The internet is sure a fun place to be, and who uses it often none other than our own kids. Kids nowadays tend to spend a lot of their time online, certainly more than their parents. And now with the exponentially increasing trend of social media, their hands are even more glued to their phones.
This presents a big problem as there’s so much content out there that’s not suitable for your kids. Plus, the danger of cybersecurity risks is making parents even more worried about their kids’ online activities.
Fortunately, there are parental control apps that parents may use to monitor their kids while preventing access to certain websites.
Best Internet Safety Software for Kids
Looking at how much internet safety software their is could be quite overwhelming for most parents who desire the best tool. So, to make it simpler, we’ve already prepared the 10 best internet safety software for parents to monitor their kids.
1. Qustodio
The first one on the list is Qustodio. For every parent who really worries about their kids’ opening websites related to pornography or other harmful things, Qustodio is a fitting software. It has everything you need from website content filtering, and browsing activity log, to app blocking.
So, if you found out that your kids have been using an app pretty excessively, you can use the app-blocking function.
Other than that, people love Qustodio for how easy it is. Any user will find it easy to navigate around everything. Plus, the dashboard is looking pretty clean and complete with lists of websites or apps the parents can control and monitor.
Although the plans can be quite expensive, the features and tools provided are worth the spending.
Features:
- Qustodio has a panic button, which is only usable on Android
- Call and SMS monitoring
- Support for various devices, including desktops.
2. mSpy
If you want to find parental control software that supports both iOs and Android, mSpy is the one you need. It’s one of the best software for not only monitoring your kids’ online activities but also their locations.
mSpy has a feature called geo-tagging, which will detect their location, and also notify you when they’re leaving the set zone. For example, if your kid is going somewhere after school, you’ll be notified the moment they leave the school area. Other than that, mSpy has pretty solid tools to protect your kids from internet dangers, like call monitoring, social media monitoring, and restricted word detection.
Features:
- Supports Android and iOS
- Location tracking with GPS
- Call monitoring
- SMS monitoring
- Social media monitoring
- Restricted word detection.
3. FamiSafe
The next one is FamiSafe, one of the best kids monitoring software on PC. FamiSafe offers more functionality for parents who are worried that their kids might open websites that have content related to pornography.
With Famisafe, parents can track their kids’ browsing history, and also prevent them to visit any websites or apps related to pornography and adultery. Thanks to the easiness of installation, parents can easily track this vital information right from the dashboard.
What’s interesting is that Famisafe offers a limited screen time feature for kids that are addicted to playing games on their computers. So by setting the screen time, parents may effectively reduce their addiction.
As for the devices supported, Famisafe supports not only desktops, but also other devices, including Android, iOS, and even Chromebooks. Parents can get the full service for a price, with 3 days of free trial.
Features:
- FamiSafe will make daily reports about the computer’s activity
- Able to set screentime for the PC
- Tracking browser history, including the ones visited in Incognito
- App restriction
4. Bark
Another great option we want to recommend is Bark. This software has been known to be one of the best for so long, although it’s not something we could consider affordable. Within its plans, Bark does offer so many features for parents, including the monitoring of calls, text messages, social media accounts, screen time control, and many more.
You may also protect the kids from visiting those dangerous websites by completely blocking access. The same thing can also be done with those pornographic apps. A unique feature Bark offers is the alert function when your kids are trapped in dangerous situations online, or when they are showing signs of depression.
These notifications are given in the hope that the parents may take immediate actions for their kids’ actual condition that’s often hidden.
Features:
- Call monitoring
- Text messages monitoring
- Online chats monitoring
- Social media activities monitoring
- Location tracking
- Website or app blocking
- Supports more than 30 software
- Real-time alerts of cyberbullying or depression signs.
5. Canopy
If you desire parental control software that’s more modern, we highly recommend using Canopy. Unlike most software we mentioned above, Canopy doesn’t have a feature to monitor calls and text messages. Why? Because kids don’t use them anymore.
And it’s actually in accordance with the reality as kids are using online chatting apps and their social media accounts more to socialize with each other. Seeing this condition, Canopy offers features to monitor their online activities in these mediums.
Parents can also limit certain access to websites and apps. They can even set which apps or software that can and can’t be used by their kids. Also, when their kids are trying to download or remove a certain app from their phones, parents will also be notified about it.
Canopy also lets parents review any file download on their kids’ phones. If their kids downloaded an image from the internet, the parents will know about it first. For those interested, Canopy is a plan-based service that can be obtained starting from $7.99 a month.
Features:
- Social media activity tracking
- Website and app blocking
- Website analysis that runs in real-time
- Downloaded file review
- Apps and games blocking.
6. Life360
Life360 is more like a location tracker rather than software for monitoring. While it doesn’t offer a complete set of monitoring services as many other parental control software have offered, Life360 shines in its location-tracking functions.
