7 Best Parental Control Software for Windows PC & Mac (2022)

In today’s generation, many kids have their own laptops, smartphones, or tablets. These gadgets are very much useful when it is for educational, safety, and entertainment purpose. But it is also very much dangerous as they have access to the internet.

Kids can go to any websites which may be age-restricted and sometimes dangerous. In today’s lifestyle, screen time has increased for many young people, they have more idle time on their hands, more time to access social media, and more time to surf the internet.

While many parents balance work duties at home, online predators are taking advantage to connect with young people. Parents need to take care of their children’s devices’ activity and for this parent control software is of great use.

It is all the more crucial then, for the parents to heed their kid’s online activity, to use parental controls on their kid’s laptops and smartphones, and to take time to talk with their kids about the dangers of the internet.

If you really care and wanted to know what your kids do online? Then continue reading, we shall see about what is parent control software. what is the necessity? and choosing the best parent control software.

What is Parent Control Software?

The parental control software is a security program that helps parents to set the contents that the kids can watch. These apps continuously monitor the kid’s activity and keep parents informed about the child’s online activity.

What is the Necessity?

Smartphones are definitely helpful for a kid in many ways, but they also allow kids to access to internet’s dangerous places or unwanted websites. We should not only restrict the kids from bad websites but also educate them not to use those bad things.

With the help of parental control software, we can ensure unwanted content will not reach kids, helps kids in time management, and provides extra protection for kids’ activity.

Choosing the Best Software:

The best parent control software should filter and provide the contents only which is selected by parents, as too much usage of a phone is hazardous to the child’s eyes.

It should limit the screen time set by the parents, in some cases, it also should allow blocking of certain contacts, and should provide activity reports of a child’s phone usage data.

The application should also be very trusted and should protect the data of the users, the app should have good privacy and security agreements.

The data shall only be accessed by the parent and the company should not sell the data at any cost to a third party. Moreover, it should have a user-friendly interface and very easy to use, and provides the best-advanced features. Let’s see some of the best parental control software for Windows PC and Mac.

List of 7 Best Parental Control Software:

1. Qustodio:

Qustodio is one of the top and very powerful parental software on the list and has a wide range of options. Although it’s a bit expensive but has a cool and informative monitoring dashboard where you can view your kid’s activity online.

Qustodio helps you understand and manage how your children use the internet while protecting them against bad things online like unsafe sites, cyber harassment, blocking pornography, and more.

Qustodio is a better way to protect your kids custodial helps you understand and manage. More than 4 million parents trusted this program and it is available for all devices including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and more.

Key Features:

• Set daily time limits.
• Web filtering.
• YouTube monitoring.
• Social monitoring.
• Locate your child.
• Track calls, and messages.
• Get instant alerts and reports.

Download Details:

• By: Qustodio
• Website: https://www.qustodio.com
• License: Free and Paid

2. Kaspersky Safe Kids:

Kaspersky safe kids is also a very popular software in this category created to help you monitor your child’s online activity. You can get a snapshot of the internet activity, frequently visited websites, and search queries.

In this app, you can also turn on monitoring for Facebook and other social media platforms with app usage control. You can even track your child’s location with the help of Kaspersky safe kids’ parental control software.

Also Download: Free Kaspersky Antivirus for PC

Kaspersky safe kids app can be installed on Windows PC, Mac, and smartphones as well. It has free and paid versions free one comes with limited options whereas paid one has all the features you might look for and is available at a very affordable price.

Key Features:

It’s more than parental control, Kaspersky Safe Kids is a service to protect your kids online & in the real world.

• Guards Against online dangers.
• Lets you know your child’s location.
• Helps you manage device usage time.

Download Details:

• By: Kaspersky Lab
• Website: https://www.kaspersky.com
• License: Free and Paid

3. Norton Family:

Norton Family is another parental control software that helps parents or guardians monitor their children’s online activities. It gives information to the parents on how their kids use the internet while protecting them against bad things online.

Also Download: Norton Internet Security for PC

Download and install the Norton Family app on your child’s device, profile installation is required for an instant lock, time supervision, and other features to work on your child’s device.

