You give your kid the long-awaited iPhone or iPad as a Christmas present, and several months later you can’t tear them away from the screen. Or, in a worse turn of events, you catch them browsing an inappropriate website at one point.

Let’s face it, the internet is a gnarly place for a kid or a teenager to navigate on their own. But this is where you come in as a parent. It’s your job to set boundaries and teach your child how to be a responsible digital citizen.

Enabling parental control on their devices is one way to do it. Although this method can be controversial to some people (who call it ‘child monitoring’), it can become a powerful and helpful tool – when used right.

Making Online Experiences Safer

Let’s imagine your kid wants to hire essay writers for one reason or another. But for every essay writing service, there are half a dozen scams out there! So, how can you as a parent ensure your kid won’t fall prey to one – without logging every single online interaction of theirs, which can endanger the trust between you?

Parental control software can help you make your kid’s online adventures safer. However, the nitty-gritty of their help can differ based on the features you use.

Some apps allow you to blacklist certain keywords, although that can be considered an invasion of privacy. Others allow you to rate websites your child visits and automatically block those you deem unsafe.

Limiting Screen Time

Does your child spend over two hours in front of a screen? If so, it’s not great for their health and well-being. Too much screen time can lead to sleep disorders, obesity, lower academic performance, and behavioral issues, according to Mayo Clinic.

Most parental control apps have a screen time limit feature. It’s exactly what you think it is: you can set the daily limit for your kid. After they pass it, the device won’t get unlocked without your say-so.

Setting a screen time limit, however, can be quite frustrating for your child: they may throw a tantrum about it, even. So, it’s crucial that you communicate why you’re putting it in place and negotiate the limit itself if appropriate.

Filtering Out Age-Inappropriate or Harmful Content

The internet is full of explicit content, misinformation, and what can only be described as garbage. Without any oversight on your part, your kid will inevitably stumble upon such content while roaming the internet.

Parental control apps, on the other hand, can filter out inappropriate content from search results. (Google also has its own version of content filtering, although it’s a bit watered-down.)

While it’s not a bulletproof solution – age-inappropriate content may still go undetected – it still goes a long way in protecting your kid from the cesspool that the internet can be sometimes.

Gaining Insight into Your Kid’s Online Behavior

Imagine your child often googles the best paper writing services or how to buy essay. Without a parental control app, you would never even know about it. But with one, you can. And armed with this information, you can deduce that, perhaps, they need more help with their homework.

Be mindful: this approach isn’t about blocking the websites you deem inappropriate for your child. Instead, it’s about understanding what they do online and acting on the insights you draw from your findings.

On the other hand, keep in mind that how much data you want to have access to is up to you. If you can see a log containing every step of your kid’s online behavior, it may infringe on their privacy. Whether it’s appropriate or not depends on the level of trust between the two of you.

Avoiding Surprise Purchases

Media regularly runs stories like “A kid spends $16,000 on in-app purchases.” You’d be surprised how easy it can be for kids to spend your money this way! So, if you don’t want to have a bad surprise the next time you check your bank account balance, enabling parental control is in order.

But it’s not just about restricting in-app purchases. Some parental control apps can automatically detect whenever your kid is about to pay online, no matter the means of payment, and request your approval. For example, if they try to pay an essay writer using your (or their) credit card, you’ll know about it.

Final Thoughts

Parental control is a powerful tool that can protect your child from all sorts of dangers online. However, enabling it requires establishing a certain level of trust between you and them. Otherwise, you risk coming across as overly controlling – and jeopardizing your whole relationship, especially if your kid is in their teenage years.

So, make sure you have a talk before setting up parental control. This way, you avoid making your child feel controlled or punished by the rules you’ve set. Explain why these rules are necessary – without going too much into detail about what kind of cesspool the internet can be sometimes, of course. Otherwise, you’re creating a ‘forbidden fruit’ type of situation.