Category: Parental Controls

Safe Internet for Schools

Safe Search for Schools and Home

Attention Schools and Classrooms:  Bookmark this page to enjoy our free internet filtering tools above. This ensures that safe browsing on Google is always set to the most secure filtered results. Whether Safe Search is used at home or on every computer in school, blocking harmful content is also important when searching for images and videos.

Filtering and Monitoring Options Combined:  The same parental controls that parents use at home are now available in the classroom. Before we explore internet filtering and all its facets, we’re proud to announce that Safe Search Kids has partnered with Qustodio with a mission to develop a seamless way for parents, schools, and teachers to work together to keep kids safe online.

Table of Contents:

  1. Internet Filtered Monitoring for Schools
  2. Qustodio for Schools
  3. How to Use Safe Search Kids
  4. Security vs Internet Filtering Explained
  5. Parental Control Monitoring
  6. Teaching Good Online Habits
  7. Additional Safe Search Apps
  8. Resource Articles and Videos

For schools interested in complete internet filtering and monitoring on all of their devices regardless of where students browse online, we invite you to explore what we believe is the best software available to protect and monitor students in class.

Internet Filtered Monitoring for Schools

  • No expensive hardware or long-term contracts are attached to Qustodio Schools software.
  • It works on all mobile phones and tablets, as well as on lap tops, PC’s and Mac’s. (Other parental control for schools featured on our website only work on mobiles devices via an app).
  • During the 14-day free trial, any educational organization will have access to a fully-featured internet safety platform for all of their devices.
  • The goal is a safer internet and there are many elements working together to make it happen.

Qustodio for Schools fits educational institutions of any size globally and here is what is special about it:

  • offers management at scale and bulk installation on all school devices
  • available in English and Spanish
  • offers detailed, exportable insights and reports
  • one on one customer support
  • affordable pricing

Qustodio for Schools Includes:

  • Intelligent reporting. View aggregate activity or drill down to individual user activity
  • Scalable deployment. Deploy with a simple download or mass deploy with your chosen MDM
  • Smarter web filtering.  With smart web categories, block inappropriate sites automatically
  • Flexible policies. Give each class, grade or student the access rules they need
  • Apps and time controls. Decide which apps can be used and when in a few clicks
  • Multi-platform protection. Seamless protection on Windows, Mac, Android, Chromebook, iOS and Kindle

Schools can now try a fully functional version of this unique software to protect every device for every student in the classroom.

For parents at home who wish to ensure the ultimate in internet safety for kids at home, we encourage the use of internet filtering apps to give parental control over how kids access the internet. This is not to be confused with Internet Security Software that protects your computer against viruses as explains below.

How to Use Safe Search Kids

Safe Internet Filtering for Schools

Before we speak about additional options online for filtering and security, here is what Safe Search Kids offers.  It’s simple to use access to internet filtering tools without an app or software installation, just go to the top right corner of our website.  It’s also free.

Bookmark this page for easy access or save as a home screen on mobile phones. You may also scroll down to the bottom of this page to bookmark our individual search tools for Safe Images, Safe Videos and Wiki for Kids

You can also switch between our search resources using the 4 tabs you see on the top right of our website. The first one is for searching Google. It provides the same results as Google, but with strict internet filtering. In essence, as long as you are searching from our website and the results page that follows your initial search, all bad content is filtered.

There are plenty of options when is comes to protecting kids online.  So, let’s do our best to clear up the confusion around internet safety tools and resources.

Internet Security vs Filtering Apps and Software Explained

There are four areas of online security and safety that people need to be aware of. Protecting your computer and protecting your child, or even yourself from idendity theft, are different things. These are not presented as options, rather – they each offer a different level of protection and serve different purposes.

1. Anti-Virus Software

This is essential basic software that filters your email to protect your computer from becoming infected with a virus. No computer should be without anti-virus protection. Many operating systems come with enough security to screen your email, such as on a Mac computer or Windows 10. One of the best free versions of a third party anti-virus software program is AVG.