After you successfully create your child’s profile on the device you can then monitor your child’s online activities through the app on Android or iOS devices.

Key Features:

• Remote learning environment.
• Locate your child’s device.
• Let them explore the web more safely.
• Create healthy internet habits.
• Help make your family’s digital life safer.

Download Details:

• By: NortonLifeLock Inc.
• Website: https://family.norton.com
• License: 30-days Free Trial

4. Net Nanny:

Net Nanny gives you insight and power to guide your family on internet use and digital habits. With Net Nanny’s award-winning technology, you can protect your child from online dangers and limit the type of content and websites your kids may visit.

You can even schedule when your child can access the internet and social media. This has excellent web filtering technology and intuitive design. You can easily set content filtering to block more than 14 different categories for viewing.

By enabling you to view your child’s location and level of safety in real time, Net Nanny contributes to their safety. You can feel at ease knowing you are always aware of your child’s whereabouts by tracking their location.

Key Features:

• Screen time control.
• Block unwanted websites and apps.
• Web filter.
• Track real-time location.
• YouTube & social media protection.
• Get alerts and reports.

Download Details:

• By: Content Watch Holdings, Inc
• Website: https://www.netnanny.com
• License: Paid

5. Kidlogger:

KidLogger software collects data about user activity and provides a detailed report that shows you how time much your children have used a device. You can also check which apps they installed, visited sites, with whom they communicate on Skype, Facebook, etc.

Records all outgoing and incoming voice calls and messages with their names and phone numbers. Get the log of all external devices connected to their computers like USB drives, HDD, and SD cards. Also, protect your children from these internet websites that offer harmful content.

Download and try KidLogger parental and internet filtering software on any Windows PC & Mac. Once you set up the Kidlogger app you can enjoy peace of mind knowing your family has the best protection available on their devices.

Key Features:

• Internet history and usage monitoring.
• Time tracking.
• Capture the computer screen and keystrokes.
• Monitor messengers.
• Record all out/incoming calls and messages.
• Get a detailed report.

Download Details:

• By: KidLogger
• Website: https://kidlogger.net
• License: Free and Paid

6. Microsoft Family Safety:

You can’t control what’s on the internet, but you can control how your children use it with the Microsoft Family Safety app. With Family Safety you can quickly protect your children online and offline. This is one of the best parental control apps for controlling and monitoring your children.

The Family Safety is a combined software solution that attaches to a home WI-FI to provide complete control of everything that is connected to it. You can download and install family safety apps on their smartphones, computer, and even gaming consoles.

Protect what matters most, locate your loved ones, develop healthy digital habits, balance screen time, explore the web safely, and above all get peace of mind that your children are safer while allowing them the freedom to learn, and explore.

Key Features:

• Screen time control.
• Content filtering.
• Location sharing and tracking.
• Limit apps and games.
• Create a full activity report.

Also Download: Avast Free Antivirus for Windows PC

Download Details:

• By: Microsoft Corporation
• Website: https://www.microsoft.com
• License: Free/Paid

7. McAfee Safe Family:

Keep your kids safe with McAfee Safe Family, monitor activities, and each kid’s device usage. Put restrictions on websites, games, and applications that are inappropriate or time-wasting. Help your children manage their time better.

Block the apps you don’t want your kids using. Filter web content you don’t want your kids to see. Be aware of where your children are at all times with the location tracking feature. Track the location of your kids using GPS. Geofence notifies you when they leave an area.

With McAfee Safe Family you can set limits and reward your kids with extra time. Create schedules for when your kids can use the devices and enjoy device-free family time. To save your time and aid in the safety of your family, this app offers the most latest tips to stay safe & secure online.

Key Features:

• Know their real-time location.
• Set limits for daily phone usage.
• Monitor their device activity.
• Block apps that your kids shouldn’t be using.
• Pause the internet connection anytime.
• Block unsuitable websites and content.
• Reward your kids with extra screen time.

Download Details:

• By: McAfee
• Website: https://family.mcafee.com
• License: 30-Day Free Trial