Building a Parental Control App: Must Have Features & Cost

It’s the 21st century, and parenting is much more than feeding your children and getting their education completed. Children are now exposed to technology from a very early stage, and it is the parent’s responsibility to control what their children are engaged in via smartphones and internet. Parenting control apps are playing a significant role in helping parents ensure this responsibility. These apps not only assist parents to observe the online activities of their children but offline as well. 

What is a Parental Control App?

Parental control apps are basically mobile applications and software that help parents monitor and control the activities of their children. Let it be watching television, using the smartphone, playing video games, driving a car or bike in real life, or anything else, parental control apps help everywhere. It basically provides the remote control to screen time and other electronic exposure of children to parents. This way, parents don’t have to bother about what their children are doing or watching on the internet. Neither they have to worry about long video game sessions in their absence.  

How Does Parental Control Work?

The parental control concept is basically the combination of different features that brings remote control of child exposure to smart devices in the parent’s hand. So, parents can easily ensure that their children learn from the internet and technology while preventing them from the negative side of the internet. 

• The working principle of parental controlling apps allows the parents to limit the use of everything their children are engaged in via smart devices. 
• Parents can easily provide their children with sufficient and necessary exposure to the internet and technology instead of keeping them completely unfamiliar with the digital world. 
• Parents can make sure that the child knows to surf the internet but only for constructive content. 
• Parents will allow the child to use a smartphone for gaming but can switch it off at dinner time. 
• The child will be allowed to be independent by going to school and nearby places by themselves but will always be under remote monitoring. 
• It is ensured that the kid is not in contact with some stranger via the devices. 
• SOS alerts notify the parents whenever the child is in any kind of danger or emergency.  

Features that Make a Parental Control App Useful

Call it features or use cases, parental control apps come with a lot of functions that help you ensure that your child is engaged in technology which is essential for their positive growth only. Features of a parental control app include but are not limited to:

1. Alert for Unusual Behavior 

Any unusual behavior from your kid and you will be notified instantly. If your kid is supposed to walk from point A to B, but they are heading toward C, you will get the notification. The same will happen if the kid is trying to change any settings set by you. 

2. Instant App Blocker Alerts 

Block the app that you think might cause a negative impact on their mental health in just seconds. Put the app in the Blacklist App list. 

3. Internet Filter 

With the internet filter, you can block access to pictures, content, websites, videos, or anything from a specific category. It ensures that your children are not exposed to the wrong side of the internet. 

4. Panic Button or SoS Alerts 

An SOS (Save Our Ship) or panic button ensures you are just a click away from your children when they are stuck in some problem or emergency. 

5. Limit Screen Time

Limit the time they are allowed to use smartphones or watch television. Make sure they have healthy eyes till the time they are mature enough to take care of themselves. 

6. Family Pause 

You can lock the device your child is using for a long time. Just tap on the family pause button and set a password. The device will automatically be locked.

7. Internet Schedule 

Don’t want your children to grow unfamiliar with the internet, but neither want them to spend hours on the internet? Internet schedule is the feature for you where you can decide the specific hours for your children to use the internet. 

8. Safe Drive 

Make sure your kid drives within the speed limit. Safe Drive sends you a notification whenever your kid crosses the defined safety speed of the vehicle.  

9. Watchlist Contacts & Call History

If there are some people you don’t want in contact with your kids, a Watchlist contacts feature ensures it for you. Add their contacts to a watchlist contact list, and you will be notified whenever they contact or try to contact your kids. 

10. Location History 

Track the location your child is currently at or the locations your kid has been to all day. Make sure your kid is not visiting places they are not supposed to be.  

11. Places- Mobile Geofence 

The feature allows you to install the virtual geofences of particular areas so you can know when the kids are leaving or entering that particular area. 

12. Web History & Bookmarks 

Make sure your kids are using the internet the right way. Track their internet usage and web history to ensure the correct use of the internet for them. 

13. Installed Apps 

Monitor all the applications they have installed and use on their smartphone. Disable the app that you think is inappropriate for the children. 