2. Anti-Malware

This includes the removal and full protection from malware infecting your computer. It does not filter email. Rather, it screens and blocks a variety of viruses and subversive malware from infecting your computer due to a cyber attack. It protects you as you visit websites, some of which may be infected by malware. Malware Protection is an important addition to any anti-virus program you may choose to install and also includes protection against Ransomware.

3. Parental Control Software

If you are concerned about protecting your kids from harmful online content, you need proper internet filtering that restricts access to the internet according to the age of each child in your home. Our website can only go so far in filtering the web. Additional features provided by parental controls monitor things like social media usage, app downloads and a child’s location. Sign up to try this parental control app to protect all of the various devices used by your family.

4. Safe Search for Kids

The filtering tool on our website is enhanced by Google to ensure safe search results for all keywords entered. It is a FREE solution when searching Google. While it will block search results for inappropriate search terms entered, it does not block access to other areas of the internet when kids leave our site. This is where internet filtering software or apps should be explored.

5. VPN

Short for Virtual Private Network, VPNs are not common to most families.  However, the security features of using a VPN are well worth exploring.  It protected against swatting for gamers as well as hackers who may want to invade your privacy, whether at home or when accessing the Internet in public.

The most popular option our users are most interested in are parental controls and it’s relation to internet filtering.

Parental Control Monitoring Includes:

  • Internet Filtering – Search the web with safety ensuring questionable and harmful websites are blocked.
  • Content Controls – Flexible content control allows you to select the types of websites that are appropriate according to age.
  • Program Controls – Control Instant Messengers, P2P File Sharing, control of what apps can be downloaded.
  • Time Controls – Control the amount of time spent online, and the times when the internet is available for each child.
  • Usage Logging – Create and review logs of websites visited, programs used on the Internet.
  • Usage Alerts – Be notified instantly via email or text message when someone visits inappropriate websites.
  • All of these monitoring resources can be accessed via a parental control app or on your desktop computer. Learn More

Choosing stand-alone filtering software greatly improves your kids internet safety and allows parents the ability to set the safety controls for each child according to their age and responsibility. Deleting search history won’t be enough for users to hide their activity.

Teaching Good Online Habits:

Software that features both accountability and internet filtering. What is the difference?

Web Filtering: This feature of the software filters the internet and blocks potentially harmful content.  Parental controls allow you to set web filtering for schools according to user age, as well as put timelines on how long a user can surfing the internet, as well as restrict hours of use.  This software can also be applied to applications and phones.

Accountability: When software is installed on any or all computers in your home, you will receive a report emailed to you weekly to show high risk website that were visited. This feature does not block content. It is meant for older kids and adults who know that the report will be viewed, and therefore builds good web browsing habits. The accountability report can be further generated to easily show sites according to various ratings, such as Teen, Mature Teen and Mature.

So what about our website – Safe Search Kids? How do we  fit into the mix of providing internet safety for kids? For one, our site only restricts potentially harmful websites on Google while using our internet filtering tools. Our website simply allows for added security for those who are not installing software filtering.

Safe Search Kids is ideal for schools who want to implement safe search filtering instantly without having to painstakingly turn on safe search within the settings of each computer. This is done by bookmarking our home page.  Alternatively, explore complete parental controls for schools provided by Qustudio.

Never before in the history of time has there been so much information available to us. It’s all just a click of a mouse away. This is ideal for research and the educational benefits seem endless.  Of course, with this great freedom comes great responsibility. Access to the internet also increases the risk of of exposing students of knowledge and exploration to harmful material found all too easily online.  Google SafeSearch for schools has been created to filtering out this harmful content.

Parental control software programs enable you to block internet access in the following ways that Google Safe Search on our website cannot.

  • Software programs filter all access the internet regardless of device or search engine being used.
  • It gives parents control of social media use and app downloads according to custom account settings.
  • Provides reports for searches, instant messages, keywords entered and controls screen time.

Additional SafeSearch Filtering Apps?

