Are you worried that your kid might fall into the pitfalls of the internet and social media and end up in adverse situations? Well, there are some useful parental control apps that do not make it intrusive for the kids but ensure they have a safe time on the internet.
From controlling the contents your children watch on the internet to the usage of the phone. You can use the apps to control and monitor your children’s usage patterns and teach them about safety measures. It also helps you as parents to keep track of your children’s browsing history and smell dangers well ahead.
A study suggests most teenagers are exposed to pornography and explicit content on the internet on average by the age of 11 years. This is way too young numbers for kids to get exposed to such content. It is also true, that in most cases they accidentally land on such a website or are sent links to such websites.
Parental control systems can be of great help to keep such content out of reach of children in general. Here are 5 Apps to help you in your errand:
- Family Locator
- YouTube Kids
- Wattpad
- Alfred
- Net Nanny
Use Apps for Safety
Don’t be scared reading the stats and worried about your kids. I have got you covered on all bases with apps that can make all of these work simple and easy. Apart from just controlling and monitoring, I have made sure you working parents have enough resources at your disposal to have a great family time with kids with these 5 Apps for Parents.
From content that can be enjoyed with the whole family to a great collection of stories to sit around and read to fun learning apps. You can use these apps for your kids as well as teens.
Ever worried if your son/daughter made it to the party they had begged to go to or wondered if your kids are back home safe while you were in the office?
I have just the app for you that can help you keep track of your kid’s whereabouts and make sure they are safe. Even grown-ups can find these useful to keep together information about the family and make sure everyone is in a safe place.
Here Are the Top 5 Parental Control Apps You Must Have
These apps are the best 5 Apps for Parents I could find after hours and days of testing a whole lot of apps individually. I hope these apps can be of little support for you in your tough job being a parent.
1. Family Locator
Family locater by Life360 is the best family tracker app I have tested. There are many other apps promising you the same but rarely do they keep their promise. It is one of those apps from which I have little expectation, but it turned out to be surprisingly accurate and helpful.
It saved my Mom from sending me ‘where are you?’ texts or calling me every other hour to know if I reached my Aunt’s place safe. Moreover, it also saved me from redundant and irritating texts that I had to reply to or she would be worried.
This app shows the exact location of your family member or friend whom you have marked as a contact on the map. It is very simple to use and even my Mom got used to it in a few days. It even allows you to add as many people, as you want on the map to get their location.
One of the best apps that made life easier in real-life scenarios. You just need to have any kind of internet connection active on your phone that most of us have today. And the rest is taken care of by GPS technology to send in location information from time to time and alert the one worried.
You can set appointments and locations where your kids are supposed to be on Sunday evening. In addition, if like every parent you were worried if they reached safely, this app would send you an alert as soon as they check in to the set location. Sounds amazing, isn’t it?
This is rather the reality and you even get a free text option to send and receive texts within the circle members set on the app.
How to use it
- Download the app on your phone from here and invite the loved ones you care about
- Ask them to download the same app and accept your invitation to join a circle
- As soon as your family circle member accepts your request, you can see a unique icon displayed on the map with their current location
It is as simple as that and you can even use it to plan a family get-together and parties. Just invite everyone to the app, share the location of your party, and ask them to confirm. Now you can see who is about to reach the location and who needs a follow-up.
You can even send free texts to the invited members for any change or update in the plans. Now there might be a question if your circle member’s phone is a non-smartphone. This app even takes care of this aspect too; you get offline tracking for a small fee. Highly recommended for the safety and security of your family members and for keeping the family together. One of the highly recommended parental control apps to have on your smartphone.
2. YouTube Kids
Though not a kid, I was very excited when it was finally launched. YouTube, in my opinion, is among the most influential medium for the exchange of ideas and entertainment. Internet bills have gotten cheaper than Television subscriptions, and so is YouTube become mainstream media.
It really solves the issue of explicit content that accidentally pop-up while kids watch YouTube. This app is made to make sure kids have safer content that is best for them.
Parents are given full control over the type of content that their kids could watch. I have seen kids getting crazy on YouTube kids, so you also have a timer control to limit the time your kid spent time on the app. YouTube kids are almost like its parent YouTube, where free content is provided but here the focus is kids.
