What to look for when getting a Parental Monitoring App

Many antivirus products have parental controls in place.These controls are a mix of filtering tools, helpful location-tracking features and reports about what your children are up to on their mobile devices.Additional smart features-for example, panic buttons that allows your child to send alerts with their location - can be of great value add to parents.
 
Why you should consider parental monitoring
 

• With the prevalence of digital devices in most homes and broadband access, children of this generation have unprecedented access to the Internet. 
• Children may not be aware enough to protect themselves against uncomfortable online situations
• Cybercrime is on the rise and it is important you prevent you child from being exploited, bullied or kidnapped. 
• Peer pressure can cause your child to be exposed and participate in unhealthy activities such as smoking, drug abuse and even criminal activities.  
• Dangers of cyberspace can psychologically affect your child and his/her future.
• Monitoring your child’s communication and internet access ensures that they have controls in place on the time they spend on the internet, the content they access, the quality of interactions they have - among other things.

What to look for when getting a parental monitoring app

When you are looking to download parental monitoring apps, some features that you must pay attention to are:
 
Installation:

Check if the app is easy to install and set up on the phone. Also in case you have more than one non-adult child, you should be able to setup all their profiles and port across multiple devices enabling you to monitor multiple devices and multiple children.

Filters:

Filters in place to keep your child away from questionable websites are a great tool. Ideally you should be able to setup these filters and limits before your child uses the phone. Tracking your child’s usage after the fact is not as effective.
 
Texting Management:

Kids communicate a lot through texts with peers and family and friends. Your app should let you review the content of your child’s texts as well as the contacts they are interacting with. Options for blocking contacts callers or texters or both or even the messaging app are also important.
 
Location tracking:

This feature enables you to track your child’s location whether at home or in other networks. Some apps also maintain a log of your child’s locations and lets you know when they leave a specific area – such as your home or neighborhood.
 
App Management:

This allows you to review all the apps on your child’s phone and you should also be able to block certain apps or limit their usage for example, social media apps.
 
Download parental monitoring apps for your family but make it a part of a comprehensive approach educating your children about safe and responsible online behavior.It is also a good idea to discuss with your children your expectations of the rules for accessing content/communicating with their mobile devices and to be upfront about the fact that you will be monitoring them.
 
If you want to download a spy app for parental monitoring, the author of this article suggests Spy Brother.