It is important to note that Google safe search is not perfect. We strive to provide a healthy balance between screening out illicit material and providing quality search results. For this reason, the ultimate in security can only be achieved with the use of parental control software. This is difficult and costly in a school setting where you have hundreds of computers, which is why Safe Search Kids is a good step towards a safer online environment on a broader level and we also provide an app version.

When you have control over 1 or 2 computers and phones in your home, it becomes a viable option to consider filtering software options to protect kids, as well as your computer from being infected by viruses and malware. The cost is minimal and gives the user much more control over what keywords are filtered out.

Make to do your research and compare all the pros and cons, including costs, before proceeding.  Of course, no search filter can replace parental supervision when it comes to children on the internet – even when safe search is turned on – but every little bit helps.

Our Resource Articles and Videos

In addition to our internet filtering tools for schools and homes, Safe Search Kids is focused on providing resourceful articles that are informative for parents, teachers, and students. Many of our articles contain educational videos.  Parents and educators may want to direct their kids to read these articles or watch a video that is part of their education. Additional videos that are not embedded with our posts can be found here.

You can access our recent posts in the center column. To read an article, clicking the “read more” button. You’ll find sharing tools at the bottom of each post. As you scroll down, we feature a longer list or our more poplar articles for parents, education, wellbeing, and human interest, as well as posts related to internet security and online safety. To search for a specific article topic, our website search tool is located beneath any article you are reading.

At the very bottom of this website, you will find direct links to our individual search pages related to Google safe, safe image search, wiki for kids and safe videos.

We encourage you to browse our articles for helpful topics, and of course, bookmark Safe Search for Kids for strict filtering on Google – on every computer in your home or at school.

The information demonstrated in this video has been updated.  Click to learn the latest on how to turn on safe search using Google Family Link.

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Parental Controls for YouTube

youtube parental controls

We are happy to offer a video filtering tool at the top of our website, but what if your child or teen is searching YouTube from a regular browser or smart phone? Fortunately, free parental controls for YouTube are available using your Google account.

Even though YouTube has restrictions on what users can post, it still contains questionable material that is not appropriate for every age group.  However, there are a number of ways to make it a little safer with parental controls.  And when using YouTube Kids in a browser or via parental controls on the YouTube app, it’s much more safe.

Activating Parental Controls on YouTube

In the past, you could only turn on safe search for Google’s regular search results to ensure safe browsing. After many requests from parents and educators, YouTube now has parental controls so that you can implement YouTube filtering in your browser when searching from YouTube.com. Further action was taken to create an entirely safe YouTube for kids.  We will explore all of these options.  For instant automatic filtering of videos from a variety of screened websites, explore our safe video search.

In this article you will learn:

  1. How to turn on Restricted Mode and how to lock it. This does not mean it will provide 100% safety when searching videos on YouTube, but it will help parents ensure the worst content is blocked.
  2. How to set up stricter parental measures for younger kids on computers and laptops.
  3. How to protect children using a special app on mobile devices, such as tablets and phones.

To fully monitor or block how family members access the entire internet, explore parental control software and apps for all devices.

How to Set Up Restricted Mode for YouTube

To implement the YouTube Restricted Mode, go to YouTube.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page….

You will see a reference to Restricted Mode: Off...

Click the drop down arrow and details about ‘restricted mode’ will appear…

Clicking On followed by the Save button will activate ‘Restricted Mode’ but will not lock it.youtube parental controls restricted mode

Locking YouTube Safe Search

As you will see, it’s very easy to turn safe search on and off. Therefore, you may want to lock it in order to ensure it is always activated for all family members.

To activate parental controls for YouTube, you will need a Google account. To open a free Google account, go to google.com and click “Sign In” in the top right hand corner of their main website. You will then see the option to create a new account.

Now return to YouTube (while signed into your account) and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Restricted Mode link.

After selecting the “On” button, you will see an option to Save. Then log out of your account.

youtube restricted mode

Restricted Mode is now activated you can now log out of your account. Unlocking restricted mode on YouTube will require you to log into your account. This guarantees that no one else can deactivate the safety setting.

