In a world where we all feed on the digital environment and have access to any content on the Internet, it is essential to put certain limits on its use and activate programs with a parental control to protect our children.
Today, any user, regardless of age, can access all types of content, even those pages intended to be consumed by an adult audience. However, a child can enter this type of website, since the filter in them is very easy to avoid. In this post we show you the best programs to activate parental control.
According to Alexa, a company belonging to Amazon specialized in offer information about the Ranking of any Web Page, among the 50 most viewed websites in Spain, 6 offer pornographic content.
But we are not only talking about websites dedicated to the consumption of pornography, there are also gambling sites, dating sites, extreme violence, abuse, etc. On the web, we can find this content very easily and, unfortunately, there are thousands of pages dedicated to it.
Fortunately, all is not lost. Don't be alarmed, there are quite a few apps and programs to activate parental control and prevent your children from entering these websites.
In addition, we will also talk about the different parental control settings that we can do in Celebrity websites, games, applications or platforms such as YouTube, Fortnite, Nintendo Switch, Google, Android ...
What are parental control software for?
Before mentioning the best programs to activate parental control and prevent your children from accessing adult websites, we will explain what these applications are and what they are for.
What are they and what are they for
Parental control software is used to keep certain users under surveillance when they use the PC, in this case, children. Currently, there are many programs aimed at this, and over the years they have been refined more and more.
A parental control program allows us monitor activity of your children, either on the computer, on the tablets or on the mobile.
How does it work
These softwares are very simple to use and in addition, many are free and they offer several tutorials to learn how to use them easily. In its functionalities, we can restrict access to inappropriate content y to locate and track the location of our children at all times and see what they are consuming.
It also allows us restrict the amount of time that our children can spend connected to the internet, as well as limit communications y monitor their social networks.
Each program has its specifications and technical characteristics, but each and every one of them will fulfill our basic parental control needs. We show you the best programs below.
Best programs to activate parental control
Qustodio
The list of the best software dedicated to this use is headed by Qustodio. This is for one simple reason: it has been around for a long time and has been vastly improved and refined. In addition, it has a free version.
Qustodio is available at Windows, Mac, Kindle, iOS, and Android. With this program we can control and restrict access to all types of inappropriate web pages for children. Next, we mention its most outstanding features:
- Block and restrict content, even in Incognito mode.
- Filter the resultados de búsqueda on Google and website filters.
- Control games and applications (set time limits).
- Monitor and monitor the use of social networks, as well as reducing and setting time limits.
- Monitor activity in YouTube.
- Limit usage Of the device.
- Notifications if our son access inappropriate or dangerous content.
- Check the program remotely from any web browser.
- Trace it location, calls and SMS, as well as its blocking.
- To receive detailed reports of the child's activity.
As we see, Qustodio has a version Delivery to Italy takes one or two business days and another premium, but in its free version we will find practically all the functionalities we need.
La premium version we found it from € 38 per year.
How Qustodio works
To use this program, we only need create an account on the website. Then install the app on all devices where we want to activate parental control.
Afterwards, we can monitor and control from our mobile, tablets or PC our son's device. On the website itself we can configure the functionalities of the application.
For Download the program, click here.
Kaspersky Safe Kids Free
This excellent program is very similar to Qustodio, offering multiple functionalities and restrictions to our children and optimal parental control. It has two versions, one free and one paid.
Kaspersky Safe Kids Free is available at Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. With this program we can do the following:
- Limits of use Of the device.
- Block and restrict access to websites inappropriate.
- Block inappropriate searches on YouTube (drugs, sex, alcohol, violence ...).
- Limit time in social media y games/Applications.
- Monitor activity of the device in question (visited websites, applications ...).
- Drag the location and battery.
- Activity tracking on Facebook (new contacts, publications ...).
- Create Reports device usage.
Its free or trial version includes many functions, but if we want to acquire the premium version, we can find it from € 14,95 per year.
