Supervising your kid’s digital life

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to chat with a group of moms about digital security for the adults in the household. It was really great, and time ran out before we could really dive into a related, but not originally planned topic: recommendations on mobile phone apps that enable parents/caregivers to somehow regulate the enormous possibilities (good and bad) that smart phones allow everyone to access… so, if you are in charge of a kid between 7-17, this may be of interest to you.

Every time I think about it, I feel that mobile phones are a little like fire hoses: they allow to easily channel vast amounts of fluid material trough it. This is incredible, but it can also very very dangerous: imagine you trying to drink from a live fire hose… some of us will immediately try to regulate or slow down the flow of water through the fire hose to make it less dangerous.

Having myself a kid in those difficult years (15), I can simply relate to their quest. In fact, I did some research a few months ago on this very topic, because I was also worried about that imaginary fire hose. After some careful thinking, I came to the conclusion that the app I would use, had to be able to do the following:

1. Adapt as my kid grows. You’ll probably agree with me in that the worries for a 7 year old are very different from the worries of a teen, so whatever I chose, had to be able to change depending on the age of my kid.
2. Limit usage of apps by time and amount of data. I don’t know if your kid is the same, but mine can stay awake until the wee hours of the next day if “checking” their social media stuff on the phone.
3. Prevent navigating to certain sites. Curiosity gets them to very dark places sometimes…
4. Prevent some apps from being installed, or at least ask for my permission before installing them.
5. Multi platform (Android or iOS), as I didn’t want to be tied to a single type of device… at that moment, my kid had an Android device and I had an iPhone.
6. Detect profanity in chats/posts. One interesting thing to consider these days is that more and more universities scan the kid’s social network accounts, quickly checking the topics they post more frequently about as well as the language they use. It’s probably a good idea to protect them from themselves, as the wrong type of posts tend to stick for quite a long time.

and lastly, and probably not as important as the previous points: should be able to copy settings from one child to another one.

While making this list I started to feel very, very guilty. Images of an Orwellian world quickly formed in my head and I started wondering if I really wanted to continue with it. I was part of Corporate Canada for a number of years, so I quickly moved forward based on the mantra: “he who pays for the service has the right to know how it is being used”.

Now, before going further, I feel that it is important to ensure you understand that the amount of access that has to be granted to the chosen app is pretty significant and if the company managing the app is hacked, this can be a bigger problem than your kid’s irreverent opinion of the teachers at school. All that data can be misused in very interesting ways: for me, the chosen company had to preferably come from an IT Security background.

I started with 10 different options, and after a couple of nights of trials and analysis, I had three finalists:

1. Norton Family Premier. Never imagined that these guys would come up with a family oriented app, but it seems alright, maybe a bit less sophisticated in IOS, but covers not only tablets and phones, but desktops as well.
2. ESET Parental Control for Android. Coming from a security company, it was a good surprise, but sadly I could not find an IOS version. If you live in an Android-only household, this may be the way to go. I also dig the landing page image… Mother Internet will teach our kids stuff, if we don’t do it. One of the many modern dangers our kids face.
3. Qustodio. I initially had a strange feeling towards this one, but their website helped me get over it  (“Qustodio” feels like an intentional a play on the Spanish word “Custodio”, which means “Warden”; in my homeland is used specifically for  a prison warden). A little digging revealed that this is a company with Spanish origins, and their technology appears good on paper. They also take the multi platform requirement to new levels, as they support many.

I recommend you to take the time to read each one. They actually do what they advertise, I can recommend them for that, but I cannot even try to recommend one in particular, because all kids/families and challenges are usually very unique, and at least for me, there are differences difficult to correctly summarize  in a few words. Google recently released their own Family Link, but at this moment, it does not appear to be as evolved as the top three in this post.

If all you want to do is to control how much time your kids spend at night on the device, I’m sure that your residential gateway provides a parental control that can do that. If, in the other hand, all you want is to limit what they can purchase and all persons in the household have IOS devices, then the Family Sharing functionality built into IOS is the right fit or you.

Cheers!