The Best Parental Control Software for 2019

Parenting in the Digital Age

Modern kids have never known a time when they couldn’t connect to the entire world via the internet. In fact, they probably spend more time online than anyone else—certainly more than their parents. If you are a parent, this presents a problem, as there are explicit, disturbing, and illegal sites on the web that you don’t want your kids to encounter. Furthermore, with the ever-increasing number of devices that kids use to connect, you simply can’t supervise every moment they’re online on your own. That’s where parental control services can help. This software gives you the ability to block unwanted web content, limit screen time, restrict the use of risky applications, and more. Basically, these services are a way to help keep your kids safer on their computers and mobile devices.

That said, parental control software is no substitute for good communication. If you don’t want your kids to visit unsafe, unsavory, or inappropriate sites, talk to them about your concerns. We recommend that you also take the time to convince your older kids that you’ll respect their privacy while still monitoring their online actions, a promise you should strive to uphold. We prefer software that embraces this kind of collaborative approach, rather than apps that covertly spy on kids. If your kids see you as big brother, it’s a safe bet that they’ll find ways to outsmart you and evade even the most sophisticated systems. As tech addiction increasingly becomes a problem, it’s important to instill the value of good device habits on to your children as well.

Monitor Your Child’s Devices

Long gone are the days when a single parental control utility on the family PC was sufficient for keeping your kids safe and productive. Modern kids use all kinds of internet-connected devices, and modern parental control systems must keep up.

Before settling on a particular parental control utility, you need to make sure that it supports all the device types in your household. While all the products in the chart above support Windows and Android, compatibility with macOS and iOS varies. That said, Apple has recently announced the new Screen Time feature for the upcoming iOS 12, a set of tools for monitoring and controlling app and device usage. Taken alongside iOS’ existing Restrictions settings, when iOS 12 releases Apple will offer a free set of parental controls tools comparable to these paid alternatives, with the added benefit of first-party support.

Note that some parental control utilities leverage VPN technology on iOS devices, running internet connections through a local app to enable content filtering. You’ll see the VPN icon when such a utility is active, but it doesn’t mean the child’s connection is secured by a full-scale virtual private network, nor that the device’s IP address is masked.

Check, too, that any limits on the number of child profiles or devices won’t be a problem. Large families, for example, will appreciate that Norton Family works on an unlimited number of devices. Most parental control software operates as a subscription service, so pricing tiers tend to align with device limits, though some offer free versions for basic protection on a limited number of devices. If your kids are strictly smartphone users, take a look at our roundup of mobile parental control apps.

If getting parental control coverage installed on each of your family’s devices starts to seem too difficult, consider a whole-network solution, such as Circle With Disney or Open DNS. These systems perform content filtering at the router level, so your settings affect every device on the network. Naturally, you don’t get the same fine level of control and detailed monitoring that you get with a local agent on…