Parental control SW

[MichaelB]

Parental control SW. Something I didn’t have to deal with, but my children do. DD#1 has children at that age, and I want to help, so I did a cursory search and found lots of apps and products; all with links and graphics and marketing talk but nothing that really stood out. Lots of junk. What I didn't see anywhere is a comprehensive set or list of features that define "parental control app or SW" for a programmable device. Their social groups are heavy users of personal tech but none seem to have a solid understanding of how to enable a child to use this, effectively but safely.

So I'm building a list, which I can then use to assess the capabilities of the different options, make comparisons, and let DD prioritize what she wants. So, my preliminary list follows. Wondering if anyone here has any experience with this, or can suggest additional features for the list.

- Download only with permission of control unit
- Provides a history of all device activity.
- Customizable filter and blocks access to questionable content on acceptable sites (e.g. YouTube).
- Allows scrutiny of all written communication
- Parent unit controls child device
- Time limits with automatic shutdown
- Works on all networks, home and away

 

[REWahoo]

I had to read a few lines of your post to find the answer to my "What the heck does 'southwest' have to do with parenting?" question.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

MMGuardian has all of that- also it shuts off device when device travels at more than 15 mph- i.e. no texting and driving. Unfortunately my kid who is brilliant at technology was able to hack through controls. At the moment I have ESET parental controls- its an antivirus software. It does not have all of the features that MMGuardian has, but so far this one has been hack proof. I hear Norton has a good one too.

 

[MichaelB]

MMGuardian has all of that- also it shuts off device when device travels at more than 15 mph- i.e. no texting and driving. Unfortunately my kid who is brilliant at technology was able to hack through controls. At the moment I have ESET parental controls- its an antivirus software. It does not have all of the features that MMGuardian has, but so far this one has been hack proof. I hear Norton has a good one too.

Texting and driving - something to add to the list.