Important: If you have more than one browser on your computer, you will need to follow these steps for each browser. Below is a video that walks you through the process of implementing YouTube Parental Controls that were just explained.

Remember, restricting YouTube will stop the worst content but not all videos that you personally may see as unfit for younger viewers.

Even with parental controls for YouTube activated, many parents and educators find YouTube inappropriate for their kids. Along with these measures, exploring teenage counselling online could provide teens with extra support, helping them handle any emotional challenges that arise from exposure to online content. Our safe video tab on the top of our website offers strict filtering of videos from a variety of safe sources.

Parental Controls Using YouTube Kids

Parental Controls for YouTube

Alternatively, you can restrict your younger family members from using YouTube entirely.  Go to YouTube Kids to set up a parent account.  Follow the instructions and when complete, you can direct your kids to use the same website.  Parents can choose the appropriate level of content for each child.  Your selection impacts the types of videos available within YouTube Kids.

Content Experiences Include:

  • Preschool (ages 4 and under)
  • Younger (ages 5-8)
  • Older (age

KidzTube Videos:  Please note that the search feature tab for video at the top of our website delivers safe filtering videos from educational and filtering websites only.  However, it does not restrict children from going to other browsers to search Google.   We have an app for that as well.  Continue reading…

Parental Controls on YouTube App

When kids are using YouTube on their mobile phones, the steps to protecting your kids is similar.

  1. Visit your devices app store and search for YouTube Kids
  2. Download the YouTube Kids App.
  3. Follow the instructions to set up your parental account with a pin number.
  4. If the regular YouTube app is already installed, delete it from your child’s phone.
  5. Show your child the new YouTube Kids apps on their phone and let them loose to explore safely.

To ensure safe searching for every age of kids in your family, you can also delete any installed browsers.  Then, download our safe search app for safe searching of Google and other filtered resources.  It called the KidzSearch app and provides the same filtering as seen on the top of this website.

Safe YouTube Summary

Parents put a lot of trust in safety tools and resources provided from various sources to protect their kids online.  As children age, internet filtering and monitoring by parents can be eased, but will never be totally removed until they are fully grown and move out on their own to begin life as a adult.  In the meantime, it’s also important to teach kids the value of responsible internet use. This includes searching YouTube for videos that can provide positive entertainment and educational benefits.

Watch this Video for Step By Step Instructions to Lock Safe Search with YouTube parental controls.

Learn more about online safety for kids, including privacy concerns and how to make YouTube Safe with parental controls.

Read this parents guide about understanding AI generated YouTube content.

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Covenant Eyes | Parental Controls & Accountability

Covenant Eyes - Parental Controls

All software based internet filters block content to prevents kids from viewing harmful websites or downloading apps their parents don’t approve of.  Covenant Eyes does this as well, but has added features that encourages a culture of accountability through email reports disclosing internet use and sending them to an accountability partner.

This accountability relationship may include kids and their parents, or may strictly be among adult friends who are struggling with porn on the internet.  Therefore, Covenant Eyes is not just marketed to parents who want to protect younger internet users.

How Does Covenant Eyes Work?

Unlike the history in your browser that can be deleted, Covenant Eyes keeps track of all user activity within the subscriber’s account.  It teaches safe browsing habits.  Just knowing that an extra set of eyes will see the search history on a daily or weekly basis help keeps family and friends responsible when surfing the internet, including Google.

It is these two facets that makes Covenant Eyes unique.  While most parental control software programs are set up to give parents all the control, Covenant Eyes can also be for adult users with accountability partners.  These adults have control of their own account and their accountability partners are sent reports of online activity, as well as changes made to restrictions and app downloads.  To further clarify, let’s recap that which may be confusing to those who are new to internet filtering, parental control apps, and monitoring software;

Covenant Eyes has Two Distinct Features depending on the End User

  • It is just like your standard parental control software used by parents to monitor and restrict internet access for younger kids.  Age limits can be set according to age to give teens more freedom to make good choices online, but a certain level filtering and blocking is still implemented. This is controlled by the parent.
  • It is monitoring software for adults who want accountability with a friend or spouse*.  The account is opened by the adult user.   An accountability partner is added (or multiple partners) and email reports are sent to this partner or multiple partners of their internet activity.  The frequent of email reports is determined by the account holder.