14. Monitor Text Messages 

Get every detail about the text messages or SMS that your kids receive on their devices. You can access the name of the sender, the number of the sender, the time and date of the message, the reply given by the child, and much more. 

15. App Usage 

Know about the apps your child is spending plenty of time on. Control the type of apps, and time being spent by the child via the parental control app. 

16. PickMeUp Alerts

If busy schedules often make you forget about picking up the kids from school, this alert feature can help you enormously. Receive the time and never miss this important part of the schedule. 

17. Arranging Breaks 

Set the time for breaks when you want your children to put the tablet or screen down. Options such as dinner time, take a break, bedtime, or study time allows for the same.

How Parental Control Apps Can Be Classified?

Having gone through the above section, it might have been complicated for you to remember what actions you can take broadly for the safety of your children. So, we have divided the overall features into four categories that will define the overall control you will have over your children’s devices. 

a. Monitoring Control

Monitoring control provides the complete tracking of a child’s activity and location when they are using the device. You will always know whether they are using the internet or playing games, where they are sitting, where they are heading, and much more. 

b. Computer Usage Controls

It is more like a management tool that enforces the tracking of specific software being overused by children. So, you will always know about the running applications on the device and control the same. 

c. Content Filter Controls

Devices are both friends and foe. So, you don’t need to restrict the devices, but you should limit the content they are exposed to. Parental control app allows you to control the type of content your child is accessing. 

d. Usage Control

Another use case of parenting control apps is instilling the time limit. You can control your children’s screen time and ensure they are engaged in necessary physical activities as well.

Advantages of Having a Parental Control App

• The parental control app provides you complete access and control over smart devices used by your kids. 
• The app allows you to decide the time limit for children to use the devices. 
• You can easily track your children’s use case of these gadgets and services. 
• With a parental control app, you will always know where the children are. 
• You can ensure that kids are not exposed to inappropriate content on the internet. 
• The app allows you to know if children are in contact with strangers that might be a risk to their safety. 
• If a particular software or app is being overused by the kid, you can instantly lock or even uninstall the software. 
• The parental controlling app helps to instill cyber etiquette in your children. 

Popular Parental Control Apps in The Market 

It is about the safety of your children. So, it is crucial that you rely on reliable apps and software. Any error in the application will cost you the safety of your children. Still, many applications and software are full of bugs and unable to deliver the use case. Relying on these apps might not be a good idea as they have many errors that disturb your control of the devices. 

We are enlisting some of the good parental control apps that you can use and rely on: 

a. Google Family Link

Available on: Android & iOS

Google Family Link is going to be the only application that is entirely free to use. You can control plenty of activities with this app as long as your child is using an Android smartphone or tablet. You can track, monitor, and control every smartphone app your child is operating. 

Net Nanny

Available on: Android & iOS

Net Nanny is an all-in-one app for parenting control. Let it be controlling the screen time, online activity, app activity, location of the child, internet searches, apps used, instant alerts, blocking the inappropriate content on the internet, allowing educational apps, blocking the app, or anything else, Net Nanny makes everything possible. 

Kaspersky SafeKids with GPS

Available on: Android & iOS

Similar to Net Nanny, Kaspersky SafeKids with GPS provides both paid and free tiers. The paid version consists of a broad variety of controls; however, the free version also offers you sufficient control over your child’s activities. With the free version of the app, you can block harmful sites and content, ensure a safe search, manage the app usage, get advice from child psychologists, and set the screen time limit.

Norton Family

Available on: Android & iOS

Norton Family Parental Control offers a broad range of features to its users. Parents can easily monitor the sites and content accessed by the child, set the limits on internet usage, monitor the child’s physical location, instant lock on devices, web supervision, mobile app supervision, and much more. 

OurPact

Available on: Android & iOS

With features like access to gallery, contact list, messages, app blocker, app rules ,block texting, block schedules, new app alerts, screen time allowance, Find My Family, Geofencing the places, and Find My iPhone & iPad, the app is a very popular parenting control app. The app has been downloaded by more than 500K parents on the google play store. 