It offers detailed features to track your kids’ location, including keeping an eye on them when they’re driving and having a report when something bad happens to them. So if your kid told you that they’re going somewhere, you can track their location until they reach the destination. The complete detail about the trip is sure very relieving for any parent.
Parents may have the features of Life360 by either going for the free version or the premium. In the free version, features are limited. With more advanced plans, you’ll get more useful features. For example, location history for 30 days, SOS alerts, location alerts, driver reports, emergency dispatch, roadside assistance, and many more.
All these features can be applied to an unlimited number of family members. So you subscribe to one plan, and you’ll get it for all. The installation is also pretty simple. All the parents need to do is install this app on their kids’ phones, and they may start tracking their locations right away.
Features:
- Crash detection and SOS alerts, even in the free plan
- When the car reaches the destination, parents will be notified
- Multiple functionalities to help the kids immediately if a crash happened.
7. Net Nanny
Knowing what your kids open on the internet is sure helpful to give you an insight into what your kids were doing online. However, Net Nanny offers something better than just checking the browser history.
Net Nanny is able to track the kids’ location in real time, keeping the parents informed about their whereabouts. Other than that, this software also allows parents to set certain rules for specific websites and apps. They may choose which ones are considered harmful and risky and put them into the “blocked” categories.
There’s also updated information about the kids’ online activities, so the parents can see them directly in real-time. Although Net Nany can’t monitor any going or coming text messages and calls, it does have a feature to check the social media and YouTube browsing history.
Features:
- Social media monitoring
- YouTube monitoring
- Real-time online activity monitoring
- Blocking certain apps or websites
- Location-tracking in real-time.
8. Google Family Link
There’s also a great option for parents who are looking for free parental control software that works well. It’s Google Family Link, a free service from Google to monitor your kids’ online activities. Google Family Link is pretty cost-effective as it doesn’t require parents to pay for anything. And other than that, it’s a very functional monitoring software.
Now, to start using it, parents need to prepare a Google account for their kids if they don’t have it. After connecting it to Google Family Link, the monitoring process will run almost immediately.
However, please note that Google Family Link can’t offer premium services like content blocking or real-time location monitoring. But this software may work wonders by offering the basic features that are certainly helpful for a lot of parents out there, like adjusting screen limits, monitoring apps, and also tracking location.
Google Family Link is recommended for younger kids as it doesn’t offer parental control options for kids around 13 years old or above due to Google’s age of consent rules. So, parents who want to feel what it’s like to use a parental control app may use this one as a start.
Features:
- Basic protection features, including location tracking and screen limit settings
- Locking the kids’ phones remotely is also possible in this software
9. Cocospy
Many parents are reluctant to use parental control software because some of them are pretty easy to notice by the kids as they always appear on their phones. So, for parents who desire more secrecy, we highly recommend using Cocospy.
When properly installed, Cocospy will work in the background and monitor the phone from the inside. That way, your monitoring process will not be easily uncovered by your own kids.
The kind of information you’ll get from Cocospy is quite generous. Besides the text and calls, you can also track your kids’ social media accounts, including the direct messages inside. Plus, Cocospy also offers a feature to monitor your kids’ online activities in real time, so you won’t miss a thing.
All this information can be obtained right from the dashboard, which is also easy to use. With how easy to use, how great the features are, and how well it hides in the target phone, Cocospy is surely recommended.
Features:
- Call monitoring
- Text messages monitoring
- Online chats monitoring
- Social media activities monitoring
- Ability to check your kids’ online activity in real time.
10. OurPact
Last but not least, we have OurPact, one of the most recommended parental control software this year. OurPact is able to monitor up to 20 different devices, with customized settings for each of them. This reason alone makes the software worth it for parents who have kids of different ages.
With OurPact, parents can do many things, including blocking access to certain websites, apps, or even texts, and also setting screen time limits for those individual devices. So, if you found out that your kids have a habit to stay up late playing games on their devices, feel free to set the screen time limit accordingly.
And talking about the other features, OutPact also has a website filtering function and location tracking. With them, parents will always know about their kids’ whereabouts and what they were doing online. There’s also a real-time screen view, but only offered in a certain plan.
- Location tracking
- Online activity monitoring
- Real-time screen view
- Support for 20 different devices
- Content blocking for websites and apps
- Texts blocking
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Conclusion
So that’s all we can talk about the 10 best children internet safety software. Of the 10 of them, which one would you like to try first? With features to monitor text, calls, and online activities on social media, this parental control software can be really helpful to understand what your kids are doing online and what thoughts they have.
Please do remember that these software exists to support the parents in checking their kids, not replacing them. So, if they notice something is wrong with their kids, they still need to take a good, appropriate approach.
