Set Content & Privacy Restrictions
However, there is a range of mobile parental control apps to help you out. One of the most recent apps to join the industry is FamiSafe, a complete parental control software free that can help you take full control of your child's device and the price is only $9.9 a month for multi-devices. Kids on the iPhone, iPad or Mac too long? Set parental controls with Apple's screen time. You may be more lenient about screen time during quarantine, but at some point, you'll have to set some. We show you how to create a child's account and set up parental controls on your Mac so the little ones can be safe while using macOS. With granular controls for the apps they can use, web. Qustodio is a parental control app for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. The app’s name suggests that it is supposed to be a custodian for your child in their online world. It fulfils its promise. The Parental Controls available to administrators are fairly straightforward, and can be applied to practically any account set up on a Mac. This also includes guest accounts, locking down the.
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Continue, then choose 'This is My [Device]' or 'This is My Child's [Device].'
- If you're the parent or guardian of your device and want to prevent another family member from changing your settings, tap Use Screen Time Passcode to create a passcode, then re-enter the passcode to confirm. In iOS 13.4 and later, after you confirm your passcode you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. This can be used to reset your Screen Time passcode if you forget it.
- If you're setting up Screen Time on your child's device, follow the prompts until you get to Parent Passcode and enter a passcode. Re-enter the passcode to confirm. In iOS 13.4 and later, after you confirm your passcode you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. This can be used to reset your Screen Time passcode if you forget it.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode, then turn on Content & Privacy.
Make sure to choose a passcode that's different from the passcode you use to unlock your device. To change or turn off the passcode on your child's device, tap Settings > Screen Time > [your child's name]. Then tap Change Screen Time Passcode or Turn Off Screen Time Passcode, and authenticate the change with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode.
If you forgot your Screen Time passcode, update your device to the latest iOS or iPadOS then reset your passcode. If you can’t update your device, erase it and set it up as new to remove the passcode and choose a new one. Restoring your device from a backup won't remove your passcode.
Learn more about using Family Sharing with Screen Time.
Prevent iTunes & App Store purchases
You can also prevent your child from being able to install or delete apps, make in-app purchases, and more. To prevent iTunes & App Store purchases or downloads:
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
- Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
- Choose a setting and set to Don't Allow.
You can also change your password settings for additional purchases from the iTunes & App Store or Book Store. Follow steps 1-3, then choose Always Require or Don't Require.
Allow built-in apps and features
You can restrict the use of built-in apps or features. If you turn off an app or feature, it won’t delete it, it’s just temporarily hidden from your Home screen. For example, if you turn off Mail, the Mail app won't appear on your Home Screen until you turn it back on.
To change your Allowed Apps:
- Go to Settings > Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Enter your Screen Time passcode.
- Tap Allowed Apps.
- Select the apps that you want to allow.
Prevent explicit content and content ratings
Mac Parental Controls App Windows 10
You can also prevent the playback of music with explicit content and movies or TV shows with specific ratings. Apps also have ratings that can be configured using content restrictions.
To restrict explicit content and content ratings:
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then tap Content Restrictions.
- Choose the settings you want for each feature or setting under Allowed Store Content.
Here are the types of content that you can restrict:
- Ratings For: Select the country or region in the ratings section to automatically apply the appropriate content ratings for that region
- Music, Podcasts & News: Prevent the playback of music, music videos, podcasts, and news containing explicit content
- Music Videos: Prevent finding and viewing music videos
- Music Profiles: Prevent sharing what you're listening to with friends and seeing what they're listening to
- Movies: Prevent movies with specific ratings
- TV shows: Prevent TV shows with specific ratings
- Books: Prevent content with specific ratings
- Apps: Prevent apps with specific ratings
Prevent web content
iOS can automatically filter website content to limit access to adult content in Safari and apps on your device. You can also add specific websites to an approved or blocked list, or you can limit access to only approved websites. Follow these steps:
- Go to Settings > Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enter your Screen Time passcode.
- Tap Content Restrictions, then tap Web Content.
- Choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only.
Depending on the access you allow, you might need to add information, like the website that you want to restrict.