Popular Platforms with Parental Control Features 

Most teens are now engaged with social media platforms. According to statistics, 90% of teens (13-17) are using social media.

At the same time, 75% of the teens have at least one active social media profile while 51% of them use social media daily.

Moreover, two-third of all teens have their very own devices to access social media.

Social media is currently a prominent medium for everyone to connect with strangers. This friendly concept that helps to build networks and connect to the world can also be harmful when used unconsciously. The information one can obtain about your child from these platforms has no limit. So, these social media platforms now offer built-in parental control features to minimize the risk of cyber threats to kids.  

Instagram

Instagram has taken numerous steps for the safety of its teen users. The parental control has been available to the US audience for a couple of months, and now it is available for the UK audience. With new parental control features, the parents can now set the daily time limit their children can use the app. The time limit can vary from between 15 minutes to 2 hours. Moreover, parents can also schedule break time easily. Another feature allows the parents to track their child’s daily habits on the app.

Snapchat 

Snapchat is a top-rated app that helps users to keep their friends and contacts updated about daily life. Users send snaps to their friends, which disappear once opened. However, this app can also threaten the child’s safety as sending or receiving snaps to strangers might not be a good idea. So, Snapchat provides a built-in parental control feature. With parental control, parents can easily ensure that any stranger can not connect to their child and vice-versa. Similarly, parents can also control the audience that can see stories uploaded by the child.

WhatsApp

The messaging giant platform WhatsApp also takes care of the basic controls parents should have for their child’s safety. First of all, the application provides the option for the biometric lock to open the app. Moreover, the parents can also control the audience that can see your child’s profile pictures and stories. The app even allows the parents to block specific contacts from this messaging app, so they have no reach to the child.

How to Set Up Parental Controls on iPhone?

Apple ensures that the iPhone is safe for children, and parents can give this device to their kids without worrying about their unnecessary exposure to the internet and digital world. For the same, Apple provides a range of in-built parental control features to manage the time and content children surf on the device.

1. Setting up Content and Privacy Restriction

• Go to the Settings and tap on Screen Time. 
• Tap continue and choose if it is your device or your child’s device. 
• Enter the passcodes so no one can change the settings.
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restrictions, enter the passcode (if asked), and turn on the privacy setting.

2. Prevent or control iTune & App Store purchases

With this control feature, you can prevent your child from installing or deleting the apps and spending on in-app purchases or App Store purchases. 

• Go to the settings and tap Screen Time 
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restriction and enter the passcode. 
• Tap on iTunes & App Store purchases. 
• Choose the settings and set them to Don’t Allow.

3. Manage Built-In Apps and Features 

If there are some apps or features that you think are not meant for kids, you can disable them and prevent your children from using them. The feature or app will not be deleted from the device, but will be removed from the home screen until you again turn it back on. 

• Go to the settings and tap on Screen Time 
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restriction and enter the passcode. 
• Tap on allowed apps
• Select the apps that you don’t want to allow 

4. Prevent Explicit Content with Content Rating 

You can even restrict certain content based on the ratings on your child’s iPhone. The content can be music, podcasts, news, workout, videos, movies, TV shows, books, apps, etc. 

• Go to the settings and tap on screen time
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restriction and tap on Content Restriction. 
• Choose the setting you want for each feature. 

5. Prevent Web Content 

With iOS, you can easily limit access to adult content on Safari as well as other apps. Moreover, it is very easy to add particular websites to the block list. 

• Go to the settings and tap on Screen Time 
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restriction and enter the passcode. 
• Tap on content Restriction and then on Web Content. 
• Choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only.  

6. Restrict Siri Web Search

With this feature, you can prevent Siri from searching the web when asked a question or the explicit language. 

• Go to the settings and tap on Screen Time 
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restriction and then on Content Restriction
• Scroll down to Siri and choose the settings.  

7. Restrict Game Center 

Make sure your child is not spending too much time playing with strangers on the game, adding new friends, sending or receiving messages from strangers, sharing personal information, or engaging in any unethical game. 

