I wrote about Sexting in our children’s generation. This is a follow up to that post with ideas for apps that I have (mostly) personally used on our phones.
X3 Watch by XXXChurch $7 a month for Desktop, $2.99 month for iPad, iPhone, or Android
K9 Web Protector FREE App and Desktop download and No monthly fee. This one we currently use on my Mac and seems to be working well. No service interruptions or slowdowns.
Safe Eyes $15 download for iPhones $60 a year for Desktops. Used this last year. I got weary of having to reset the blocking. Sometimes my blog was blocked. I would give an 7 on a scale of 1-10
Web Guardian $1.99 I haven’t used this, but it looks like a browser so your kids can’t get to bad stuff on Safari. This is the only one I haven’t personally used. Has easy access to sites like PBS Kids.
Other options if you want some serious tracking and not just filtering:
Also available is Phone Sheriff, which IS iPhone compatible. $50 license fee, per year, per phone.
My Mobile WatchdogThis is a download with a $5 per month fee. It tracks EVERYTHING! Text messages, calls, location. It is not, however, iPhone compatible. Looks like a great idea though.
There is also a review site that has ratings of these and other trackers.
It is our job, as parents, to protect our kids. If we are going to give them smart phones we need to protect them from what can be found on those phones.
Do you have internet filters on your phones or computers?
I am in the process of setting up our PC and my old laptop for Google SafeSearch, setting YouTube to eliminate inappropriate material, and looking for a webs filter for both the computers as well as the iPad. I wish they made it easy!!! I heard K9 is good for iPad but they can get around it by using a different browser. I’m at a loss. We don’t have problems YET but I want to avoid any issues and be proactive.