Best Parental Control Software

The Internet can be a dark place at times, and there can be content that is not safe for kids. Of course, the Internet offers plenty of educational and entertaining resources that are suitable for kids; however there’s a huge risk for them to stumble upon websites with explicit content. To avoid this possibility, turn to parental control software for help. Such programs allow you to filter websites that are accessed from devices that belong to your little ones, add safe filters to the search results, give you alerts if needed, and show you all kinds of stats. We reviewed the best parental control software for you to make the Internet a safer place for your kids.

Norton Family
The Norton Family parental control system requires you to have an account and to install the software on the devices to be protected and controlled. As soon as everything is set up, the program blocks all the explicit content on a selected device. If a child is trying to open a website that was marked as inappropriate, the program will ask if a child has made a mistake or still wants to visit the website (in such a case, an explanation note to the parents is required). This parental control software also filters the search engine enquiries and hides the unsafe results. In the settings of the parent’s account, you can also customize the allowed amount of time and video and social networks supervision.
Review: Norton Family is a smart, reliable way of monitoring your kids’ activities and protecting them from any explicit online content.
Rating by Icecream Apps: 10/10

Qustodio
Right after creating an account and sharing the details about your kids, the program starts working in background mode. It blocks explicit websites and guards the search engine results connected with specific unsafe enquiries. You can access the statistics of each kid through an online account. There’s also a “Questionable Activity” alert option that shows if a child was searching for something not safe, and it’s possible to customize the rules of web browsing, limit the usage time of the connected devices, control Facebook, and monitor calls and texts if mobile devices are connected to your Qustodio account.
Review: Qustodio is a simple and really convenient parental control software that does what it promises.
Rating by Icecream Apps: 9/10

Kaspersky Safe Kids
Kaspersky Safe Kids is another trustworthy parental control system that blocks suspicious websites and filters the search engine results to make them safe. Customize an account and add your kid’s information and the device and you’re good to go. In case the program is not completely sure if a website is safe, the program will provide a corresponding notification. In the parent’s account there will be summaries about every child’s activities, their top websites and apps, the last search queries, and Facebook activity. The shortcoming of this parental control app is that when a website is blocked, there’s a “Go there anyway” button that the child can click to open the website.
Review: Kaspersky Safe Kids is a decent parental control software that lets you track your kid’s activity rather than protect the child from explicit content.
Rating by Icecream Apps: 8/10

K9 Web Protection
K9 Web Protection is a stable and rather simple-to-use parental control tool. You can create an account and install the software on your PC (the software can’t be force-closed). The software blocks all the websites that should be blocked (you might add a sound of a dog barking when this happens) and successfully filters the search enquiries to make them safe. It’s also possible to customize some settings of the program; for example by adding keywords to block URLs, add time restrictions, add advanced YouTube filtering, and more. The only tricky thing before you start using the program is you have to allow the firewall to access the program and reboot the PC.
Review: K9 Web Protection is a reliable parental control software that is rather easy to use and offers the most-needed filters and blocks to avoid explicit, unsafe content.
Rating by Icecream Apps: 7/10

With the help of any of the reviewed parental control software you can be absolutely sure that your kids won’t stumble upon any explicit online content. If you’d like to teach them more about the importance of keeping personal data to themselves, take a look at our article on how to maintain privacy on the Internet.