How Kaspersky Safe Kids works
Kaspersky Safe Kids Free is very easy to use, we must create an account on the Kaspersky page and then download the application on any device.
For Download the program, click here.
Norton family
Norton is a recognized company in terms of security and protection if we remember its world famous antivirus. It also has a parental control program, but it does not have a free version, only a 30-day trial.
Norton Family is the parental control application capable of protecting and controlling the content our children consume, and is available for Windows, Android and iOS. It has no version for Mac. The main functions of the program are the following:
- Supervision and usage limits in the web.
- Instant blocking of inappropriate websites.
- Activity monitoring in social networks.
- Lock device in real time from the app.
- Control and restrict search on Google, Bing, Yahoo ...
- Control the access to videos.
- Block the execution of certain Applications.
- Reports device usage and email alerts.
- Admits child access requests If you believe that the web that you cannot access is suitable for your use.
- Video content monitor to see what you are seeing in real time on YouTube.
- Control content during school hours.
Norton family DO NOT has a free version, only one 30 day trial and then it costs 39,99 a year. For Download the program, we will do it from its website.
SecureKids: for Android
SecureKids is a Spanish company that has created a parental control system for mobiles and tablets Android. It allows parents to remotely manage and control their children's use of their devices. And the best of all, are free.
With this application we will be able to combat the main dangers existing in the network: Sexting, Cyberbullying, Grooming Phising ... It is one of the most complete parental control applications on the market, it allows us to:
- Geolocation system of the device to always have our son located.
- Application blocking.
- Control of web pages.
- Create alarms.
- Schedule breaks and time slots in which the minor will not use the device.
- Block calls.
- Remote device configuration.
- Alerts in real time of extreme situations of the minor and emergency button.
For Download the SecureKids application, we will go to Android Play Store.
Activate parental control on the main platforms
YouTube, Google, Android, Fortnite, Nintendo Switch ... They are the main websites and applications most used by children today. We are going to show you how to activate parental control and which programs allow you to control and restrict their access.
Parental control for YouTube
As we have seen, some of the above programs allow us to establish certain control and monitoring elements on the YouTube platform. But, in case you didn't know, YouTube has a own parental control to make it even safer to control our children's access to the videos on the platform.
For activate parental control on YouTube we must do it using the tool Restricted mode. To activate it on the PC, we must do the following:
- We open the YouTube website.
- We log into our account and do click on our account icon (located in the upper right part of the screen).
- A list of options will be displayed, at the bottom it will put Restricted mode: disabled. We click to activate the function.
- Information will appear explaining what is this function.
- The main drawback of this function is that we must activate restricted mode on all devices used by our son. Therefore, we will repeat the same process if our child is going to use, for example, a tablets instead of the mobile.
If what we want is to activate YouTube's restricted mode in a mobile, we will do the following:
- We enter the YouTube application.
- We click on Settings> General and we look for the option restricted mode.
- We activate the function (it will appear in blue).
Also we have YouTube Kids, an app for Android and iOS that allows us to control the access of the little ones to certain videos. It is intended for children of preschool.
Parental control for Google Chrome
The previous parental control programs act on the Google search engine, but still we can carry out a control in Google Chrome (Google search results for all your queries and on images, videos and websites). To activate it, we will do the following:
- Unfortunately, Chrome no longer allows you to create supervised profiles to activate parental controls, but we can activate the Safe Search filter in Google to avoid explicit results.
- You can find all the information on this topic here, but anyway we will summarize it to know how to activate the filter.
- We will have Enable Safe Search to filter Chrome searches and avoid explicit results.
- For this, we will search settings.
- In the section "SafeSearch filters”, We mark the box next to the option“Enable Safe Search”And we save.
Parental control for Google Play and Android
All parental control programs They work by restricting, controlling and blocking access in the different search engines: Google, Bing, Yahoo… But Google also allows us to carry out a control in Google Play.
* see also parental control program for Android SecureKids (mentioned above).