Restrict Siri web search
To restrict Siri features:
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then tap Content Restrictions.
- Scroll down to Siri, then choose your settings.
You can restrict these Siri features:
- Web Search Content: Prevent Siri from searching the web when you ask a question
- Explicit Language: Prevent Siri from displaying explicit language
Restrict Game Center
To restrict Game Center features:
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then tap Content Restrictions.
- Scroll down to Game Center, then choose your settings.
You can restrict these Game Center features:
- Multiplayer Games: Prevent the ability to play multiplayer games
- Adding Friends: Prevent the ability to add friends to Game Center
- Screen Recording: Prevent the ability to capture the screen and sound
Allow changes to privacy settings
Apple Parental Controls Mac
The privacy settings on your device give you control over which apps have access to information stored on your device or the hardware features. For example, you can allow a social-networking app to request access to use the camera, which allows you to take and upload pictures.
To allow changes to privacy settings:
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
- Tap Privacy, then choose the settings you want to restrict.
Here are the things you can restrict:
- Location Services: Lock the settings to allow apps and websites to use location
- Contacts: Prevent apps from accessing your Contacts
- Calendars: Prevent apps from accessing your Calendar
- Reminders: Prevent apps from accessing your Reminders
- Photos: Prevent apps from requesting access to your photos
- Share My Location: Lock the settings for location sharing in Messages and Find My Friends
- Bluetooth sharing: Prevent devices and apps from sharing data through Bluetooth
- Microphone: Prevent apps from requesting access to your microphone
- Speech Recognition: Prevent apps from accessing Speech Recognition or Dictation
- Advertising: Prevent changes to advertising settings
- Media & Apple Music: Prevent apps from accessing your photos, videos, or music library
Allow changes to other settings and features
You can allow changes to other settings and features, the same way you can allow changes to privacy settings.
- Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
- Under Allow Changes, select the features or settings you want to allow changes to and choose Allow or Don't Allow.
Here are some features and settings you can allow changes for:
- Passcode Changes: Prevent changes to your passcode
- Account Changes: Prevent changes to settings for Accounts & Passwords
- Cellular Data Changes: Prevent changes to cellular data settings
- Volume Limit: Prevent changes to volume settings for safe listening
- Do Not Disturb While Driving: Prevent changes to Do Not Disturb While Driving
- TV Provider: Prevent changes to TV provider settings
- Background App Activities: Prevent changes to whether or not apps run in the background
Learn more
- Set up Family Sharing with up to six people to share content, as well as request and make purchases with Ask to Buy.
- You can also use Restrictions on your Mac or PC and Apple TV.
- Learn how to prevent in-app Purchases or change the credit card that you use in the iTunes Store.
- See how to view and limit your child or teen's Apple Cash activity.
Businesses and schools often use profiles, which can turn on Restrictions. To find out if your device has a profile, go to Settings > General > Profiles. Contact your administrator or the person who set up the profile for more information.
Did you just get your child their first phone? When a person has access to the internet, they are wide open to a whole new world of information.
While there are good bits in this new world, it is also full of a lot of perils. Children are especially vulnerable to this malicious side of the internet.
After all, you yourself might have read about tales of deathly games like the blue whale challenge or instances of online predators targeting children.
Therefore, in this guide, I will tell you about the best free parental control software for your child’s phone. You can even do it without them knowing if you are worried about their privacy.
Best Free Parental Control App
Let us start the list with the best and move our way down from there. Here it goes:
#1 Spyic
If you wonder ‘how to track my child’s phone’, you need to start using Spyic in a heartbeat. It can give you complete control over your child’s phone, without your child even being suspicious about it.
To begin with, Spyic can give you every activity that your child does on their phone, be it location tracking, reading their texts, checking call logs, and viewing their browser history.
Every bit of this is important when you want to ensure that your child is using their phone for the right purpose.
The Best Free Parental Control App
Spyic holds the top position on this list for a reason. It is the absolute best when you are looking for a parental control app.
