Thanks to the advent in technology, even the kids own smartphones today. Facts indicate that 56% of children between the ages of eight and 12 own a cellphone. 91% of teenagers ranging from 13 to 17 years have or can occasionally access the internet via smartphones or other available mobile devices. In this regard, the current kids have gone digital and can spend hours on their smartphones.
Parents, therefore, find it hard to control their kids as the internet gets loaded with lots of information that can impact them both negatively and positively. To ensure your kid get always focused on the positive stuff on his/her smartphone, you need to get a reliable smartphone app designated for parents. You could be wondering about the useful parental apps for parents. Then you may need to continue reading to grasp some insight.
You may get concerned about the price of valuable parental apps to use on your kid’s smartphone. The most amazing fact is that some smartphones come with useful free parental controls. It is therefore not a must to spend your hard earned money on buying one. For example:
- Parental controls from Amazon
- Apple parental controls
- Family Link from Google
But kids and smartphones are inseparable, and you may need to track them and control their activities in their phones. As a result, you may need to spend in acquiring a useful smartphone app tailored for parents. But you need to understand the qualities of an excellent parental app before purchasing one. You may not be familiar with them, but you need not fret; they include the following:
- Give various options on limiting time spent on smartphones or other mobile devices.
- Help in tracking the location and usage
- Block games or apps
With this in mind, you can never go wrong in choosing reliable parental apps. But the following smartphone apps for parents are useful and rank high on the market today.
The Best Smartphone Parental Apps Today
1. Net Nanny
It also gets known as Zift and comes with a current intuitive design. If you are looking for an app with great technology in web-filtering, then Net Nanny got designed for you. What’s interesting is its equality in quality between its both Android and iOS versions. More so, the recent changes in Apple policy did not affect its iOS abilities. Amazingly, this app does the following:
- Track your kid’s location
- Display your child’s location history
- Setting schedules and time allowances equally on both iOS and Android versions.
- On the iOS version, only some apps get blocked while the Android version blocks them all.
Despite the app’s many advantages, Net Nanny does not allow you to monitor all your child’s texts and calls.
2. Norton Family Premier
Are you interested in an app ideal for Android? Then your search ends here. Norton Family Premier not only useful in many households’ devices and smartphones for kids but also Windows. Its package features will not only blow your mind away but are also everything that any parent could want. The app does the following on both Android and iOS:
- Tracks location
- Schedules time
- Filters the web
- Monitors your child’s ability
But on Android and Windows, Norton Family Premier sets time allowances. If you want to monitor your child’s text messages as you manage the app, then you may require to use an Android phone as this app does not offer these services on iOS. Also, you don’t get to geofence on either platform while using this app.
3. Kaspersky Safe Kids
Do you own a Mac or PC? Unlike other parental apps, Kaspersky Safe Kids gets used on these two devices and smartphones. If you decide to go for the free version, you get to:
- Set time limits
- Manage other apps
- Filter websites
But in both Android and iOS versions, you get to enjoy:
- Geofencing work
- Device scheduling
- Location tracking
- Web monitoring
Though you cannot monitor your kid’s texts and calls on iOS, you get to enjoy the app management on this platform.
But managing kids and smartphones is easier compared to teens and cell phones. Fortunately, there exist many ways on how to control your teen’s activities on his or her cell phone. Are you wondering how? They include the following:
- Inform your teen about his or her smartphone security. Insist on the risks involved and how to prevent them.
- Let your teens understand about data use and rates.
- Limit the use of your teens’ app store access to reduce expenses
- Set time when your teen can use his or her cell phone.
Conclusion
In modern times, kids and smartphones, or teens and cell phones are inseparable. But the above parental apps and measures will help you control their activities.
