Compare of some family-like or child-control solutions

adminApple, Google, Microsoft0 Comment
3 min. reading

Having kids in these digital days may become a challenge. Especially, if you wish your sibling to get their hands on their first device — either a PC, Mac or some mobile stuff. Challenging, because soon you’ll discover how much you don’t know and how better your kid is than you! :>

Limiting access time and reviewing what is she or he watching, playing or reading is a must and soon you face the problem of remote family control.

Hope that this article will help you in this adventure.

Google Family Link

Summary:

  • You must enroll a brand new child account; can’t bind and existing one!
  • Android 7.0 as minimum requirement

Get it from Google Play.

The first point (in bold) made this product out of discussion as for me, so no more details, sorry.

Qustodio

Summary:

  • In my opinion a worse business model (from customer perspective):
    • You always has access to all functionalities
    • But free version is limited to single device only
    • Need to protect two or more devices — you always must pay
  • 55 bucks per year for five devices*
  • More devices under protection — monitors certain e-readers as well (Kindle / Nook)
  • Parents application (on parents device) unprotected, kid can access anytime
  • Quite elastic web panel to manage
  • Not many languages supported

*You can save 10 USD when paying for two years in advance (95 USD).

Get it from Google Play or read more here.

Kaspersky Safe Kids

Summary — in compare to above:

  • Better business model (true freemium):
    • Limited functionality, but unlimited devices for free
    • Pay up, if you want all functions and all stuff
  • Way cheaper — only 15 bucks per year for unlimited number of devices.
  • Does not support (monitors) e-readers.
  • Parents app secured with PIN what can be a little bit annoying*
  • So far no web panel, just mobile app
  • Many languages supported

*So far I had to enter that damn PIN million of times. No fingerprint support so far.

Limited support for iOS-based mobile devices:

  • No calls or text messages monitoring / blocking
  • Time-based device locking does not work; only message is displayed that time is up
  • The “Panic Button SOS” function is not supported

Get it from Google Play or read more here.

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