Ten Best Apps For Monitoring Your Child From Online Activity

With the fast pace of modern life, the internet and technology are developing rapidly. The love and attachment for modern technology can be immensely seen, especially in children and young youths. It is fascinating and entertaining for every child to get introduced to the new technology, which is good but getting addicted can cause a severe problem. 

As per the research evidence published by pew research

  • 80% of parents say that their children of age 5 to 11 use or interact with the tablet computer, and 63% say the same about smartphones
  • 89% of parents of children aged 5 to 11 say that their child watches videos online, especially on YouTube. Similarly, 81% of children aged 3 to 4 and 57% with children of 2 or below say the same about it.

Children spending more time online, a majority of the parents are concerned about their kids being exposed to inappropriate content on video-sharing sites. And if the parents do not take these issues seriously, then kids, the internet, and new technology can be a scary mix. So whether your toddlers just started using your phones or your child has their smartphones, it is necessary to check and keep track of their online activities. 

There are a wide variety of monitoring apps (free and paid) both available in the market. You only need your hands on them, and it will help you monitor and limit your kid’s activity online. This article covers some of the best apps for monitoring your child’s activity online. 

Ten Best Apps For Parents To Monitor Their Child Online Activity

1.Fenced.ai

Fenced.ai is the best parental control app available to keep your child safe online. It is a complete package of monitoring applications that helps you monitor your child’s call history, emails, SMS, photos, videos, browsing history and so on…

It not only enables you to develop a digitally safe home environment but it can also be used in schools and workplaces to create a digitally sound learning environment for students and manage your employee moves online. 

Features:

  • Monitor photos, videos and apps
  • Social media monitoring and management 
  • Keep track of screen time, installed application, and browser history
  • Determine apps usage 
  • Record keystrokes
  • Great alert system on location, keywords, and Wi-Fi/uninstall changes

Pros:

  • Free version/demo available
  • Friendly user interface 
  • Simple setup
  • Enables alerts for locations and keywords
  • Wi-Fi change alert
  • Helps you control device activity remotely 
  • Provide information on your child’s location data

Cons:

  • limited features in the free version 
  • limited geofencing features

Pricing:

Fenced.ai offers three flexible pricing plans. It also allows you to choose the number of devices on which you want to install. 

  • Free plan 
  • The basic plan costs $5.83 per month 
  • The premium plan costs $ 8.33 per month
    (Both with 12 months package)

2.Net Nanny

Net Nanny is another great parental control app for iOS, and has an excellent web filtering feature and AI to block questionable or inappropriate content before your child sees it. 

A net Nanny is a handy tool if you have multiple children and devices to keep track of as it can be installed on up to 10 different devices, including your PC, Mac, or Android devices. It allows creating different profiles or log-in for each of your children and automatically filters out the content according to your child, pre-teen, teen, or adult’s profile. 

Features:

  • Simple setup
  • Excellent customizable web filtering 
  • Monitor screen time 
  • Determines apps usage 
  • Apps blocking capabilities.

Pros:

  • Filter adult content in real-time
  • Sends alerts of online activity 
  • Setting time limits 
  • Time scheduling.

Cons:

  • Expensive 
  • No free version available 
  • No call/text monitoring 
  • Limited geofencing features
  • Not supported by Windows XP 
  • Need to purchase a separate product to work on iOS devices
  • Web filters defeated by tor.

Pricing:

Net Nanny does not provide any free trial or limited-feature free version. 

  • Starting tier costs $39.99 per year (allows only monitor one desktop device, either Mac or Windows)
  • Five device plan costs $54.99 per year 
  • 20 device plan costs $89.99 per year 

3.Qustodio

Qustodio is an impressive parental control software, and is your child’s Internet Guard. It provides a comprehensive dashboard to help you keep track of your child’s online movies and block inappropriate content even in private mode. 

A panic button alters a feature of this application that helps your children send a panic alert message whenever they are in trouble. You can also set a screen time limit and monitor apps usage. It works perfectly on Windows PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and Kindle devices to protect Amazon devices. 