And it is not just me who thinks that way. Millions of users all around the world use Spyic to monitor their child’s cell phone activity. There are a lot of reasons that make Spyic so special. These include:
Web Based Interface:
Spyic has a 100% web based interface. You can set up all the parental controls for your child’s phone through Spyic dashboard that opens on any web browser on any device. Therefore, there is no need to install any app on your phone or PC.
No Root or Jailbreak:
Spyic does not require you to root or jailbreak your child’s phone. This is a huge point in its favor since rooting or jailbreaking can compromise the security of the device. Therefore, with Spyic, your data is completely safe.
Quiet Operation:
When you are using Spyic, your child is never going to know that you have set up parental control on their phone (unless you tell them). This is because of the high tech design of Spyic.
Apple mac os x download. If your kid uses an iOS phone, you don’t have to install any app on their phone at all in order for Spyic to work. It just needs their iCloud credentials to operate.
If your kid uses an Android phone, you will need one time access to their phone in order to install the Spyic app. However, this app works in stealth mode for Android.
Once installed, the app icon vanishes from the app menu. Further, the app size is less than 2 MB and installs within seconds. The user is never suspicious.
And when you wish to uninstall it, you can do it remotely through the Spyic dashboard from any web browser.
Customer Service:
Spyic offers the best customer service I have found on any app. They make sure that you are assisted through the entire process of using Spyic. If you feel you are stuck somewhere, they will help you out even at 3 in the midnight.
How to Use Spyic to Set up Parental Control
Using Spyic is as easy as pie. All you have to do is follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Sign up for Spyic and get a subscription plan based upon your child’s phone (iOS or Android). The plans are so cheap that it feels like Spyic is practically free.
Step 2: Follow the on screen setup wizard to configure Spyic for the target phone. The setup wizard will do most of the work by itself. You only have to do a few clicks here and there.
Step 3: Hit ‘Start’ and you are ready to monitor the device. You will be taken to your dashboard.
Everything you are going to need is available on this dashboard in the form of tabs on the left side. Every parental control feature has a dedicated tab for it.
The most commonly used parental control features on Spyic are:
Application Control
Application control module gives you a list of all the apps that are installed on the target phone. From here, you can set up usage restrictions for each or any of these apps. You can set the time for which your child is allowed to use any particular app.
For example, if you feel like your kid wastes too much time on Facebook, you can restrict it completely or set up a few hours of Facebook access daily.
Internet Filter
Internet filter shows you a list of all the websites that your children visit on their phone. You even get to know how many times they have visited it and if the website is bookmarked by them.
You can block their access to any particular website if you like. Sketch app download. This will protect them from adult content, things they shouldn’t know, and things that are harmful to them.
Geofencing
Geofencing is another good parental control feature. It lets you set a boundary for your child’s location on the map. If your child crosses these boundaries, you are sent an emergency alert.
Therefore, you will know if your child is going out of bounds and in places you told them not to go. So if your child says they are going to attend their classes but end up at the movies, you will know.
This is just a glimpse of the features that Spyic offers to you. To know about all of them, you should go and check out Spyic. It will help you in making a better choice.
#2 Cocospy
Cocospy is the only app that comes close to Spyic when we talk about free parental control apps. It can do so much for you with all the same benefits and no cons at all.
It allows you to keep an eye on your child’s phone without their knowledge. It works regardless of the type of phone that your child uses, be it Android or iOS. You don’t even have to root or jailbreak their phone.
Further, the pricing plans are as cheap as they possibly could be (or even more). I don’t even know how they give such amazing features at such low costs.
If you need an all inclusive parental control app and you feel Spyic isn’t for you, Cocospy will be.
#3 Google Family Link for Parents
How to delete line app from mac. Google Family Link for Parents is a parental control application that is developed by Google itself. You can use this app to set up parental control on your child’s phone if they are using an Android phone.
This app will help in setting the ground rules for what your child can do with their phone. You can manage what apps your child is allowed through Google Family Link for Parents.
Further, you can also set up their screen time. This makes sure that you restrict your child’s internet usage and help in forming healthy habits for them.
However, this app has no stealth mode. If you are using it, your child is going to know that you are monitoring them. There is no other way around it.
Also, it lacks many premium features that our top contenders are equipped with. These features can be a must have for parents who want to keep their children safe.
