with Qustodio’s location tracking feature. Stay connected with real-time location updates and leverage the Family Locator to monitor the whereabouts of multiple children simultaneously.

3. Call and Text Monitoring (Android): Qustodio sets itself apart by offering call and text monitoring capabilities on Android devices. Gain insights into your child’s communication, fostering a safer and more transparent online environment.

4. App and Device Time Management: Promote a healthy balance between screen time and other activities by leveraging Qustodio’s app and device time management features. Set limits for individual apps and devices, instilling responsible digital habits.

5. Web Content Filtering: Create a secure online environment with Qustodio’s advanced web content filtering. Tailor internet access based on your family values and your child’s age, ensuring a safe browsing experience.

6. Geofencing for Added Security: Implement geofencing to receive alerts when your child’s device enters or exits predefined safe zones. Qustodio’s geofencing feature adds an extra layer of security and awareness for parents.

7. Screen Time Monitoring and Alerts: Stay informed about your child’s screen time habits with Qustodio’s screen time monitoring. Receive alerts and notifications, allowing proactive management of excessive screen time or potential concerns.

8. Text Content Monitoring (Android): On Android devices, Qustodio provides an additional layer of oversight by allowing parents to view the content of text messages. Enhance your awareness of your child’s digital communications.

9. Comprehensive Application Management: Manage around 6,000 apps on iOS and all Android apps with Qustodio. This feature ensures parents have granular control over the applications their child can access, contributing to a safer digital environment.

10. Flexible Time Scheduling: Facilitate effective time management with Qustodio’s flexible scheduling feature. Set specific time periods for device usage, enabling parents to enforce balanced screen time for their children.

In summary, Qustodio sets the standard for modern parental control with its wide-ranging features. From location tracking to content filtering, Qustodio empowers parents to guide their children’s digital experiences responsibly and proactively.

TheOneSpy Parental Control Monitoring App 

The cell phone monitoring app is one of the most advanced and feature-rich monitoring and parental control application. It is a cross-platform app that is compatible with mobile phones and computers running different operating systems including, Android, iOS, Mac and Windows. The surveillance app enables parents to monitor and manage the mobile phones of their children remaining anywhere in the world. Once you install the software on the targeted device, you do not need to access it again to get the cell phone activities observed. 

The spy app lets you monitor messages, calls, contacts, social media apps, instant messaging apps, internet browsing history, emails, keystrokes, photos, videos and audios stored on the monitored device. Moreover, the high-tech features of the spy app allow you to monitor real-life activities of your kids by monitoring the surroundings of the target devices. This cutting-edge parental control app can be subscribed for a specific period paying a reasonable price.

Net Nanny: Unrivaled Parental Control for a Safer Digital Experience

Net Nanny stands out as a beacon of comprehensive parental control, ensuring your child’s online safety. As the top-rated parental control app, Net Nanny combines an intuitive interface, advanced web filtering, and consistent performance across iOS and Android devices.

Net Nanny boasts a modern and user-friendly interface, making it easy for parents to navigate and set up controls. Its intuitive design ensures that you can effortlessly manage your child’s online activities without a steep learning curve.

Empower yourself with the ability to monitor and control the apps your child uses. Net Nanny allows you to track more than 100 apps on iOS and all apps on Android. The built-in App Advisor keeps you informed about new apps, ensuring you stay ahead of potential risks.

Net Nanny goes beyond conventional web filtering by offering content screening within popular social media apps and services. Keep a watchful eye on your child’s interactions on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube without impeding their online experience entirely.

One of Net Nanny’s strengths lies in achieving feature parity between its iOS and Android versions. Whether you’re using an iPhone or an Android device, you can expect consistent functionality in location tracking, screen time management, and other crucial features.

In summary, Net Nanny stands tall as the best parental control app, offering a holistic approach to online safety. With its blend of intuitive design, advanced features, and platform consistency, Net Nanny is the trusted ally for parents navigating the complex digital landscape with their children.

Norton family Parental Control App

You might have heard about Norton as a known antivirus and security program. This brand also offers parental control to manage internet use of younger children. You can get the Android and iOS mobile phone devices of your kids installed with Norton parental control app to see which websites they visit frequently. It also restricts kids from exposing to adult-oriented content by blocking inappropriate websites. 

Kaspersky SafeKids

Compatible with Android mobile phones, Kaspersky SafeKids – Kids Mode enables parents to safeguard their kids from the threats prevailing in the digital world. This application lets you manage your kids’ screen time by providing screen time schedules. Moreover, you can monitor internet history of the targeted cell phones and get notifications of suspicious activities performed on the target device.

Qustodio Parental Control App

The cell phone monitoring and parental control app enables parents to monitor online activities of offspring. Compatible with iOS and Android operating system, the tracking app lets you block access to objectionable content on the internet even in private mode. Also, the high-tech application lets you monitor popular social networking apps to supervise the activities performed by your children on specific social media platforms.

Family Time

The Family Time parental control app is one of the most effective cell phone monitoring apps developed for child monitoring. The application lets you monitor and manage the Android cell phones of your kids. You can monitor messages received and sent via target cell phone; find out the exact current location of your kids; prevent them from visiting unsafe areas with geo-fencing; and block unwanted apps. 

mLite Cell Phone Tracking App

mLite is a monitoring application for Android mobile phones and iPhones. The tracking app offers almost all traditional features of spying apps which include message and call monitoring. Parents can monitor all incoming and outgoing messages of their kids and access their call logs. Moreover, the surveillance app lets you locate your children by using the real-time GPS tracker. 

Protect Kid Parental Control App

Basically, this parental control app is developed for parents to manage the screen time of their children. They can choose how much time their kids can spend on their smartphones or tablets. This app can be installed on Android and iOS mobile phone devices in two modes i.e., Kid’s mode and parent’s mode. The first mode can be used to set screen time limit, block age-inappropriate websites and unwanted mobile phone apps. The other mode can be used by parents to remotely monitor the applications used by children on their mobile phones.

Parental Control Board

Last but not the least! Parental Control Board is one of the most credible and efficient monitoring app for Android mobile phones. It enables parents to set time limits for kids’ mobile phone screen exposure. Moreover, the app enables the end-user to remotely monitor messages and phone calls received and made via target phone. The web filtering feature of the app lets you block unwanted apps, annoying mobile phone numbers and access to objectionable stuff available on the internet and unwanted apps. You can also monitor YouTube history of your kids and track their GPS location. 

We hope this article would be helpful in learning the perks of mobile phone parental control apps and picking up the most appropriate app to monitor and manage the smartphones of children without breaking the bank.