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Should You Use a Parental Control App on your Child’s Iphone?

parental control iphone

Do you really need a parental control app?

We all do our best as parents and I believe we all try to encourage trust with our children among the people in our community and direct networks. The good news is, most of us probably can. Even though we trust our children to make the right choices, and in much fewer cases do we trust the people around our children, the use of technology can help ensure our children’s safety. A little extra knowledge can be useful!
Parental control apps on the IPhone offer parents a chance to gain insights and offer a road to more communication. Monitoring apps also give children a new, and sometimes easier, way to communicate with us than existing methods. Parenting apps like MamaBear can offer options and reassurances.

The biggest hurdle most parents overcome when installing a parental control or monitoring app on their child’s phone is acceptance. Parenting apps offer much more than just monitoring and control options, and with a little explaining about the safety features, our kids understand this. GPS tracking for emergencies is becoming more and more common, and several parenting apps offer families an emergency call button. Apps like MamaBear with variable alert settings and options allow parents as much or as little monitoring as they want. When the kids are in an emergency, need to quickly check in or discreetly ask for you to pick them up, they’ll begin to understand why you installed the MamaBear app.

When children first join social media networks like Facebook and Instagram, a parental control app with social media monitoring features like MamaBear can be invaluable. Social media, combined with a smartphone, gives children connectivity to the world that most of us parents never imaged. A tool like the MamaBear app gives you an eye into their behaviors as they take their first steps on social media.

Parental control apps and monitoring apps can also be helpful when a child learns to drive. We all know we have to trust our kids with the keys at some point, but sometimes we need a little extra reassurance. With such a big, new responsibility like driving, most children understand that parents simply want to know they’re safe and the use of apps like MamaBear can do just that! Monitoring a child’s driving speed and where they’re traveling in the car is a standard use of parental control apps.

There are plenty of reasons to monitor and install parental control apps. Major changes and additions to the life of a child, (like giving them a new phone, joining a social site or driving) can be a great time to introduce MamaBear, both to give parents some insight and reassurance. When a child first joins Facebook or Instagram, or learns how to drive, extra monitoring is only natural and should be easily acceptable by the child given the stories we read. Using the latest technology, like MamaBear, for monitoring just makes sense.

The MamaBear child tracker app is available free during beta-stage on Iphone and Android.

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Looking for an App to Help With Tracking Kids? Here Are a Few Options!

track kids app

Global positioning satellite (GPS) technology is making smartphone based monitoring an exciting new option for many parents. There are dozens of apps and options that can be used for parents to track kids. With the explosion of smartphone usage, multiple tracking and parenting apps are being released frequently. Here are a few apps for tracking kids, and some information on each of them.

MamaBear Child Tracking:

Pros: MamaBear was developed as an all in one solution to child tracking and monitoring. MamaBear offers GPS tracking and numerous options for location based alerts, including when a child enters specified restricted areas, or leaves designated areas early. MamaBear also monitors driving speed and taps into social media, offering parents even more information. It’s also cross-platform so a child can be on an Android device and a parent on a iOS device or vice versa.

Cons: MamaBear is relatively new and still in the public beta testing. Users may experience occasional bugs. However, with every new update, which is rather frequently, the MamaBear team is working to correct all known issues with the app on Android and iPhone devices. Because the MamaBear app is in beta testing, it is free to download and use. This makes it a favorite for many parents. We will continue improving and updating the functionality of the app, making it the #1 choice for parents who want to worry less about their children!

 

Amber Alert GPS:

Pros: Amber Alert was one of the first child tracking GPS services available to parents. The original Amber Alert locator used a GPS fob to communicate to a parent’s phone.

Cons: Amber Alert has released only offers parents basic location tracking services. In addition, when using the GPS fob, the child can easily lose the fob.

 

Footprints:

Pros: Footprints uses a wide range of iPhone functionality and includes specific location alerts. Footprints can alert a parent when a child leaves a designated location, or when a child goes on the move. It can also save a record of locations to give a parent an overall view of a child’s movements for the day.

Cons: Footprints is only available on iOS and requires a yearly subscription fee.

 

GPS Tracking Pro:

Pros: GPS Tracking Pro does an effective job of phone tracking via GPS. Parents can track a child via a web site and can use the site to find a lost or stolen phone.

Cons: GPS Tracking Pro is only available for Android phones and only offers basic GPS location services.

 

NQ Family Guardian:

Pros: NQ Family Guardian is an Android app that is still in the testing stages. NQ Family Guardian tracks the child’s location, online activities and offers several device filters and controls. Currently NQ Family guardian is free for 30 days and then requires a subscription fee.

Cons: It is only available for Android phones, and user reviews suggest it does not work on the newest model Samsung phones running Android Jellybean.

 

SecuraPhone:

Pros: SecuraPhone claims to use real time GPS monitoring and tracking to issue alerts on location and speed. A unique feature on the Android version of SecuraPhone prevents children from texting while driving.

Cons: At almost $10.00 monthly, SecuraPhone is not cheap, and many of the options are more suited to business monitoring than children.

 

If you are looking for an app to help track your kids, the apps listed above should meet your needs.

The MamaBear child tracker app is available free on Android and Iphone devices.