Google allows us activate parental control carrying out different settings on Google Play. Thus, we can keep track of the following content: applications and games, music, movies, TV series and books.
To do so, we must follow the following steps:
- To see information about parental control on Google Play, we access the page of Google For Families Help to activate parental control.
- We can configure parental control for two options: mfamily members managing their own accounts and to family members with accounts managed with Family Link.
- We can apply parental control on devices Android that we add.
To activate parental control on Google Play for mfamily members who manage their own accounts, we will do the following:
- We open the application of Play Store and we are going to Menu> Settings> Parental control.
- We activate parental control and create a secret PIN to be able to configure it.
To activate parental control on Google Play for family members with accounts managed with Family Link, we will do the following:
- We open the application Family Link
- We select our son.
- We click on Manage settings> Google Play controls.
- We select the control that we want to filter and / or restrict its access.
Parental control for Fortnite
Epic Games, the developer of the famous game Fortnite, dedicates a page to talk about parental controls for the video game. Here we will do a review of the most important. To activate parental control in Fortnite, we must do the following:
- We start Fortnite on the platform we want.
- In the upper corner of the screen, we open the menu and select the Parental control.
- We configure the account (PIN) to make the settings in the parental control.
- We can configure adult language, friend requests, communication with other players, voice and text chat, weekly game time reports, game streaming ...
- We can also restrict access to in-game purchases.
Parental Control for Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch allows us download a Parental Control app on iOS and Android for set gambling restrictions for children from our device. Thanks to this application, we can do the following:
- Know how long our son spends playing Nintendo Switch.
- What content is appropriate for our child (decide what games they can play)
- Establish activity limits of my son in the Online services.
- Monitor the duration of game sessions.
- Lay off the program at the time we want.
- Restrict and control exchange of messages and communications with other users.
- Restrict the publication of game captures on social networks.
Parental control in Windows user accounts
Before downloading a program intended to activate parental control, Windows offers a native tool destined for it. Since the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft reinforced its commitment to the parental control. So when we create an account at Microsoft, we can designate it as a Child account.
In order to create this type of account, we will do the following:
- We create a secondary account, going to Start> Settings> Accounts. We click on Family and other users.
- Under His family, we click on Add a family member.
- A window will open and we select Add a child. If the child already has an email, we enter it.
- If our child does not have email, we click The person I want to add does not have an email address.
- Done, the new account will be visible in His family.
To manage the new account, click on Manage family settings online. Here we can do the following:
- Block websites.
- Limit device usage.
- Get device usage and activity reports.
As we can see, this Windows tool has certain limitations in parental control, so if we see that they are insufficient, we must resort to one of the programs mentioned above.
Twitch, the new YouTube that has no parental control
If your children consume videos frequently, almost 100% will use the platform of streaming Twitch. Famous people like Ibai Llanos, AuronPlay or Rubius they direct and upload videos to the platform. Surely your children are consumers of its content.
Unfortunately, to this day there is no parental control for Twitch, but don't be alarmed, this platform is more secure than you think. Why do we say this? We will tell you.
Twitch is a platform for streaming extremely strict regarding the issuance of inappropriate content. If any streamer (the characters who broadcast live videos) broadcast content sexual, violent, aggressive and inappropriate, within seconds Twitch will ban the channel, Or what is the same, will suspend the channel.
The channel will be temporarily suspended (a few days) and the broadcast will stop immediately. Also, if the streamer has already been previously banned, your account may be suspended forever and irrevocably.
It is true that we cannot control the limit of use of the platform from Twitch's built-in tools, but when it comes to broadcasting explicit and inappropriate content, we don't have to worry. Our kids are safe on Twitch.
As we can see, it is essential to carry out a parental control and activate it when we want to protect our children of certain inappropriate content. The network is full of sensitive content, related to pornography, violence, machismo, etc. It is very necessary to apply certain restrictions and controls in the use of the devices of the smallest.