What’s the best program for parental controls?

[Nikolas]

I’m looking for a good program to manage and monitor my kid’s device use. It needs to work on Windows and Android, let me set screen time limits, block inappropriate content, and track activity.

What do you use, and what would you recommend?

[Karla Sleutel]

Have no kids of my own. So the experience is very limited. What about the native Windows parental controls?

[Sampei.Nihira]

13 hours ago, Nikolas said:

I’m looking for a good program to manage and monitor my kid’s device use. It needs to work on Windows and Android, let me set screen time limits, block inappropriate content, and track activity.

What do you use, and what would you recommend?

If your son is not a descendant of Matthew Broderick's character in the film “WarGames”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

,moreover the first film he popularized, not only in the United States, as cited in Wikipedia what is quoted below:

Quote

WarGames is credited with popularizing concepts of computer hacking, information technology, and cybersecurity in wider American society

I recommend using not a software,but:

https://nextdns.io/

Edited December 10, 2024 by Sampei.Nihira

[NotHereToPlayGames]

7 minutes ago, Sampei.Nihira said:

If your son

And if the kid is a daughter?

For my grand-daughter, we use a KID'S TABLET from Best Buy.  We didn't have to "install" anything and didn't have to do any DNS "crap".

The kid can only play the games that we install and watch only YouTube "channels" that we pre-approve.

It's called an Amazon Fire and only cost $50 to $70 (down from $100 when we bought ours).

But the grand-daughter is only THREE YEARS OLD.

The OP didn't cite what AGE the kid is.  No 9yr old would mature into adulthood tethered to an Amazon Fire.

And no 14yr old wouldn't ditch their own parent-supplied device in favor of their unmonitored friend's "spare" given to them at school without either parent catching on for days, if not weeks or months.

[Sampei.Nihira]

1 hour ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

And if the kid is a daughter?

For my grand-daughter, we use a KID'S TABLET from Best Buy.  We didn't have to "install" anything and didn't have to do any DNS "crap".

The kid can only play the games that we install and watch only YouTube "channels" that we pre-approve.

It's called an Amazon Fire and only cost $50 to $70 (down from $100 when we bought ours).

But the grand-daughter is only THREE YEARS OLD.

The OP didn't cite what AGE the kid is.  No 9yr old would mature into adulthood tethered to an Amazon Fire.

And no 14yr old wouldn't ditch their own parent-supplied device in favor of their unmonitored friend's "spare" given to them at school without either parent catching on for days, if not weeks or months.

I have a daughter,you seem not to be a father.

Can you explain to me the concrete meaning (avoiding your usual personal ideas,because I am already aware of them in part) of what you wrote?

You imagine that your conclusions do not apply to everyone,right?
 

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Different kids need different rules.

Different ages need different rules.

Parenting isn't easy and it is never one-size-fits-all.

[Sampei.Nihira]

I now understand your post.
Thank you for the clarification.

It is up to the parents alone,because we “outsiders” ignore the needs of both parents and children of the OP, to decide what is the best internet protection for their children.
I have given my advice to the OP who may accept or reject it.
I (probably mistakenly) thought of a male because males tend to be more transgressive to parental authority.

At least in my country this is usually the case.
I at a young age was much more intolerant of my parents' authority than my sister.

But maybe in your country it is all the opposite, and I am completely wrong because I have an idea that does not reflect American society.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

2 hours ago, Sampei.Nihira said:

I at a young age was much more intolerant of my parents' authority than my sister.

Every generation has to learn anew.

We had to all but take InstaGram TO COURT over pics our daughter sent to one of her "boyfriends".

Every parent has to learn this themselves.

Her best friend landed herself in the Emergency Room for "cutting" her thighs all directly tied to "social media".

"Social Media" really is the DOWNFALL of society!!!

Again, there is no one-size-fits-all "do it this way" guide to parenting.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

And we have all but had folks here at MSFN "high five" the idea of their SONS having "relationships" with their FEMALE teachers.

But then not even take a step back and rethink that "high five" if the roles were reversed and it was a DAUGHTER and a MALE teacher!

We live in a society that makes up the rules as we go!

[D.Draker]

He's not coming back.

[Nikolas]

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for all your advice!

I have an 11-year-old daughter who has her own computer. She spends quite a bit of time watching videos on YouTube and playing games, both on her computer and phone. I'd like to make sure the YouTube channels she's watching are appropriate for her age and block access to certain ones if needed. I also want to set daily time limits for using these apps.

I’m not sure if this might seem a bit strict, but I think it’s reasonable, considering her age and the fact that YouTube has a lot of content, including things like horror stories that aren’t really suitable for kids.

[Nikolas]

On 12/9/2024 at 11:09 PM, Karla Sleutel said:

Have no kids of my own. So the experience is very limited. What about the native Windows parental controls?

I tried Google family link once, but if I remember correctly, there’s no option to block specific YouTube channels, you can only block access to YouTube entirely.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

WAY reasonable !!!  Trust me !!!  "Been there, done that!"  Some learn the hard way, my daughter (and parents of my generation) had to learn the hard way.  My daughter didn't really see the "why" until she had a daughter of her own.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I don't have a YouTube account.  But I can't help but be curious if the solution is to create a YouTube account.

Some sort of scenario where NO videos can be watched if NOT LOGGED IN.

And once logged in, you know the entire history of what has been watched.

[w2k4eva]

29 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

But I can't help but be curious if the solution is to create a YouTube account.

Some sort of scenario where NO videos can be watched if NOT LOGGED IN.

YouTube just doesn't work this way, in fact it is exactly backwards from what you want. I have never had a google account of any kind, including YouTube, and have never been blocked from watching any video I wanted to see. And trying to put restrictions on her account (if it is even possible) isn't likely to work for very long - at age 11, she is old enough to figure out that she can just go view them without logging in.

You might be better off having a conversation with her about why some content is not suitable and convincing her to avoid it on her own. Especially since a channel blacklist is about as useless as an AV that tries to work by listing known malware - there will always be a new item that is not on the list yet.

You might still be able to set screen time limits, or per-app time limits, with whatever parental controls are in Windows or Android, though. Just not channel-specific blocks.