So, you get videos that are suitable for the age group based on the option you choose in the app. The controls are also simple and easier to navigate for the kids, with bigger buttons and an instant full screen.
Now you can be sure your kid is getting quality content for studies as well as entertainment. Popular kid’s shows and learning games are part of it along with songs and games to explore. This app lets your kids get the taste of the fun we grown-ups have without being exposed to explicit content on the web.
Important Settings
You can even turn off the search option and even mark any particular video inappropriate if so it may happen. This is highly unlikely as the automated system of YouTube kids is very advanced and sorts out content on its own. Moreover, you can even stream content over the net using Chromecast or your smart TV to enjoy content with your kids.
One of the most widely used parental control apps on the app store, it provides the kids with a platform that is tailor-made for them. If you are still unaware of this app, be sure to download it from here and introduce your kids to a safer entertainment medium that is under your control.
3. Wattpad
You might have heard about the Wikipedia of books that is free for you. You get tons and tons of free books from top writers in one place and that is too free. Moreover, it is a cross-platform app so you can sync your account and enjoy the book from any device you may like at any time.
It is one of those apps that have the best collection of books that can be enjoyed by kids of any age who can read. Reading is a habit kid must inculcate at a young age and what better than an app that can make them stick to reading in a smart way.
This app is suitable for parents too who are looking for stories to tell to their kids. The only piece of advice is parents need to monitor the type of book their kids are reading and thus make sure they read only the best.
The app has a 12+ years rating so it is most suitable for teenagers. It gives them a smarter way to get to reading books rather than spending time playing games or watching YouTube. For the kids to explore their creative side and their storytelling abilities.
This app has a very active community where you can write your own book or story. All in all a very handy and useful app for teenagers to get a lot of quality books and make books for their best friends. Do check this app from here and make your kids get into the habit of reading in a smarter way.
4. Alfred
Alfred is one of those baby-monitoring apps that allow you to use your older device as a monitoring camera. You can get a lot out of this based on your purpose and make sure you have an eye always even while away. It is perfect for working parents who want to keep a look at their kids through a baby monitoring app. This app does work and has good ratings on the app store.
The only point to remember is to have a good connection to get the alerts quickly and easily. Using this requires no installation or configuration, just use your Gmail to pair two phones with cameras and you are good to go. You can use both cameras of your monitoring phone along with a remote button to turn the flash on/off.
It even sends in live feeds, but that would require a fast internet connection.
Alfred comes with a motion detector to send you an alert each time someone crosses the camera lens. It even allows you to use the microphone built in the app to communicate with anyone you notice trespassing inside your house. Try this app and I think it will surprise you with the functionality it provides. Download the app here and try it.
5. Net Nanny
Every parent must have this app for the safety of their kids and keep a check on their internet usage. You never know what the kids are looking for on the web or what cyber attackers expose to them. As I quoted earlier, many kids are exposed to pornography and other such explicit content by other older kids or pop-ups.
I highly recommend this app to have on your PC as well as on your smartphone. It can prevent access to content that you don’t want kids to be exposed to young age.
Net Nanny is a family filter that is well known for its robustness. It has the ability to scan a whole webpage to detect explicit content. Its newly launched android application is really great and I am not paid to say this. It is one of the most versatile parental control apps that has many features that most other apps lack or somehow do not function as expected.
Benefits of the NetNanny that Sets it Apart
You can set custom filters for apps and websites to be accessible to the kids. It even allows you to set a timer on the apps to let the apps close after a certain limit. Kids do not waste time on an app.
You can create various profiles for kids of different ages allowing you to be sure your younger kid doesn’t access the internet using the older brother’s profile.
You can monitor your kids’ activities online and make sure where they are spending more time. In addition, you can even monitor their social media to know if they are not befriending some older guys online.
You can manage up to 15 devices using their tool for PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.
It comes at a price tag of $44.99/year for 5 devices up to $102.85/year for 15 devices. This is one of the best parental control apps in the market if not the best. The price is reasonable for the safety and security it provides to parents.
Start Using These Parental Controls Apps Today
I hope this guide was helpful for you to make sure your kids are safe on the internet. Let me know in the comments below about your experience using these apps.
Do share these 5 Parental Control Apps with your fellow parent’s friends or family to help them keep their kids safe online.
