Kids and screen time - it’s a thing.
Whether educational, creative or entertainment based, most parents want a helping hand in
monitoring exactly how much and what type of content kids are consuming.
Today we’ll go over some simple, and budget-friendly ways to do just that.
This is DIY in 5!
Hey everyone!
Welcome to DIY in 5, I’m Trisha Hershberger and today, we’re going to help you get a
handle on the various types of parental controls and monitoring options available to you for
free or at minimal cost and show you how to set them up with ease.
If you find the info in today’s video helps you out a bit, please feel free to like this
video and subscribe to this channel so you don’t miss out on any future tech tips.
Let’s start off with Microsoft Family Safety, which works on iOS, Android, and Xbox and
Windows devices and is a parental control app that lets you monitor screen time and
app usage across multiple devices for free with a Microsoft account.
All you need to do is set up a Microsoft account for each family member you want to track.
Now, if you don’t already have a Microsoft family group, simply sign into your Microsoft account,
click “Add a family member” and enter their email address associated with their Microsoft account.
To set up a Microsoft account for your child, you can click “Create a child account”
and follow the on-screen instructions.
Then download the Microsoft Family Safety app on each mobile device, tablet, or Xbox
you’d like to monitor and sign your family members into their own Microsoft accounts
on their own respective devices.
In addition to monitoring activity, you can also turn on screen time limits, schedules,
filter specific apps, monitor location via GPS and even monitor web browsing if using the Edge browser.
If using the Edge browser, you can set allowed and blocked websites, search filters and more.
There’s even location sharing options and you can save places your children visit frequently.
With a premium account, if you happen to be a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can also setup
location alerts and monitor drive history and get access to drive safety reports
you know, if your tiny human isn’t quite so tiny anymore.
For Mac users, there are built-in parental controls for screen time monitoring as well.
By turning on Family Sharing, you can remotely manage and monitor each child’s device usage
from your own Mac or iOS device.
If you choose not to use Family Sharing, you can still log into a child’s Mac account
and set up screen time in their settings if you choose to do so.
Whether you are doing this through your account via Family sharing or via your child’s account,
go to System Preferences, Screen Time, choose the child if using Family Sharing, click Options
in the lower left corner, then click “Turn On…” in the upper right corner.
At this point, you have the option to include website data if you want specific sites visited
instead of general time spent in Safari, and to activate a Screen Time Passcode to allow
additional time once limits expire or to adjust settings.
You can also set up a downtime schedule, set time limits for individual apps or sites,
setup communication limits and/or content and privacy restrictions as well.
Now while PC and Mac can do a lot, incorporating the features we’ve just mentioned,
if you want to go even further than that or you have specific child-focused devices not covered so far,
there are other downloadable programs that may be more suited to your particular goals.
Qustodio is a free app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chromebook and Kindle that includes
things like social media monitoring, text message tracking and calls.
The real-time internet filter can detect and block inappropriate sites, even in private browsing modes.
Now, if you upgrade to the premium version, you can monitor up to 5 devices, have location tracking and more.
Kaspersky Safe Kids is another option for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS that’s free
with no limit on devices or child profiles.
For premium features like location tracking, social media monitoring, YouTube search history
and real-time alerts, there’s a 7-day free trial and it’s only $14.99 a year for the
full version if you decide to keep it.
Kaspersky offers a pretty robust web activity monitoring that’s category specific and,
while it includes multiple browser options on desktop, on Android and particularly iOS
your browser options are limited to Chrome or Kaspersky’s Safe browsers.
iOS devices in general limit the third party monitoring you can use, so you won’t
be able to monitor app usage or block access after a time limit is reached.
NetNanny and Norton Family Premier are other popular options that are out there as well,
and while they both offer monitoring similar to what we’ve discussed so far,
neither have free versions and run anywhere from $39.99 to $89.99 per year.
As with any monitoring software, privacy can be a major concern as well as finding the
line between over and under monitoring when it comes to your child, and that can be a very personal decision.
For my tiny human, I tend to favor monitoring and limits that encourage education and creativity
when using devices and block out
some of the other activities that I’m not interested in him experiencing just yet.
What type of monitoring are you looking to see?
Are there other solutions that you’ve seen that you recommend?
And if so, shout ‘em out in the comments!
Alright, take care everyone, safe surfing, and I’ll see you next time with more DIY in 5!