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Using the best parental control apps in the UK is a must if you’re serious about your child’s online safety when using their phone.
Thankfully, there are several excellent options, each featuring good safety features that can prevent your children from getting into trouble when surfing the internet and using various applications and platforms.
This article introduces you to the best parental control apps for iPhone and explains why they’re necessary.
By the end of the piece, you will have all the information you need to discover the best parental control app for iPhone in the UK, and Android, to protect your kids using their mobile devices.
Our top picks
Qustodio
Easy to use and intuitive, Qustodio is perfect for bolstering your children’s security online.
Buying options
Free plan available, with premium plans starting at £39.95 per year.
Positives
· Intuitive interface for ease of use
· App blocking capabilities
Negatives
· Comparatively expensive
· Limitations regarding social media tracking (Facebook only)
Kaspersky
A flexible app that enables you to protect your children on multiple devices.
Buying options
The premium version is affordable, at only £14.99 per year.
Positives
· An affordable option
· No limit on devices or profiles
Negatives
· Not the best interface
· Filtering is only available for specific browsers
Norton Family
An excellent choice for the whole family – it can be linked with a Norton anti-virus package to bolster security.
Buying options
Norton AntiVirus Plus stats at £19.99 per year.
Positives
· Unlimited number of devices
· Easy configuration
Negatives
· Not available on Mac
· Time restrictions on usage
McAfee
McAfee is perfect for limiting your child’s screen time and is much more than just parental control.
Buying options
A one-year subscription starts at £39.99 for up to five devices.
Positives
· Unlimited number of devices
· Excellent geofencing capabilities
Negatives
· An expensive option
· Not as user-friendly as other parental controls
How to monitor devices with a parental control app in the UK
While some people might consider it akin to spying on your kids, the reality is that monitoring your child’s progress, safety and security via an application is of paramount importance due to the multitude of safety threats.
The best parental control apps for iPhone let you monitor what your child is looking at online, and you can block certain platforms, websites, and applications you don’t want them to see.
Furthermore, you can set time limits on their screen time, filter content, and easily identify potential threats to their online safety before they become a problem. As a parent, this puts you in full control of what your child can see online, protecting them from the various harms associated with internet browsing.
You can easily adjust the parental controls as your child gets older, allowing them more responsibility as and when you deem it appropriate to do so.
How important is geofencing?
Geofencing is a fancy term for knowing where your child is, thanks to technology via parental control.
Rather than asking your kids to check in when they make it to a particular destination, geofencing monitors their mobile devices as they enter and leave a particular area. This means you can easily see when a child has arrived or departed a particular place.
Of course, it’s impossible to know where your child is and what they’re doing at all times, but activating geofencing at least provides you with the peace of mind that they’re in the location they should be – perhaps at school or a friend’s house for studying, for instance.
While trusting your children to make good decisions and to be where they should be is important, geofencing is an additional level of safety and security and helps you keep tabs on their whereabouts.
Web filtering
Web filtering is a way of controlling what your kids can and can’t see on the internet. Specifically, you can filter content based on three age groups – child, pre-teen, and teen. Filtering the content your kids can see automatically is a great way to limit their browsing capabilities, reducing the risk of them encountering unsafe or dangerous content.
As a parent, you can decide which age bracket to set for web filtering and adjust accordingly. It’s one of the most important aspects of parental controls and is a great way to prevent your kids from finding sensitive and potentially harmful content online.
App monitoring, messaging, and time restrictions
Another key facet of parental controls is the ability to monitor your child’s applications. This is incredibly important as far as social media usage is concerned, as you can control which apps your children can access from their phones.
Therefore, if you don’t want them to use Facebook, you can prevent them from creating an account and using the app.
Google Play and the Apple Store have parental controls, which can block your children from downloading specific applications without your approval. This lets you check the safety of an application before your child uses it, which is another great way to protect their online safety.
However, it’s important to mention that most parental control apps don’t let you monitor the content of your children’s messages and calls – this is something you can’t necessarily do much about.
That being said, you can implement time restrictions, limiting the amount of time your kids spend on their phones (or specific apps). This is another popular feature of iPhone and Android parental control apps.
What is the best parental control software, and how much does it cost?
Now that you know what parental controls are and why they’re important, it’s time to look at the best software. We’ve tested each of the following applications and have found them to be among the best parental control apps for parents, as we explain in detail below:
Qustodio
Perhaps the most comprehensive parental control software out there is Qustodio, which is designed to supervise and manage your child’s devices. The easy-to-navigate dashboard makes it really easy to see what your kids are up to, and you can easily adjust the settings to block harmful content online. A premium plan with Qustodio starts at £39.95, which offers protection for up to five devices.
Kaspersky
Kaspersky has an excellent reputation as a leading provider of online safety tools, and its Safe Kids software is extremely popular with parents. It’s really easy to use and set up, and you can even receive reports about your child’s phone usage. Another key feature of Kaspersky’s Safe Kids app is that it includes a GPS tracker, so you can locate your kids’ whereabouts without them checking in. Starting at £14.99 for a one-year subscription, it’s a great option to consider.
Norton Family
As well as being an excellent parental control, Norton Family is perfect for increasing your family’s online security, thanks to its impressive anti-virus features. Parental control informs you of your children’s online viewing, and you can easily limit their screen time. What’s more, Norton Family can detect and flag potentially harmful content, enabling you to act before your children are exposed to potential dangers online. Norton Family is available for £19.99 per year at the time of writing, but the price varies significantly due to regular sales periods.
McAfee
Similar in many respects to Norton Family, McAfee is not only a candidate for the best parental control app in the UK but also ideal for protecting your entire family from cyber threats. As well as smart parental controls, McAfee features an excellent VPN and a firewall, protecting you from potential cyber threats. McAfee is available for an annual fee of £39.99, offering protection for up to five devices.
Conclusion
It’s impossible to avoid the internet in a digital world, and your kids have likely been interested in browsing the web for a while.
As such, parental control apps in the UK are crucial if you want to protect your kids from the potential dangers of the internet, and they’re a great way of allowing your children to explore the internet in a safe and meaningful way.
Whichever app you opt for, it will offer you peace of mind as your kids use the internet, which is something that all parents can get on board with.
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