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5 Best Apps for Monitoring Your Child’s Smartphone Activities

Let’s face it: kids today lead digital lives and no amount of worrying will change that. However, if you’d like to keep up with your children’s digital lives, there are a number of apps that can help with that. You have a range of options, all the way from simple apps that tell you how much time your kid spends online to apps that let you know every detail.

KidLogger

The app: KidLogger.
Platform: iOS & Android.
Cost: Free.

Want to know everything? KidLogger tells you everything. It tracks every keystroke, telling you how long you kid was on their device, what apps were used, which websites were visited, who your kid contacted, what all parties said, where your kid went, and what photos were taken. It even takes screenshots periodically and leaves them in your KidLogger account. When we said everything, we mean everything.

MinorMonitor

The app: MinorMonitor.
Platform: Web-based.
Cost: Free.

MinorMonitor keeps track of your kid’s Facebook and Twitter activities, giving you as much or as little information as you’d like. It can identify possible bullying, drug use, profanity, sexual references, and more, alerting you. By far the best feature is that it’ll let you know if your kid ‘friends’ someone with whom they have few to no mutual friends.

MamaBear

The app: MamaBear.
Platform: iOS & Android.
Cost: Free with optional in-app purchases.

What can MamaBear tell you about your kid? Nearly everything you need to know. It offers a filtered view of their Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter accounts, tells you the current location of your child, arrival/departure notifications, and even gives you speed notifications. And, on Android, it offers text message monitoring.

Parental Control Board

The app: Parental Control Board.
Platform: iOS & Android.
Cost: Free with optional in-app purchases.

Parental Control Board lets you create a blacklist and a whitelist of apps, letting you control what your child uses. You can also put apps on a timer, scheduling when certain apps are allowed to be used or setting a limit on how much they can be used. Parental Control Board also offers call and text monitoring.

Screen Time

The app: Screen Time.
Platform: iOS & Android.
Cost: Free with optional in-app purchases.

Screen Time is a basic but useful app that lets you monitor how much screen time your child is getting without actually taking the screen away. You can set different amounts of time for different apps—for example, allowing an hour for Facebook but unlimited time for a reading app. You can also set up school and bedtime restrictions, and the app lets you easily “reward” your child with extra time.

The Bottom Line

What monitoring app is right for your family? It depends entirely the age of your child is, how much you trust their smartphone activities, and how much time they spend on their phones.