The creation of the Covenant Eyes software program was based on the word covenant, which is basically an agreement one makes with another person about particular issue. In regards to internet safety, the agreement made with what people see online (covenant eyes).  The commitment is to stay away from harmful content online.  Later, Covenant Eyes was expanded to also provide complete internet blocking for kids.

Accountability for You

Both internet blocking and screen accountability are included in the full software download.  The difference is who owns the account.  For families with kids, the parents have the control.  For adults, they hold the account and have full access to the internet. They simply want to be accountable to others. It may be to fight a porn addiction or they are struggling with control issues over internet use.

*It has been recommended by many counselors of couples who are struggling with porn that your Covenant Eyes accountability partner is someone other than your spouse.  This sets up inequitable parental roles within the relationship.  All couples, married or not, should be focusing on open and honest communication about all aspects of their relationship without condescension.  It can work better for each individual to set up accountability with a friend that both people in the relationship respect and trust.

If you are an adult seeking control over the internet within your own life, you still have freedom online.  For example, a site like YouTube may automatically be blocked.  This is a standard setting for parents who may want to prevent their younger kids from being on YouTube.  Therefore, you can change the settings to allow YouTube.  Your accountability partner(s) will see these changes in their email report but it won’t be something they would question since YouTube is not a pornographic website.

Covenant Eyes

Internet Blocking

If you are a parent with older teens, you may not even decide to block content.  You may want to teach self control.  Your teens actions will be greatly controlled by the strength of their accountability relationship with you as a parent.  When they are aware that the parent will be receiving email reports about online activity, it will teach good decision making and self control.

Accountability can also go both ways.  Friends may want to be accountable to each other, or a support group of friends.  Each member would have their own account and add multiple partners.

Email reports are not cumbersome. Bad websites are highlighted to produce an easy to view history report of where a user has been online. Those keeping an eye on a users internet habits can also log in with limited access to see a recent history.  Of course, this is not ideal for younger kids because you don’t want them stumbling on explicit material even by accident.  This is where you would want to employ complete parental controls.

Beyond the accountability option, Covenant Eyes still allows parents to block websites based on the age. This protects kids from being exposed to explicit material by mistake.  It comes preloaded with at set of obvious sites that should be blocked but may decide you don’t want a person to access a particular social media site and only access safe apps.

Basic Covenant Eyes Account Set Up

  • Covenant Eyes downloaded to a computer or smart phone.
  • Covenant Eyes keeps a complete and accurate record of all web usage.
  • Filtering, blocking  and Monitoring can be set up according to age.
  • Accountability Partners, selected by the user, receive reports by email about internet activity.
  • Unique dynamic scoring system highlights questionable sites, making the report easy to read.
  • When an accountability partner is removed, that partner previously set up to receive activity reports is notified.
  • Create Your Covenant Eyes Account

Screen Accountability

Covenant Eyes has responded to the growing need to their software to work as the internet privacy and security protocols evolve.  Therefore, they have redefined accountability as screen accountability.  Basically, it’s not as easy now to determine the content of a website based only on the url or written content on the page.

Screen Monitoring:  The software periodically captures screenshots of screen activity and stores them securely.

Screenshot Analysis:  Advanced artificial intelligence analyzes those screenshots, on your device, for explicit imagery.

Screenshot Processing:  The software rates the images, blurs them to protect your privacy, then prioritizes them based on content.

Activity Reporting:   A report of concerning activity, circumvention attempts and other activity is sent to you and your ally.

