Parenthood doesn’t come with a handbook.
It goes without saying that building a kid up with the support they need and making sure they’re protected at all times certainly isn’t an easy feat.
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That’s why we’re working for you on different ways you can keep your child safe, especially online.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, more than 21.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation were made to its CyberTipline in 2020, setting a new record. The center says in that year alone the rate of these types of incidents increased by 97.5% compared to the previous year.
With cybercrime against children on the rise, 10 News sat down with SRO Sgt. Gregory Quesinberry from the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office and Floyd County High School. He recommended several apps that can help parents monitor their kids.
Let’s take a look!
AirDroid Parental Control
Description: AirDroid allows parents to monitor and manage their kid’s Android devices remotely. This includes viewing who your kid is talking to by monitoring text messages and activity in most social media apps.
Features:
- Location sharing: Plus, if your child follows a routine route, you can set it up so that you are immediately notified when your kid(s) enters or leaves that area
- Daily usage report: See how often your kid is on their device
- App and screen time management: Limit how much time your kid spends on their mobile device
- Sync App notifications: Receive the same notifications as your kid
- Remote monitoring: Monitor your child’s camera and microphone in real-time
Bark
Description: Bark wants to ease your worries and help give you peace of mind as your kid surfs the internet.
Features:
- Monitor for cyberbullying, online predators and more
- Manage alerts
- Create screen time schedules
- Filter websites and apps
Canopy
Description: Monitor the content of social media apps and will notify parents of inappropriate content (e.g. sexting, online predators, etc.)
Features:
- Smart Filtering: Filter out inappropriate images and videos on sites without having to block the entire site; filter out suggestive content
- Block websites
- Sexting prevention: Canopy can detect when a device has taken a suggestive picture
- Scheduling downtime: Limit how much your kid is on their device
- Location tracking: You can check to see where your child is at any time
Family Center
Description: Create a healthy digital space and teach your kid more about internet safety.
Features:
- Education Hub: Hear from experts about different ways you can keep your teen safe online
- Monitor your kid’s Instagram
- Monitor your kid’s Facebook
This app is part of Snapchat. It provides parents with a list of who their child is chatting with, but it doesn’t let you see the conversation.
Find My Kids
Description: This app was designed with your kids’ safety in mind and allows you to see where your kid is at all times.
Features:
- Monitor your kid’s activity and location throughout the day
- If they’re having trouble hearing your calls, you can listen to their surroundings
- Get updates when their battery is low
Google Family Link
Description: From location sharing to screen time limits, there are several tools that you can use to protect your kid.
Features:
- Location sharing
- Set screen time limits
- Protect their privacy
- Block inappropriate content
Kids Place
Description: This kid-friendly app has several useful features meant to help parents keep their little ones safe online.
Features:
- Manage apps
- Location tracker
- Manage screen time
- Monitor device usage
Life360
Description: With this app, you can track your kids’ location, monitor their driving habits and protect them from internet crimes.
Features:
- Location sharing: You can see where your kid is and name common places they visit (e.g. work, a family member or friend’s house, etc.)
- Driving safety: Monitor driving habits and can detect a crash
- Emergency assistance: If your teen gets in a car crash, is stranded or needs medical assistance, Life360 can send a trained expert to help
Parental Control Kroha
Description: This parental control app allows you to limit screen time, track locations, block inappropriate content and more.
Features:
- Location sharing
- Check screen-time
- Limit phone usage
- Block inappropriate website
- Set daily app time limit
- Block apps
Qustodio
Description: Manage screen time and manage your child’s messages and social media posts
Features:
- Filter content and apps
- Monitor activity
- Set time limits
- Track calls and SMS for Android and IOS
- Track locations
- Reports of online activity
Cellular Provider
Quesinberry also recommends checking with a child’s cellular provider for online safety tools.
“I know Verizon offers a parent plan that lets parents observe the child’s device and content,” he explained. “They can see a mirror image of the child’s phone.”
He continued, saying, “I recommend that parents do some online research on the several different parent monitoring apps to see what best fits. Most all apps work with both Android and IOS (Apple) devices. The above list is just a few of several available apps to help parents.”