Features:

  • Advanced Facebook monitoring 
  • Games and apps blocking 
  • Block inappropriate content 
  • Balance screen time 
  • Family locator 
  • Monitor calls, SMS and social media. 

Pros:

  • Free version available 
  • Well-designed web interface
  • Cross-platform support 
  • Robust app blocking 
  • Panic alert button feature
  • Apps blocking on desktop and mobile platforms.

Cons:

Pricing:

The available free version only monitors just a single device and only keeps seven days of activity history. It offers three paid flexible pricing plans. 

  • Five device plan costs $54.95 per year 
  • Ten device plan costs $96.95 per year 
  • Fifteen device plan costs $137.95 per year 

4. Kaspersky Safe Kids

Kaspersky safe kids is one of the friendliest parental control applications that provides free basic features with screen time management and screen limiting features. It works well on PC, Android, iOS, and Macs. However, some limitations exist on iOS platforms.  

It provides extensive alert functionality. The battery monitor feature alerts you when your child’s device’s battery is low so that you can remind them of the plugin. You can use this application for over 500 devices. This app works perfectly on iOS, Macs, Android, and PCs. 

Features:

  • Extensive alert system 
  • Robust web filtering 
  • Low battery alert 
  • Screen time management 
  • Geofencing 
  • Monitor call and text 
  • Block contacts 
  • Safe search on YouTube. 

Pros:

  • Budget-friendly 
  • Offers a wide range of features 
  • Flexible control of device and app usage 
  • Free basic plan available 
  • Seven days free trial
  • No limit on device or child profiles.

Cons:

  • Several iOS limitations
  • Content filtering limited to specific browsers
  • Confusing user interface 
  • Web portal slow at times. 

Pricing:

Kaspersky-safe kids are available for free. However, there are some limitations to this version. It provides only two pricing plans. 

  • Free-version 
  • Premium version for $14.99 per year

5.Norton Family Premier

Norton family premier, another best parental app which nearly offers every feature a parent wishes to have in a parental control app. It encourages the engagement of parents with their children and offers supervision across an unlimited number of devices.

Although Norton Family is a great parental app, it does not support geofencing as other parental apps do. However, it lets you monitor your child’s online activity and works perfectly with both Android and iOS devices, along with Windows. 

Features:

  • Web filtering 
  • Time usage restrictions
  • Location tracking 
  • Site or app blocking 
  • Unlimited devices 
  • Reports your child’s activity. 

Pros:

  • Easy to set up 
  • Customizable settings 
  • Set time limits on each device 
  • 30 days free trial 
  • Good web dashboard 
  • No limit of monitoring on the number of devices.

Cons:

  • Does not work on Mac
  • No geofencing 
  • Expensive for a single device or child
  • Does not allow social media monitoring 
  • Yearly subscription only available. 

Pricing:

Norton family premier is free if you purchase Norton 360 security. Besides this, you can also get the Norton Family package for free if and only if you buy their antivirus software.  Norton family offers only one pricing plan annually. 

  • Norton family premier subscription costs $49.99 per year.

6.Bark.us

Bark.us is another great option for parents to keep their children safe online. The main concern of Bark.us is to detect cyber-bullying and monitor online safety. Bark.us analyzes all your child’s online activities, monitors text and images, along with YouTube and over 30 social media networks. 

An alert feature of Bark.us sends an alert message to parents whenever it detects a sign of cyber-bullying, depression, online predators, adult content, and more. The updated version of Bark.us allows you to monitor your child’s accounts and set a screen time limit. 

Features:

  • Monitors over 30+ apps and social media
  • Web filtering 
  • Screen time monitoring 
  • Alert system 
  • Monitors call and SMS
  • Detect cyber-bullying
  • Block inappropriate content. 

Pros:

  • Affordable
  • 7 days’ free trial
  • Easy to use
  • Tips to help parents start an honest conversation with the child 
  • Helps you to monitor text and emails.

Cons:

  • No free version available
  • Only catch severe profanity
  • Lots of alerts 
  • Tricky iOS installation. 