Safe Search

Safe Search Kids recommends the use of parental control software to implement internet filtering. If you decide not to subscribe to internet filtering and blocking via software, we still encourage families to use Google Safe Search.  Just know that while filtered search engines such as ours do a great job of blocking offensive and dangerous websites, they only work while the child is using the safe search website to conduct searches.  A program such as Covenant Eyes is a tool that combines greater restrictions to internet access.  In either case, parental guidance on safe browsing behavior is always best to teach kids safe browsing habits.

If you have a computer gamer in the house, a parental control program is not the same as anti-virus software.  Many gamers complain of reduced speed while running anti-virus for protection and now there is a new solution to that problem.  It’s Performance + Security in One for gamer security.

Covenant Eyes Accountability Reporting

Covenant Eyes analyzes each website visited and blocks or allows them according to each user’s sensitivity settings. The parental control filter requires an ‘uninstall code’ in order to remove it from the computer. If the program is uninstalled, all users and accountability partners receive an email that the Covenant Eyes is no longer tracking usage.

As mentioned, you can choose to not have a lower level of filtering for older family members. At it’s most basic level, the software program instills positive browsing habits through accountability and reduces the risk of developing addictive behavior. Parents should also consider controls for very young children spending time online.

Simply create an Covenant Eyes account and download.  The software provides an economical solution to internet filtering for the entire family.  For adults, it offers freedom with the ability to set up accountability with trusted friends.   Typical adult users are those who choose to resist temptation on the internet by remaining accountable to a friend or spouse.

Give it a try and if you are not completely satisfied with how the program is working for you, simply request a refund within 30 days for a guaranteed 100% refund.

Families!  Take the Covenant Eyes 7 Day Digital Detox for Free!

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Parental Controls for Phones and Tablets

Parental Controls for Phones

The use of a parental control app and is our preferred recommendation for parents seeking complete protection for children on their phones and tablets.  It provides monitoring for both IOS Apple and Android devices.  It goes to work immediately to filter and block access to bad websites, as well as monitor social media.

Much more than a phone location tracker, the right parental control app download provides a variety of features to monitor and restrict internet usage and control the use of apps being downloaded. Parents can easily customize settings according to each family member’s age.

With parental controls installed on mobile devices (including iPads) parents will be notified of potential harm to their child online  24/7:  Download Here

For parental control solutions for desktop computers and laptops (as well as mobile devices) explore parental control software

The Need for Parental Controls

Today, parents have a lot of keep track of online.  Kids are active on gaming platforms, social media, multiple search engines, YouTube and chat rooms many parents don’t know about.   On the other side of a child’s online access are potentially secret friends, cyberbullies, viruses, malware, ransomware and child predators.

Thankfully, the app does the work for parents so that they don’t have to relentlessly monitor their child’s online activity 24/7.  It works right away to filter and block access to bad websites.  Still, within the parental control dashboard parents have complete control to customize settings according to each family member’s age.

The Power of Parental Control Apps

Gone of the days of a single computer in the family room where kids go online under the watchful eyes of mom and dad after dinner.  Couples and single parents still needed to be extra invigilate but control was still achievable. Then came mobiles phones that put the world wide web in everyone’s pocket.

These days, the internet is readily available to young finger tips on bedroom computers, lap tops, tablets and smart phones. Within the last decade social media has only multiplied the challenges of what kids see and hear online, including exposure to toxic friendships and the risk of cyberbullying.

Schools can set up internet controls and blocking on their servers but for homes it’s not possible to implement a blanket approach to online safety without an app installations.  For home use, it is relatively simple to install parental controls on multiple devices for instant protection against explicit web content.

Parental Control Features:

From it’s creation, phone monitoring apps have evolved to handle all of today’s obstacles to safety. It continues to be updated to respond to new technology and trends that kids gravitate to.  Unless automatic monitoring and restrictions are in place, these hot spots expose young children and teens to new and unwanted content before most parents even know about them.

