A perfect example of such a tool is a GPS tracker for children who are old enough to go out of your sight for a bit and get lost finding their way back home. In case of danger, parents will be notified and will show the kid how to call for help and who they need to call.
You can also track and monitor social media activity, text messages and emails, and block undesirable apps and limit usage.
1. FiLIP 2
The FiLIP 2 smart locator phone is a product that has been designed for children to be worn as a device. It can be paired with the parent’s phone in order for them parents to also have access to the child’s location but also their immediate surroundings via the coordinating app which can use GPS, GSM and WiFi.
This device can also send parents one-directional text messages so that they can send a child a message like ‘Dinner’s ready’ or an alert like ‘I need help’. It also has the voice call and a locator button that connects to 911.
An all-in-one digital parenting app for keeping track of your kids’ device use, social media, porn filtering, setting screen-time limits, tracking locations, managing in-app purchases and more.
2. 5Star
There is no parenting manual, really. But such tools might help you navigate the road as a parent. And make it safer for your kids. These parental control apps and gadgets help regulate your kid’s activity through features such as time on screen, location tracking, app management, and monitoring calls and texts.
OurPact, a family-friendly mobile phone monitoring software, allows parents and kids to set daily allowances of device/app access, as well as to get a news feed-style rundown of their activities, and the usual parental control, including web filtering and a screen-time scheduler. Free (with paid add-ons).
Google Family Link, formerly called Google Accounts, allows you to use the basic monitoring features of Android for free, or with more limited functionality on iOS. They are ‘basic’ because they include only Web and device monitoring, location tracking, app blocking and content filtering. Norton Family is the paid-premium version and is part of the company’s anti-virus suite, allowing for considerably more monitoring features.
3. SafeZone
There’re so many benefits a person can get from the world of technology but at the same time it provides kids with a wide range of mischievous stuff. They may end up in pornography, dictration or dealing with cyberbullying and predators which is quite a hazzle for parents. There’re numerous apps helping kids to stay in safe zone online and keep an eye on them.
Covenant Eyes offers parental controls for smartphones, tablets, and computers, tracking phone calls, texts and the location of devices via GPS, viewing photos and videos, setting screen time limits and cutting off apps, and enabling parents to wipe the phone remotely if necessary. They can also get real-time location alerts, and create geofences to be alerted when children enter or leave home, school, grandma’s house or the mall. There’s a ‘panic button’ that parents can give to their kids so that the device will be locked and the child becomes forced to call back to the parent’s phone.
4. Parental Control
To help ensure that kids aren’t exposed to age-inappropriate content or activity (such as watching pornography, downloading malware or committing acts of terrorism online) or that they don’t waste too much time at the screen, parental control apps monitor devices including smartphones, tablets, computers and games playing consoles, among others. They restrict access to games, restrict screen times, prevent the installation of apps, monitor chat in social media and more.
In addition to features that help parents monitor usage, some parental control apps sort through images to alert parents if the photos show nudity or depict self-harm, eating disorders and violence. They can scan texts and emails for ‘red flags’, or a vocabulary used in bullying or sex crimes.
Some apps also have GPS tracking that can locate your child on a map and show the child’s location in real-time. It’s important to note that parental controls shouldn’t replace speaking to children about how they use technology.
5. GPS Tracker
We have the ability to track my kids so precisely, thanks to the technology of GPS, that I can be notified when they arrive at or leave school or home, or when the teenager I entrusted with the family car exceeds a preset speed limit.
Parents can monitor their youngster with a GPS tracker that is functionally identical to a regular smartwatch: the child can be monitored by the parent, who sees his location in real time; he can also send a group text to three people he knows well, send a video call to any of his parents, and press a Panic button in case of trouble.
AngelSense seems to be the clear choice for a child because of its two‑way voice and safety-zone set-up and its hourly gps status updates. For me, a phone just didn’t cut it.