Installing and using parental control software has become a necessity for parents in today’s digital age. Children are spending a huge chunk of their time in front of their screens like never before, therefore it’s essential to keep an eye on their online activity. Now that you know using parental control apps have become the need of the hour, let us discuss about a few important things that need be considered when buying one.
Children are using the internet and their digital devices for a lot of reasons. Whether it’s about playing games, using social media platforms, exchanging text messages on instant messaging apps, or watching videos, they are always seen glued to their screens.
In fact, watching children and teens spending huge time in front of screens does not seem unusual anymore. Rapidly it is becoming a new kind of problem.
However, the excess use of digital devices tends to become an addiction for most children, affecting their mental and physiological health. The advanced technology, the internet, and smartphones have brought in more trouble than help for parents.
Back in the day when there were no such technologies, it was easier for parents to know and understand what their children were up to all day. But, today, smartphones have made children’s lives more secretive; parents do not have any idea what their children do on the internet all day along. They do not know what sites or apps their children are using, whom they are talking to and what sort of things are making them curious on the internet.
Instead of focusing on physical activity and outdoor sports, children have made themselves addicted to their smartphones. The best way to break their addiction is to make use of parental control software because only technology can be fought with technology.
Parental control solutions help parents monitor their children’s mobile phone activity and also take necessary steps when required. With a parental control solution set in place, they will be able to find out what their children do on the internet all day long, whom they chat with, what sort of content they view and share with their friends.
Consider These Things When Buying Parental Control Software…
Now that you know using parental control software can be of extreme help, let us also tell you about the few important things that you should consider when buying parental control software. Below, we have outlined the important thing that you should consider.
View Call Log Details
Viewing someone’s call log details may account as breaching of privacy but nothing’s bad when you are doing it for the right reasons. It is necessary that parents should know who their children are talking to on their mobile phones.
If you find your child spending a lot of time talking to someone on the phone, it is important that you investigate whether or not the caller on the other end of the line is harmful or harmless to them. There are thousands of cases when strangers have befriended children and led them into things that they should have refrained from.
Monitor Text Messages
When buying a parental control software, you must check whether or not it allows you to monitor your child’s text messages. By monitoring your child’s messages, you will be able to find out what kind of conversations they are having with the other person, the kind of people they are interacting with, and the sort of messages that are being exchanged.
Having the ability to monitor the text messages of your children will help you find out if they are interacting with safe people. In case you feel they are exchanging messages with a wrong person or sharing inappropriate messages with others, you can intervene in the situation and stop your child from doing that.
Track Cell Phone Location
Always opt for parental control software that offers location tracking feature. Location tracking is more of a safety precaution for your children. With this feature, you are able to find out where your child exactly is. Their exact whereabouts can be located easily.
If your child is supposed to be right back home after school, you can check on the parental control dashboard whether or not a detour has been taken by them and to where.
Geo-fencing is another helpful feature as it allows you to define a boundary that you feel your child is safe in. The moment the boundary is breached by your child, you will get an instant alert on your phone. This feature helps save your child from a critical situation.
Filter and Block Adult Sites or Apps
The internet is laden with all sorts of content, including content that is deemed inappropriate for your children. While the internet can be a great source of information for children, at the same time, it also makes your child come across porn, drugs, violence, and cyber crime every now and then.
You need to make sure that your child does not get interested in watching porn and all sorts of adult content. One of the reasonable ways to keep your children out of the reach of such content is to filter and block the sites or apps containing explicit content and this is only possible with the help of parental control software.
You can limit your child to browse only safe websites and apps by setting parental controls on their devices. This will help parents find out how much time their children are spending on the internet or a particular site/app and how they can stop them by filtering out and blocking such sites/apps.
Spy Instant Chat Messaging Apps
While parental control software helps parents keep a track of their children’s text messages, in the same way, it also helps them spy on their instant chat messaging apps. Apart from traditional texting, children use instant chat messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.
In fact, most of their conversations take places over these instant chat messaging apps. Make sure to choose parental control software that lets you spy on these popular messaging apps as well. It is important to select parental control software that allows you to monitor your children’s text messages, photos, videos, and other media files exchanged on these instant messaging apps.
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