Parental control Android apps

Setting the phone usage limits and keeping your children safe is the most important responsibility of every parent. Controlling your children's activities over the internet is not always easy, but there are different tools available in the market, which makes the task less difficult.

A parental control app is an application which can be installed onto your children's devices such as smartphones, tablets, or computers to monitor and protect them from unusual activities. The parental control apps give you remote access to that device on which it gets installed. You can control, manage or block some features that can affect your children's safety and digital well-being.

Basic features provided by parental control apps

The feature of parental control apps will depend on the application you are using or going to use. However, there are lots of basic features that are provided by most of these parental control applications. For example, many parental control apps allow you to monitor all internet activity happening through the device. It may include the browsing history, download history, and the websites they are visiting over the device.

Other more crucial services that such apps offer you to block certain applications on the device. They also let you customize the time limit to restrict the amount that your children can access an app. Some parental control apps provide you with up-to-date information about using the device and apps installed on it.

Some other apps will even let you track the device's real-time GPS location, giving their exact location to you when they are out and about playing with their friends.

Best parental control apps for Android

• Kaspersky Safe Kids
• ESET Parental Control Android
• Qustodio
• Family Time
• Norton Family Parental Control
• Net Nanny
• Screen Time Parental Control App
• OurPact
• ScreenLimit
• mSpy

Kaspersky Safe Kids

Kaspersky Safe Kids is one of the leading apps as a digital monitoring service provider. The app is designed with features that keep your child safe in real-time. It includes several free tools containing online content filtering, app usage control, and device screen management. The app also contains a GPS location tracking and geo-fencing feature that alerts them while going out of mentioned range. Kaspersky Safe Kids app automatically blocks all bad and harmful content.

Some of its features are not included in the free version, like set time limit and specific schedules for internet and app use; you have to upgrade to its premium version.

Features

• Track real-time GPS location of kids (device) at any time.
• Parents can see all device usage times and also add custom device blocks.
• It automatically allows customization to block internet content.

ESET Parental Control Android

ESET has an excellent parental control app for Android devices. The app offers several features that allow you to see how your children are using the web and set limits if you find something wrong they are accessing. App's free version gives the feature to block apps, web guards, set time limits on games, and several basic reports. To access the app's advanced features like website blocking, real-time GPS location tracking, parental messaging, and lots more, including what kids are doing, you need to upgrade to its premium version. The parental messaging feature is a smart idea. It allows you to send a message that your kid needs to answer before using their phone.

Features

• It gives full control over the application access on the kid's device.
• It facilitates custom and automatic web guard and internet content access filters.
• Parents can check their child's current location anytime with GPS location tracking.
• Provide a geofencing feature that notifies you when kids enter that restricted area.

Qustodio

Qustodio is a user-friendly and excellent parental control app to set healthy digital boundaries for kids in different ways. Its intuitive dashboard lets you view all the recent activities performed on a smartphone, including time spent on specific services. The application allows filtering certain websites, setting time limits, and blocking any apps and games on the device. There is an SOS panic button, which your kids can use if they are in difficulties. This feature instantly sends you a location-based alert with a single click. It also includes a real-time GPS location tracking feature.

Pros

• It offers tons of feature sets.
• It also monitors Macs, PCs, and Amazon Fire tablets.
• It has a powerful call, text monitoring on Android.

Cons

• Expensive
• SOS panic feature is only available on Android.

Family Time

Family Time parental control app does everything to protect and monitor your children from accessing unwanted content on phones and apps. Using this app, you can effectively customize what content your kids can access on their smartphones. The app allows time limits to access the particular app, set screen time, track real-time GPS location, and more. There are also features to set homework and bedtime, or set the total time limit for your kids' maximum spend on their phones. In addition, you can apply internet filters, block and control the use of each app, supervise calls and texts. The app also contains a geofencing feature that alerts you when they (phone) enter or leave the mentioned range.

Features

• It has a unique bedtime feature that blocks the nighttime access of the device.
• Facilitate to customize time limits on device access.
• Feature to schedule homework time.
• Track current location using GPS feature and also set geo-fencing area.
• Allows blocking and unblocking installed applications on the device.

Norton Family Parental Control

Norton Family Parental Control is a multi-device app that offers various tools to keep your kids safe in the digital world. It protects your kids whether they are at home or out using their smartphones. Norton Family Premier is an application program that restricts and monitors your kid's online activities. The application provides tons of features to parents and makes them easy to use and manage all such options with its user-friendly interface.

Features

• Excellent online web and device time monitoring.
• Set up online content blocking filters as per requirement.
• Track real-time GPS location.
• Monitor all online activities, including social network platforms.
• Monitor all calls and text messages.

Net Nanny

Net Nanny is one of the best parental control apps that work on multi-platform devices. It offers great web content filtering technology with an intuitive interface. One of its best features is its friendly family feed that helps you to monitor your complete family's online activities from a single place. The app also tracks kid's real-time GPS location and tracks their location history. In addition, it allows you to view your kid's app usage and online search content. It also gives instant alerts when it detects and even blocks your kids from viewing content related to drugs, suicide, and other mature content. This app is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.

Pros

• Great design with simple and easy setup.
• Great web content filtering.
• Capable screen time options.

Cons

• There are no call and text monitoring options.
• Quite expensive.

Screen Time Parental Control App

Screen Time parental control app is particularly designed for Android smartphones and tablets. It performs a nice job in managing and scheduling a child's device accessing. The app helps restrict fun activities and allows you to control several statistics tools to make the right decisions. It also offers features to set screen time schedules, track real-time GPS location, and web filters. However, it lacks call and text monitoring features.

Features

• Gives the facility to control the complete screen with start, pause, stop, swap, and schedule options.
• It gives daily and weekly schedule options for web filtering.
• Contains email notification and edit warnings features.
• Personal avatar system to keep the kids busy.

OurPact

OurPact is a popular parental control app designed for iOS, but it is also compatible with Android smartphones. This user-friendly app provides many options and services to keep an eye on kid's mobile devices. Parents can access a wide range of monitoring and management tools, including text message and app blocking, website filtering, and schedule screen time. It includes a geo-fencing feature through which you can instantly get an alert if your kids go beyond the set range and facilitate tracking them.

Pros

• Instant notification and alerts.
• Gets kids actively involved.

Cons

• It has limited web filters.

ScreenLimit

As the name indicates, ScreenLimit is a parental control app for Android, including other platforms, smartphones, and tablets. It helps you to manage the screen time of your child's device. Using the ScreenLimit app, you can set up and configure the device screen in such a way that makes it an enjoyable process for your kids. This app contains features that quickly block or unblock any app and website. The device on which it gets installed displays a countdown timer to see how much time is left for use.

Features

• This app supports cross-platform.
• Allows setting up custom times and schedules for device use.
• It displays a countdown timer on the screen to see how much time is remaining.
• Instantly block and unblock any app and web pages.
• Contain remote message send feature.

mSpy Parental Control App

mSpy parental control app is mostly used as a text tracker app on a kid's phone. It offers three different levels of packages, so you can choose the level of security and protection you need for your child. At the highest level, a parent can access screenshots of their kid's activity on the device. Parents can also monitor kids' call details, text and email messages, apps, videos they are using, and even track their real-time GPS location.

Features

• It offers a geofencing feature to create a safe zone for kids, and when they go beyond setup range, you will get an alert notification.
• The Keylogging feature allows parents to see what their children are accessing on their smartphones.
• Allows filtering websites, blocking and unblocking apps that kids can visit.
• Allows browser history monitoring.