#4 Qustodio
Qustodio is a parental control app for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. The app’s name suggests that it is supposed to be a custodian for your child in their online world. It fulfils its promise to a great extent.
This app can monitor your child’s search queries to make sure that they are only doing healthy searches. Further, you can also track their screen time so your children don’t overexploit their phones.
How to crack mac app. The thing that I like about this app is that you get daily reports for your child’s activity. You will know which apps they used on their phone that day.
However, it lacks other premium features too that I loved in Spyic and Cocospy.
#5 Net Nanny
Net Nanny can do much more than Qustodio and Google Family Link for Parents. However, it doesn’t fare quite as good as Spyic or Cocospy in terms of features.
Yet, this app ranks below Qustodio. This is because while this app can offer better features, it is considerably expensive to use.
With parental control filters, you can block adult content on your child’s phone. Further, you get regular SMS Alerts for your child’s activity on their phone.
It works on Android, iOS, Windows, and even kindle.
#6 Kidlogger
Kidlogger keeps a track of how long your child used their phone or computer on any particular day. Further, you will also know what they did when they were using it.
It will give you a complete description about which applications were accessed by their phone. You will also know which websites were visited. The past locations can be seen as well too.
However, the interface is not quite as good as our winning apps in these categories. Further, Kidlogger is not free and comes at a price.
#7 Kaspersky Safe Kids
Kaspersky is a big name in the security market for protecting computer systems from viruses. Therefore, when Kaspersky steps in the parental control arena, one would expect the same from Kaspersky Safe kids.
You can manage the application usage of the target user through this app. Further, you can also monitor and restrict the websites they are visiting on their phone. This is very helpful for
However, the major disadvantage of this app is that all the good things it offers come at a price. And mind you, that price is not cheap.
Otherwise, it is a workable parental control software that you will like using.
#8 Spyrix Free Keylogger
Spyrix is free keylogger software that is specially targeted towards PCs. it is aimed at tracking your child’s computer activities.
No matter what your child is typing, be it chat messages on Facebook, searches on Google, or username and passwords on any social media site, Spyrix will note down everything. You
However, there are safety exploits and other causes of concern that make me feel suspicious whenever I use Spyrix. Therefore, if I feel that I need to deploy a keylogger, I go with Spyic.
#9 Norton Family Premier
Like Kaspersky, Norton is a big name in the antivirus market. This is why, its parental control solution can be seen as a trusted one as well.
It offers similar features like Kaspersky Safe Kids, and it is costly all the same too. If you want to use Norton Family Premier to monitor your kids, you need to shell out some big bucks for the same.
Further, features like push notifications of the app don’t really work well at times. Most people find flaws with its interface and features.
#10 FamilyTime
FamilyTime is one of the best free parental control app for Android. With FamilyTime, you can set up parental controls on your child’s phone. Not only that, but it is also used for screen time management.
You can set up the daily app limits for your child’s phone. If the time limit for any particular app finishes up, you get a notification and their access to that app is restricted.
Further, the search filters make sure that no adult content is accessed by your kid on the internet. You can also block complete access to any app you prefer.
The Deciding Factor
Now that you have reviewed all the apps, you need to choose which app to go with. Since these apps offer different features and work differently, you have to choose the best fit for yourself personally.
For me, the main point of focus in my child’s safety. For that, I have to put considerable weight on the features that are offered by each application.
Obviously, all good things come at a price. So if you want to get good features, you shouldn’t mind shelling out a few bucks. You don’t have to run after a free app. What you can do is choose an app that charges less than the others.
Lastly, you should decide if you want your children to know that you are keeping a tab on them. Children are sensitive to violation of privacy. Therefore, I prefer to do it quietly without them knowing. After all, it is for their own safety.
The Verdict
After reviewing all the aspects, Spyic is the clear winner for me. It has all the features that the other 9 apps in the list offered in bits and pieces.
And while it offers so many features, all this comes at the cheapest price possible. In fact, it is so cheap that it feels it costs nothing.
Talking about the last factor, Spyic works in secret and your child wouldn’t find out about it. Therefore, there is nothing you have to worry about anymore.