Pricing:

Bark.us provides 7 days of a free trial. However, it also offers two pricing plans.

  • Bark premium costs $14 per month ($99 annually).
  • Bark Jr costs $5 per month ($49 annually).

7.Locategy

Locategy is a family locator with a parental control feature, that takes the pain out of parenting, allowing you to monitor your child’s online activity. The apps help you to receive a real-time alert message whenever your children are in trouble. 

Blocking inappropriate content and monitoring tech-savvy children can be difficult. However, the main concern of locategy is to locate your loved ones, understand and protect your child’s mobile activity. 

Features:

  • Geofencing capabilities 
  • Multiple “parent” devices
  • Block inappropriate sites and apps 
  • Determine app usage 
  • Monitor screen time, call and text
  • Display current location and recent location history of the last few days.

Pros:

  • Free version available
  • Excellent iOS and Android app design 
  • App blocking and usage schedules 
  • Better location tracking than other parental apps. 

Cons:

  • No support for Macs and PCs
  • No social media monitoring 
  • Web filtering works only on some specific browser.

Pricing:

Locategy offers a useful free version; however, it is not as full-featured as the paid ones. According to Locategy, the costs of premium tiers vary by region. 

  • 3 device plan costs $29.99 per year in the U.S
  • 5 device plan costs $39.99 per year in the U.S
  • 10 device plan costs $69.99 per year in the U.S

8.Mobicip

Mobicip is a device filtering and monitoring service. It is popular for its wide device compatibility. It is an overall good choice for families and offers a good range of parental control features. The app is very well designed. However, geofencing and true screen time features are missing in this app. 

Features:

  • Manage and monitor all family devices from one parent app or web dashboard 
  • Block websites by category for internet filtering 
  • Track your child’s location (only for the child’s iOS and Android device)
  • Lock all family devices instantly 
  • Allow or block social media apps, video streaming apps, and games.

Pros:

  • Well-designed mobile apps
  • Provide free seven days’ trial
  • Supports lots of platforms
  • App blocking facility 
  • Organized web interface.

Cons:

  • No geofencing support 
  • Tricky iOS configuration 
  • Only allow you to set time schedules, not total time limits.

Pricing:

Mobicip does not offer a feature-limited free version; however, there is a free seven days trial. The other price plans of paid version are 

  • Five device plan costs $49.99 per year 
  • Ten device plan costs $89.99 per year 
  • Fifteen device plan costs $124.99 per year 
  • Twenty device plan costs $159.99 per year 

9.OurPact

OurPact is the simple parental control app and family locator, perfect for families of any size. This app helps in scheduling screen time. It manually grants or blocks access to the internet for free. This app allows families to balance screen time for free iOS and Android devices. It also allows the parent to block or grant app access at any time. 

Features:

  • Schedule screen time
  • Manage up to 20 devices 
  • Block texting 
  • Web filter
  • Family locator. 

Pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Excellent design, navigation. 

Cons:

  • Limited web filters
  • Expensive 
  • No call or text monitoring. 

Pricing:

OurPact offers three flexible price plans. 

  • Free plan
  • The premium for $6.99 per month 
  • Premium+ for $9.99 per month 

10.Google family link

Google family link, a free parental application by Google that provides limited web filtering and app monitoring functions. It helps your family to create healthy digital habits. It is a reliable application for monitoring children below the age of 13. 

Features:

  • Free parental app
  • Compatible with Chromebook, Android, and iOS
  • Set screen time limits 
  • Location tracking 
  • Lock app when screen time exceeds.

Pros:

  • Free plan 
  • Easy to set 
  • Application download approval request 
  • Device compatibility options available. 

Cons:

  • No social media monitoring 
  • No call and SMS monitoring. 

Pricing:

Google family link is available for free. 

Final thoughts:

The applications mentioned above are some of the best parental control applications available online that help you to keep your kids safe online. These applications have their features, making them unique to each of them. So you can select the proper application for you as per your needs. Almost every application provides free trial services, making it easier to make the decision and helps you to get acquainted with their features.


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