Parental Control App Downloads

Once the mobile app or desktop is installed on all of your household’s various devices, you can change settings for each child without having to continually ask for each device. Parental control apps for phones detects your operating system to give you the right installation for each PC or Mac computer, as well as providing parental controls on iPhones, Android phones and tablets. Simply visit this same article via any browser on any device then click the link below to guide your through the installation process. Or forward this page you are reading to your child’s email address on their device and click the install link below.

Parental controls on phones enable parents to watch all of these online activities in real time for any family member on any device; including apps being used, internet searches, YouTube, social media platforms being accessed, location updates, and screen time history.  

The Bottom Line:  A parental control app gives kids of all ages the freedom to explore the internet fully protected  from harm.  Whether it be research for school, connecting with friends, playing a game or watching a video, kids are kept safe no matter where they are using their device. The automation that parental control apps provide does the heavy lifting for parents, while giving them the tools to monitor and customize the controls they feel are appropriate for each member of the family.

Two important facts about the world wide web.

  1. The internet is a dangerous place filled with material that is harmful to younger kids and teens. This often explicit content is easy to access from any device in multiple locations, in many cases far from parental supervision.
  2. The internet is a vast wonderland of knowledge and information that cannot by replaced by books or the world’s largest library. Or at least it can’t be as easily accessible with a few clicks or taps from the palm of any sized hand.

How can something so bad be so good at the same time? Perhaps it is the nature of anything that wields such great power. Inevitably, it can be use for good and for bad.

The Evolution of Parental Controls

Parental control has been around since men and women first walked the earth. It’s the power to control your child’s environment in order to protect them. At best, it’s a loving non democratic system to ensure security for family members. With age, more freedom was given. Boundaries were expanded to give each family member control of their own protection as responsible behavior was acquired.

This model of parenting continues to thrive today without adverse effects, rather, positive outcomes where kids became teens and teens became adults with the ability to protecting themselves from harm. But the term Parental Controls has taken on a new meaning in the new technological world. Never before in man’s history has so much good and bad been combined in a single handheld device for the masses.

At the dawn of the internet, there were only stationary computers in the living room or family office that parents needed to monitor. Then came laptops and eventually the smart phone. It was a mini computer you could fit in your pocket, yet with more speed, storage space and accessible information from the outside world than ever thought possible just 10 years earlier.

Cyberbullying, once a new problem for kids online, is now a primary concern. Bullying has progressed from the playground to social media and it becomes a vicious circle when children are bullied at school and online by the same people.  Of course, cyberbullying expands the access of bullies to harass people they don’t even go to school with. Or, they can be from anywhere in the world and simply troll and comment posts where kids are already being mocked online. It very much becomes a mob mentality to an extreme.

Parental Control Software and Apps

The fundamentals of parents control over their offspring in order to protect has not been replaced by technology. On the contrary, kids and teens still need to be taught how to manage and use the internet responsibility. Just as they need to know to stay off thin ice in the winter or wear a life jacket while boating, they will need to because taught how to control their own use of the internet. After all, kids will someday be on their own with no boundaries except for the laws they choose to abide as decided by society. And one might add the moral and ethical laws in place to protect themselves and their fellow citizens.

Until such a time, parental control software and apps for computers, lap tops, tablets and smart phones are simply a tool. Just like parenting in a non tech world, kids need to learn how to use the power of the internet for their good. Simultaneously the technological restrictions that parental control technology provides assists parents in setting boundaries they cannot see in the real world. It’s a tool that can greatly control and monitor online activity in the beginning. As children grow, these same controls can be loosened as more responsibility is given.

This is the essence of parental controls in the modern age that compliments real world parenting to bring up our children. It keeps them secure from the worst of the internet, yet empowered them too safety grow in knowledge and education throughout their formidable years.

Features of Parental Controls, recommended by Safe Search Kids

  • Internet filtering and blocking
  • Online monitoring
  • Location tracking
  • Screen time management
  • Monitoring of app usage
  • Social media monitoring
  • Keeping an eye on texts and pics
  • Monitor drive habits
  • Activity alerts
  • Download
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