The internet is a fantastic tool for educating, entertaining, and helping kids stay connected with their friends. But there are corners of the web you’d rather they stayed out of, and people you’d rather they didn’t engage with. That’s where parental controls come in. You can feel better about giving your kids online freedom when you keep an eye on what they’re doing. If you’re serious about keeping your kids safe online, you need an arsenal of parental controls.
There are plenty of subscription-based parental control services on the market, but there are also powerful features for concerned parents built right into the operating systems on the Apple and Microsoft devices your child likely uses every day. Google, on the other hand, offers a free app you can install. If you want to take control over screen time, filter media, or keep family members from racking up big bills on games and movies, you can do so with free tools. The question is, which one is right for your family?
First, Talk To Your Kids
The most important takeaway from all our research into built-in parental control tools (or even premium parental control apps) is that you shouldn’t rely on any of them as a total solution you can simply impose on kids without getting at least some buy-in from them.
Instead, you’ll want to talk to your children about why you’re limiting their internet usage, as focusing on cooperation tends to yield better results than exacting total control. All of the parental control measures mentioned in this article work best when combined with talking to your kids about taking personal responsibility, and they also require a degree of trust, because a non-compliant tech-savvy child will eventually get around them, whether by actually outsmarting the software or simply by borrowing a friend’s unprotected device.
If you’re looking for iron-clad rule enforcement and you’re willing to pay for it, you may want to put your faith and dollars into a paid parental control app like our Editors’ Choice pick, Qustodio.
Getting Started With Parental Controls
Once you’ve had “The Talk” with your child about using the internet responsibly, it’s time to put some house rules in place. Maybe your kids can only stay glued to their screens for a few hours per day. Maybe they have more freedom regarding time limits, but they can only access certain sites during certain times of the day or night.
You can use the operating system’s parental controls to establish limits on screen time so certain apps aren’t accessible during homework or school time hours, and you can filter out adult content on certain browsers and search engines. Check out our guide to kicking your kids off the home Wi-Fi if you get really desperate to limit screen time and enforce rules.
Apple, Google, or Microsoft: Who Wins?
The right parental control plan depends on the devices your kids are using. These apps work best (or even exclusively) on the devices they were created to protect. You could combine two programs, like Google Family Link and Microsoft Family Safety, and get protection across both Edge and Chrome browsing, but that seems like more trouble than it’s worth. Just block other browsers on Android, and use the program that appeals to you.
Screen Time is the best parental control app of the three solutions we’ve tested here, though it’s only available for Apple’s iOS and MacOS devices. Parents can control who is talking to their children on phone or via Messages. It’s also an effective tool for parents who want to establish flexible screen time limits around going to school and bedtime. Screen Time is not the best option for keeping tabs on your child’s location, but Apple’s built-in location features elsewhere on its devices should suffice in that area. Read on to learn more about the specific features of the very capable (and free!) parental control apps from the big three.
