Parental Control for Google, Samsung, Smartphones, iPads, Kids’ Tablets
If you are planning to buy a tablet for your child this year you may also be exploring parental control options from Google, as well as available safety apps for iPads and Samsung Tablets. There are plenty of buzz words out there related on internet safety, security and parental monitoring. It can be overwhelming especially for new parents who are giving a child their very first tablet.
We’ll do our best to break everything down for you. The last thing you need is to duplicate processes, while overlooking safety and security essentials, in an effort to make sure your new tablet or iPad kid safe. We’ll explain the difference between reliable parental controls from external sources and those that may already have existing restrictions in place for safe game play.
Finally, we’ll review software or apps that may be redundant if you already have purchased that make other programs redundant.
Parental Control Monitoring
There are a myriad of third-party parental control apps. Pricing varies and for the most part, they pretty much do the same thing. However, ease of use is a key factor for parents when decided which application they use to monitoring their child’s activity online. Key features you’ll want to ensure parental controls offer are as follows;
- Monitoring of texts and calls on social monitoring apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Kik.
- Monitoring of texts and calls on SMS and Messengers.
- GPS tracking so you can confirm where you kids are always.
- Geo fencing, which notifies you when your child leaves designated zone’s they are supposed to be.
- A porn blocker and content filter.
If you have both iPhones and Android devices being used by family members, your parental control app of choice should also be able to monitor both platforms and work on all devices, such as iPads, Samsung Tablets, and all smartphones in your home.
Parental Control Phones
New to the market are phones that have built-in parental controls. Monitoring features once found only by installing an app are offered within a parental control phone. Such is the case with a MMGuardian partnership with Samsung.
Parental Controls On Google
Firstly, if you are seeking a free parental control while searching Google, we have an app to recommend for that. Apart from bookmarking this website for PC’s or Macs, download our Google SafeSearch App for any tablet or mobile device. Then, instruct your kids to only use it to search Google. It provides the same strict filtering results as featured on the top of our website, but provided within the confines of an app. You may want to remove/delete all other search apps such as Safari for iPad and Chrome so they are not accessible for use.
Google also offers Family Link. It provides free tools to guide kids to good content, teach and set digital ground rules, monitor screen time and track location. for children within a certain age, there is also Kids Space, which is controlled by parents within Family Link. It’s a safe place for younger children to explore.
Parental Control Software and Parental Control Apps often refer to programs that block access to the entire web. Our search app and Google’s Family Link do not block or monitor internet access. Google SafeSearch only filters the web while searching. Our app and Family Link are free tools you can use to provide a certain level of parental control.
Greater restrictions are needed through a parental control software for those who want to stop older kids from taking steps to download harmful content. This may include re-downloading other search apps that you removed from the tablet.
Social Media Safety
Even if you have Google search covered, kids will also have access to outside content via their social media platforms. Every parent should have an open and honest conversation about which social media websites are allowed in your home. You can implement agreed upon guidelines as well, but this is where complete parental control apps can allow parents to see everything that is happening on any device the software is installed.
Parental controls with a paid subscription model will have a parent dashboard to view app downloads on all devices. The dashboard will also allow you to limit screen time and block specific hours when users are allowed online, such as late in the evening or when you are not home. And of course, all bad sites can be blocked not matter what method us used to find them, even if accidentally.
K
ids Tablets with Parental Control
If you have younger kids and not looking for a fully functional device like iPad or a Samsung tablet, there are fun activity tablets that already come with their own parental controls built in. These are very basic user-friendly tablets for kids that provide a safe environment for game downloads and internet search.
Schools who supply tablets for kids may also have internet filtering active through their own parental controls set for all users in the school.
Anti-Virus for Tablets
While parental control is all about protecting kids from accessing inappropriate websites, it does not block viruses. If you are getting a tablet for younger kids that are going to be strictly using Google safe search, then the risk for infection from computer viruses is lower. Generally, tablets are safer than PC computers but virus infection can still happen.
iPads are more secure because Apple’s operating system is more closed. Samsung tablets are running on an Android platform, which is more open, and therefore more susceptible. Just be aware that parental control or any other app designed to deliver safe search does not protect against viruses or malware.
Other than visiting infected website, email is the most common way a computer will get infected from a virus. If your child is not running email, then the risk of infect is reduced even more. If they are using a filtering search engine like ours, they are also less likely to end up on an infected website. To clarify, parental control software does not stop virus infections.
Read more about options related to internet safety related to virus protection. It’s another article where were break down the various buzz words related to internet safety and security.
Lets Review for Tablet Safety
- At the very least install our safe Google search app. It’s free.
- And it won’t hurt to consider Google’s Family Link app. It provides additional tools to equip families to be safe online.
- For complete parental control, as well as tools to teach kinds online responsibility, look for a software program that can control different levels is internet access according to each individual family member.
- Install anti-virus software for email and consider anti malware software to safety against infected websites.
Online Gaming Security
If you have an avid gamer in the household using a PC or Macintosh computer, explore options for gamer security. This stops users from turning off the Anti-Virus program they may have because it slows down their computer operating system.
