Top pc monitoring software for parents
We liked its location tracking and geofencing feature. We also liked its screen time limits, restricted time scheduling and reporting configuration options. Its web filtering and website, game and app blocking features were robust. The thoughtfully designed web interface and dashboard made Qustodio Premium Basic easy to navigate, set up and configure. Qustodio Premium Basic (formerly, Premium Small) was a close second to our winner Kaspersky Safe Kids due to Qustodio’s degree of user-friendliness and overall strong feature set, including geofencing. $55 per year (billed annually) for 5 managed devices at Qustodio Alyson Behr/CNN Underscored Qustodio Premium Basic Qustodio Premium Basic's browser-based dashboard's web filtering options are easy to configure. We then analyzed each one’s application download control and screen time customization options.įinally, since not all threats are online, we also checked out location tracking and speed tracking, plus their geofencing capabilities and incoming call controls. This was followed by looking at all things related to web use, including social media monitoring, internet searches, viewing and blocking. We then scrutinized their text and email monitoring capabilities. Then we focused on ease of use, which also included dashboard layouts and reporting features because complexity leads to frustration - and the best tools are the ones you’ll actually use. We first focused on ease of installation and setup. We tested each of them with the following criteria in mind: ease of installation and setup, ease of use, design and features offered. We spent five weeks - one week per app - testing each app. We downloaded each app to our smartphone and laptop. To start testing, we first created an account with each app and initiated the sign-up process. Since we used a MacBook Pro laptop running MacOS Monterey version 12 and a recent-release iPhone as our testing platform, we made sure all five apps we tested could run on at least iOS devices. We selected our five candidates and made sure they were all the paid versions. Related article Best cloud storage apps in 2024, tested by our editorsĭuring our pre-testing research, we found there are many different parental control apps available.
Remind your teen that social media is full of unrealistic images.Īs the Mayo Clinic adds, “if you think your teen is experiencing signs or symptoms of anxiety or depression related to social media use, talk to your child’s health care provider.”
Ask your teen how he or she is using social media and how it makes him or her feel. This is particularly important for teens vulnerable to social anxiety disorder. Encourage face-to-face contact with friends.Talk to your teen about what is appropriate and safe to share on social media. Discourage your teen from gossiping, spreading rumors, bullying or damaging someone’s reputation - online or otherwise. You might aim to do so once a week or more. Let your teen know that you’ll be regularly checking his or her social media accounts. Set an example by following these rules yourself. Encourage a bedtime routine that avoids electronic media use, and keep cell phones and tablets out of teens’ bedrooms. Talk to your teen about how to avoid letting social media interfere with his or her activities, sleep, meals or homework. When all our testing was done, we found that Kaspersky Safe Kids emerged as the cream of the crop due, in part, to its ability to integrate other security services.īest parental control app: Kaspersky Safe Kids We tested Kaspersky Safe Kids, Mobicip Premium, Net Nanny, OurPact Premium+ and Qustodio Premium Small. To find out which parental control app is the best to use, we tested out five of these apps over the course of five weeks. According to a Pew Research Center survey of US teens conducted in May 2022, 62% of the teens responded that “people being able to feel welcome and safe online is more important than people being able to speak their minds freely online.” As parents, one way to help keep your children safe online is to keep track of their online habits, communications and location by downloading a parental control app onto their smartphones, tablets and other devices. It’s harder than ever to keep your kids safe online, especially since children and teens today spend a large amount of their time online.īut kids want and need to feel protected. Online activity can be riddled with cyberbullying from peers and dangers from interacting with strangers. The bad news is that not everything to discover is suitable for them. The cool thing about the internet is that there’s so much for your kids to discover on it. Your CNN account Log in to your CNN account