Download the app at the links below:

MamaBear child tracker app for Android

MamaBear child tracker app for Iphone

 

New GPS technology is making smartphone based monitoring an exciting new option for parents. There are dozens of apps that can be used to track kids. Here are a few.
Track Kids Apps
Date Published: 02/04/2013
4.5 / 5 stars
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The Best Apps for Parents in 2013

apps for parents

The start of 2013 offers a wealth of apps for parents to help with day to day life. There are so many apps available for Android and iOS devices that just searching for the best in each category can be very time consuming for a busy parent. Here are a few apps that our MamaBear team have found can make parenting just a little bit easier. These should help with managing life around the kids, as well as monitoring and managing the kids themselves.

Best Note App for Parents

Parents on the go need a good note app just to keep track of day-to-day life. A note app needs to be fast and flexible, especially for parents with multiple children. Evernote works across multiple devices and allows parents to save audio, visual and text based notes and is extremely easy to use.

Best Grocery and List App for Parents

Specific lists may call for more than just a note app. Grocery list apps like OurGroceries can help parents save time from checking grocery stocks. It can synchronize multiple phones to let a family share a list.

For the lists that children hate the most, the ones with their chores, iRewardChart gives parents an easy way to offer incentives.

Best Activities App for Parents

In the same vein as chore apps, apps that make it easy for parents to promote schools and safe extracurricular activities are often very helpful. Overdrive lets kids tap into the local public and educational libraries.  TeamSnap helps parents schedule team and group events easily while making contact with the team and team parents easier.

Best Parental Restrictions App

Setting up parental restrictions for particular device features and age appropriate content is important. For restricting phone access for children using Android phones, we recommend Kids Place.  Kids Place allows the parent to choose what apps and features the child can access on the phone while disabling the rest of the phone’s functionality. This gives parents the flexibility to allow children to try different apps and options and ensures that other apps stay put. Kids place also works on a parents’ phone to allow smaller children to play games, but not accidentally dial or text out.

On an iPhone, go to settings, general and enable parental restrictions for the device features you prefer.

Best All-in-One Parenting App

We don’t mean to toot our own horn, but when it comes to child monitoring apps for parents, MamaBear is your best option. MamaBear offers child location tracking via GPS and alerts, driving alerts, and social media monitoring in one easy to understand interface. In 2013, we’re working on adding even more functionality and looking forward to GPS upgrades in many new Android phones and iPhones.

There are lots of apps to make parenting easier, some of them easier than others. These apps are all available on Android or iOS, just like MamaBear parenting app. Many of them work across multiple platforms and devices, making multi phone households more manageable.

Using these apps for parents should make 2013 a little easier with our biggest reward being happy, safe children.

 

The start of 2013 offers a wealth of apps for parents to help with day to day life. We review the top apps available for Android and iOS devices
Mobile Apps
Date Published: 01/24/2013
4 / 5 stars
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Android Parental Control – What are your options?

android parental control app

The invention of smartphones and social media combined with younger children now having cell phones has led to new needs and new possibilities in parenting.  With the added responsibility and dangers associated with smartphone ownership, it’s no surprise that parents quickly turn to child monitoring and parental control apps. There are several parental control apps and options for Android; we’ll take a look at a few. It’s also good to remember, when it comes to parental control apps, to consider very specifically what the app needs to do for your family.

We need parental control apps for a variety of reasons. Our own peace of mind as parents is as good of a reason as any when it comes to wondering about a child’s whereabouts and well-being. Children exploring boundaries can also require more intense scrutiny than we’re able to gather simply by observing in the home as parents. Some parental controls are necessary to keep children from texting too much; some are simply good for curbing problem behaviors.

Which Android Parental Control Apps Should You Use?

The Android platform offers a few good options for parental monitoring and control apps. For younger children, apps like Reward Chart can make for an easy transition into parental monitoring, as well as enforcing good behavior. Apps that prevent tampering with the phone like Kids Place are popular with parents, but not always with kids. Apps that monitor location and social media, as well as phone usage are also popular with parents, though require a monthly service fee.

Apps like Kids Place and Kid Mode can be used to prevent all tampering with a phone. Parents can install these types of apps to choose which apps and features the child can access. Apps like Reward Chart, if installed early in a child’s phone progression, can help a child develop good behaviors and make the adjustment to parental monitoring apps easy.

Monitoring apps like Code9, MMGuardian and Phone Control give parents varying monitoring options but come with monthly or up-front fees. Other family locator apps can track children using GPS, but most come with few options. Norton Online Family offers online monitoring but lacks GPS tracking or location alerts. MamaBear offers multiple GPS monitoring options, as well as social Media and driving speed alerts, making it an excellent, well-rounded solution to parental control apps and is free during its beta launch.

General GPS monitoring apps are good, but they don’t provide as much depth with additional alerts and multi-functionality. Apps that prevent tampering are a good idea if a parent wants to be sure that software stays put. When combined with the MamaBear app, these apps give parents a free, comprehensive solution for child monitoring and parental control.

What Android parental control apps have you tried?

Let us know in the comments section below.

Looking for a parental control app for your Android device? We review the top 8 parental control apps on Android devices.
Android Mobile Apps
Date Published: 01/11/2013
4 / 5 stars