• Go to the settings and tap on Screen Time 
• Tap on Content & Privacy Restriction and then on Content Restriction. 
• Scroll to the Game Center and choose the respective settings.

Steps to Develop a Parental Control App 

To get a parental control app of your own, you don’t need to be a full-stack developer. Just follow the defined steps, and you will have your own app: 

1. Define the Scope of Project 

First, you should know what you want to achieve from this app. Have clarity about your goal; it will work as the blueprint for your overall app development journey. Plan about all the features and accessibilities of parental control that you are going to provide in your app.

2. Target the audience separately  

Parents in different geographical areas might have different needs in parental control apps. Make sure to design the app while considering the needs of different target audiences. Keep the content separate from the code. It will make it easier to launch the app in multiple geographies. 

3. Connect to an app development team 

App development is teamwork, and you need a complete team to get your app. There are plenty of app development firms and freelance workers who would be willing to take your project. Conduct some market research, go through the client base and reviews of the team, and hire the best one for your work. 

Your team should consist of the following roles: 

• Business Analysts
• UI Designers
• Android/iOS developers
• Testers
• Project manager

4. Efficient Inspection of Prototype 

Your app development team will deliver you the prototype of your final app in early stages. This prototype aims to get a basic idea of how the app will look and function. Analyze the prototype of the app efficiently and suggest changes. Any changes after finalizing the prototype can cause additional costs and time. 

5. Procure the Right ApIs

Application Programming Interface (API) is basically the intermediary that establishes the communication between two applications. Your app is going to need a number of APIs to perform certain tasks. For example, you can consider the following two APIs as a priority while developing the parenting control apps: 

• A lightweight COM-based minimum compliance API (also known as Compliance API) helps to instill web restrictions, time limits, game restrictions, and web content filters. 
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) API helps control the apps or content for child safety. 

6. Equip a Good Payment Gateway

Remember to integrate a good payment gateway to your app that can bring the app income to you. Moreover, the payment gateway should be trusted by the customers, so they don’t hesitate to make transactions on the platform. Some of the popular payment gateways that you can consider are but not limited to: 

• Stripe
• PayPal
• Braintree
• Dwolla
• Zooz
• Ezibit
• Shopify
• Judopay  

7. Testing and Quality Analysis 

Conduct the multiple quality analysis test for the app and remove every possible bug from the app. It might take some time, but it will help deliver the best product to the app. Pass the app from the testing phase multiple times to make it error and bug-free.  

8. Upload and Promote the App 

Once your app is developed, upload it to the respective platforms. Once you are done with uploading the app, market and promote your new app. You need to inform the target audience about your app to attract them. Use social media marketing, digital marketing, and traditional marketing if effective. 

9. Maintenance 

You can only retain users when you are evolving with time and trends. Make the necessary updates in the app to instill the latest features and meet the user’s demands and requirements.  

Essential Tools to Develop Parental Control App 

There are some of the essential tools that should be equipped in your parental control app. These basic tools will help to instill the basic functionality in the app.  

a. Android/iOS Kiosk Mode Tool 

Kiosk Mode is available for android version 5.0 or above and iOS 9 and newer. It allows the parents to block all the functionality of the operating system. Moreover, the app will also send all the statistics about user behavior to the server. 

b. Screen Pinning API

This auxiliary API in Kiosk Mode allows the parents to pin the children to a particular screen or app. Children will not be able to leave the app or run any other software or application. 

c. Firebase 

Firebase is basically a BaaS (Backend-as-a-Service) that will allow you to track the location of your children. You can store your app on Firebase irrespective of the OS it is created for.  

d. Device Policy Controller (DPC)

With DPC, parents can easily configure the devices being used by the children as well as the apps which are installed on the device. All the settings, as well as restrictions, can be implied directly from the DPC.  

