On other occasions we have already talked about how we can provide the best security for our youngest children in the face of the risks in Internet use. We believe that the best tool is education. That they learn to distinguish danger signs and situations of risk by themselves. As in real life, we will not be able to accompany them to all the places they will go to in life, so we decide to teach them to move independently and safely little by little.
However, during certain very early ages, it can be interesting to limit and even monitor what children do with their devices connected to the Internet for their safety. The use of tools of this type is at the discretion of each parent and must assess when they exceed the security barrier to enter an area privacy of children.
Parental Control Applications for Android
Currently, one of the most used by the kids to connect to the Internet are devices with the Android operating system, both mobile phones and tablets. Below we present some of the most commonly used tools of this type, although they are not the only ones. All you have to do is search on Google Play to find many more applications, both free and paid.
Kids Place.Create a secure zone in the device for children. The child lock protects personal information when children are using their parents’ phone or tablet. Preventing children from accidentally downloading applications, making phone calls, sending text messages or other actions that can cost money. Kids Place also includes comfort features for parents such as automatic reboot of the app, useful for young children who accidentally leave an app in progress. It is free and you can see more details of this application in this previous post.
Kaspersky Parental Control. From the well-known company of the same name dedicated to antivirus and security systems, this application, which is still in ‘beta’, consists of a tool that blocks access to other installed applications through the use of a password. It also limits the access to pages with inappropriate content for children. It’s free, it works on phones and tablets and for the moment it’s available in English.
Norton Family parental control. This application is for those who look for something more advanced, with many more functions, although it requires more initial dedication of configuration and at least some basic knowledge at user level. With it we can monitor and limit the websites visited, daily limits on the use of the device, schedule alerts, monitor social networks, etc. It also has a paid version that still introduces more control tools.
Control Parental Kytetime. This application has a smaller number of users but it is possibly the one with the highest rating. It provides many functions, such as the blocking of applications, limitations for schedules to certain applications or social networks, GPS tracking on the map, sending activity reports by email to parents, remote control from the PC, etc. Undoubtedly, it looks like one of the most complete and in addition it is free.
Qustodio Control Parental. Another application with a good diversity of options, although the function of blocking applications is limited only to the paid version. What perhaps makes it more interesting is the possibility of using the same account to monitor several children on various types of device, phone, tablet and PC. It allows to personalize the browsing blocking dangerous pages, it establishes limits of use, it sends alerts of suspicious actions, etc.