Parental controls

Start with what you already own

There is a well-worn path in this category: a parent gets worried, searches for parental control software, and buys a subscription — without ever opening the settings app on the device causing the worry.

The free, built-in controls on iOS and Android are genuinely capable. They can set time limits per app, filter content, restrict purchases, require approval for downloads, and set downtime hours. For most families with children under about eleven, that is the whole job.

They also cost nothing and nobody is advertising them to you, which is roughly why you have not been told how good they are.

The order we suggest

First, set up the built-in controls on whichever platform you actually use — Google Family Link on Android and Chromebooks, Screen Time on iPhone and iPad. Fifteen minutes, one sitting.

Then live with it for a few weeks. Most families find the gap they were worried about is already closed, and the ones that are not become much easier to name specifically.

Only then consider a paid app or a device, and only for the specific job the free tools could not do. There are real ones — cross-platform monitoring, social media content alerts, a first phone with the guardrails built in — and they are worth paying for when you actually need them. A first phone comes with a carrier attached: the Teracube Thrive on this page is the version sold as "(Monthly Plan Required)", which needs Teracube's own wireless plan on top of the handset price and, per its listing, is not compatible with other networks.

A word about what controls are for

Controls are scaffolding, not a substitute for the conversation. They work best on younger children, where the goal is limiting exposure, and they get steadily less effective as children get older and more capable — by the teen years, most restrictions have a workaround that a determined kid will find.

That is not an argument against using them. It is an argument for being clear-eyed about what they do: they buy you time and reduce accidental exposure. They do not replace knowing what your child is doing and being someone they will talk to about it.

Covert monitoring in particular has a cost that does not show up in a feature comparison. Where we recommend it, we say what that cost is.