The movie Screenagers
included many useful tips for parents, such as having Tech Talk Tuesdays with
your kids, and working with your children on an agreed upon contract for
technology use. If you missed the movie last week you can still get the
tips and loads of insightful information on their website: https://www.screenagersmovie.com/contracts-1/
Dr. Kelly Close spoke in
detail at the break out session for parents of younger children about parental
controls. Dr. Close talked about how it’s tough to manage some persistent
children's access to the Web and that parental controls and monitoring tools
can help. These tools work best when used openly and honestly in
partnership with your kids.
Common Sense Media has a
terrific discussion on this at:
Dr. Close had so much valuable information that many parents asked her for more details. So Dr. Close wanted to share
the following list of potential functionality and her recommendations on the
available parent control/monitoring applications: (Youth Connect is exceedingly
grateful to her for sharing this valuable information.)
Here are MANY of the features that the control/monitoring software
programs have, but none have all of them:
a. Remote ability for
you to change settings
b. Per user controls
(each user has their own limits) and number of users each program covers
(typically 5 or more people)
c. Age-based profiles
that allow setup to be easier and based on best practices
d. App download
restrictions- block or limit App use and download
e. Time restrictions by
time of day, number of hours, time on specific media (videos, texting, social
media, phone), time on specific apps…
f. Time restrictions
tracked across multiple devices (don’t just switch from phone to computer to
get more time)
g. Set limits
separately for each device associated with the child's profile. For example,
you could ban smartphone use during school hours, and block computer use when
the child is supposed to be asleep.
h. Phone: Text
tracking and/or mirrored to your phone/computer PLUS text and phone call
history log
i. Number of devices
that can be supported- usually 5+ for EACH person
j. Type of devices
supported (android vs Iphone vs PC vs Mac...)
k. Web content filters
(prevent them from accessing websites and videos that are not appropriate)
l. Block secure (HTTPS)
websites if they match a banned category, so your clever teen won't be able to
evade its notice by using a secure anonymizing proxy website.
m. Social media
tracking and restrictions
n. Personal data- If
your child creates an account using a false age, you'll get a notification. You
also get notified any time the child posts personal data
o. Real-time
notification of attempted abuse and history of this (are they trying to go to
bad sites)
p. Real-time
notification of possibly inappropriate posts to social media or texts by your
child (such as giving out personal information or swearing)
q. FYI: In most
cases, installation of social media tracking requires that you know your
child's login credentials, or that you convince the child to log in and install
the tracker's app. Disabling this kind of data collection is a snap for the
child, so here, more than ever, you need to get agreement from your child.
r. Prevent texting with
strangers
s. Tracking contacts
and social media
t. Overall time limits
and time limits by media type (text, web, phone, video…)
u. Per-App time limits
v. Some of these tools
let kids remotely request parental override to unblock a particular site, or
get extra time online to finish homework.
w. Control game usage
based on ESRB ratings
x. GPS Tracking with
viewable history
y. Geofencing- setup
alerts for parents when the child reaches or leaves a destination
z. Panic alert to
notify specific contacts as to location of the child
aa. Forced Safe Search
on browsers and Youtube based on age and settings, even if you have not done
this on the browsers yourself. Prevents children from turning it off in
the browser settings
bb. Video tracking-
monitor what videos your child watches on YouTube or Hulu. Each item includes
the date and time of viewing along with the video's category. Opening an item
gets you the full description, a thumbnail image, and a link so you can view
the clip yourself.
cc. Ability to remotely
lock the phone
dd. One time fee vs
yearly or monthly fee
ee. Know that certain
apps and software work better or worse depending if Iphone, Android, Mac,
Chromebook…
Recommendations:
If using Android and PC/Chromebook:
Qustodio Parental Control
- around
$69/year This is the only one that has good social media controls.
OR
If Using an Iphone/IOS and/or Mac:
Qustodio Parental Control
I have no investment or stake in any of these companies, but they
seem the easiest to use with the most features
Thank you,
Kelly Close MD, MPH
Mom