How Does AI Integration Improve Parental Control Apps?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can significantly enhance the functionality and effectiveness of parental control apps. Here’s how:

• Content Filtering: AI can analyze and understand the content (text, images, and videos) that children are exposed to while browsing the web or using apps. By understanding the content’s context, AI can filter out inappropriate or harmful material, ensuring that children are only exposed to age-appropriate content. 
• Screen Time Management: AI can learn patterns in a child’s device usage and help parents set boundaries that adapt to the child’s habits and needs. For instance, it can suggest the most appropriate times for children to use their devices for entertainment based on their homework schedules and bedtime.
• Social Media Monitoring: AI algorithms can monitor social media activity for signs of cyberbullying, online predators, or content that suggests self-harm, depression, or other issues. It can alert parents when such patterns are detected, allowing for timely intervention.
• App Usage Oversight: AI can analyze which apps are used most frequently and determine whether they are appropriate for the child’s age. It can also suggest educational apps or content based on the child’s interests and age group.
• Location Tracking and Geofencing: AI can help in setting up geofences (virtual geographic boundaries) and send alerts to parents if the child steps out of predefined zones. It can also predict patterns in the child’s movements for better safety protocols.
• Adaptive Learning: AI can suggest learning content and educational apps based on the child’s browsing history and academic performance, turning screen time into learning opportunities.
• Data Privacy: AI can ensure that all the child’s data is collected and analyzed with strict privacy measures in place, using techniques like data anonymization to protect sensitive information.
• Voice Recognition: Advanced AI can recognize different voices and thus enforce parental controls only when the child is using the device, allowing for unrestricted access for parents.
• Emotional Well-being: It can provide recommendations to parents on how to approach sensitive topics or when to seek professional help.

By integrating these AI functionalities, parental control apps can become more than just restrictive tools. They transform into comprehensive platforms that safeguard children’s online experiences, promote healthy digital habits, and support their mental and emotional well-being.

Estimated Cost for Developing a Parental Control App

Having completed all the conversation, the question arises about the cost of developing such an app. Undoubtedly developing the parental control app can bring a good passive income, but first, it needs investment, and it is vital to know how much. 

There is nothing like a fixed price of app development as many factors combined decide the cost of app development. While developing the app, the following factors will influence the cost of app development for you: 

• The country you are hiring the developers from
• Features you want to instill in your app
• The time it takes for the developers to develop the app 
• The platform you want to build your app for (iOS, Android, or both)
• The time to launch the app
• Type of theme you want to use (free or paid)
• The experience and pricing of the app development team 

However, to keep the wallet ready for the app development, you should have around $50,000-$70,000 to develop an app with good functionalities and features.

Why Choose EmizenTech?

There are hundreds of professional entities that can help you develop the app. So, you might be concerned about why you should choose EmizenTech. Well, it’s entirely your decision to choose us or not, but we can give a short list of reasons to justify your choice for us. 

• Our market research team is our USP as it helps not only to develop the app, but develop the app with the latest and most advanced capabilities. 
• Having spent around a decade in this industry, we have now faced most of the problems that might make the presence, and we know well about how to deal with them. 
• Our strong fundamentals of app development ensure the installation of basic security and privacy features while complying with play store and app store policies. 
• Our team is familiar with the different APIs that transfigure the features and performance of a parental control app. So, it will secure the competitive advantages for your app. 
• Whether you want to develop the app for iOS, Android, or both, you get everything under one roof. 
• One hour of free consultancy with our project manager helps you make the right decision about your project. 
• Our team supports you even after a year of app development. We will remove any application bugs you face free of cost for a year.

TakeAway

In this digital age, it is not possible for parents to keep their children utterly unfamiliar with smartphones, television, and the internet. The reason is technology has become a vital part of growth and learning. However, exposure to the internet and technology is not always positive and can easily mislead the child. In this landscape, parents look for a solution to maintain the balance in tech exposure of children in this digital age. 

Parental control fulfills the same need of parents by providing complete control over smartphone and internet usage. The parental control concept has greatly relieved parents as they can now ensure that their children are only engaged in constructive content. 

In this scenario, it can be a good idea to develop a parental control app with good features and accessibilities. By ensuring good maintenance and engaging in marketing tactics, the app can easily attract a massive user base. So, developing an app has the potential to secure a good income for you.

Frequently Asked Questions about Parental Control Apps