As parents, we want our kids to have the best possible start in life. In today's digital age, that means ensuring they use technology safely and responsibly. Thankfully, with the help of iPhone parental control apps, it's possible to monitor and manage your child's digital activity without constantly looking over their shoulder. But which app is the right one for your family?
This article highlights the top six iOS parental control apps available in 2023. We'll compare their features, pricing, and functionality to help you decide which app to download. Let's dive in and explore what these powerful tools have to offer.
Carrots&Cake is an award-winning app designed for children aged 2-10. It’s grounded in the latest research in behavioral neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science. With a 4.85 star rating on the App Store, it reportedly triples kids’ daily educational app usage while halving overall screen time. It’s no surprise the app’s popularity continues to grow.
What sets Carrots&Cake apart is its unique approach to screen time. Instead of offering only ways to restrict kids, Carrots&Cake promotes learning by emphasizing educational apps. Like the time-honored parenting directive, ”Do your homework before you play." Carrots&Cake tells kids, "Eat your Carrots before your Cake.” Kids must first complete learning apps before their device unlocks for free time. It makes screen time both enjoyable and productive.
Their approach has the added bonus of balancing dopamine levels. The app takes into consideration the science around a child’s developing brain. This helps to avoid the tantrums that accompany rigid restrictions.
As Carrots&Cake continues to gain popularity, its community of satisfied users continues to grow; here is what some of them had to say:
"Carrots&Cake gets kids to take agency and learn to self-regulate." - Dr. Clifford Sussman, MD, Child Psychiatrist & Addiction Specialist Featured: NY Times, TIME Magazine, ABC.
"Yesterday, my son got off his iPad. No argument, and no begging for more time. Really happy with this app." - Va Dad 43, Review from the App Store.
Price: $9.99/month, available with a 6-month free trial, the longest we’ve ever seen (no credit card required)
Suitable for: Parents of children aged 2-10
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Carrots&Cake has become the go-to solution for families seeking a responsible way to introduce their kids to technology. But how does it compare to other popular parental control apps like Qustodio? Let's find out.
Qustodio is a top-rated parental control app for iOS, ideal for parents looking to keep a close eye on their children's online activity. The app's various features include blocking pornography, tracking incoming and outgoing calls, real-time alerts, and detailed reports.
Qustodio also offers age-appropriate settings for different age groups, making it easy for parents to customize their children's online experience. With a 3.9/5 rating on the App Store, it's clear that many parents have found Qustodio to be a reliable and effective tool.
Qustodio provides various tools that allow parents to manage their children's digital lives effectively. Parents can access web browsing history, set time limits for specific apps or websites, receive notifications when suspicious activities are detected, filter out inappropriate content from search results and social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, and track their child's location using GPS technology (with opt-in).
One App Store review reads:
“It’s nice to be able to oversee their activity & set controls as needed. Overall we have been very satisfied with the ability to monitor, steer & hold our kids accountable, which would be near impossible to do otherwise” - m1b2u3l45.
PRICE: $54.95 to $137.95/year, available with a 3-day free trial
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Qustodio is a great iPhone parental control app for 2023. OurPact promises to offer the same level of protection with its innovative features. Let's take a closer look at this popular app.
OurPact is a leading iOS parental control app that empowers parents to manage their children's device usage remotely, anywhere, and any time. With OurPact, you can set daily limits on apps and websites, block distracting content with a single tap, or schedule blocks for specific times of the day. The app also allows you to track your child's location in real-time and receive notifications when they arrive or leave designated locations. In addition, the app provides activity reports showing what sites have been visited and what apps have been used during a given period.
The app has a stellar 4.4/5 rating on the App Store and is one of the most popular parental control apps available in 2023. One of the standout features of OurPact is its remote blocking capabilities, which enable you to instantly cut off all internet access from any device connected to your home network with a single tap. This makes it easy to enforce screen time limits and ensure that your child is using their device responsibly.
In addition to its high ratings, OurPact is also incredibly popular among parents and experts due to its user-friendly interface that makes parenting more manageable than ever before.
PRICE:
$6.99/month, available with a 14-day free trial
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If you're looking for an all-in-one solution for managing your child's digital life, OurPact is an excellent choice. Now, let's take a closer look at Net Nanny - another popular iPhone parental control app in 2023.
Net Nanny is a comprehensive iOS parental control app that not only blocks inappropriate content but also provides monitoring and time management tools for parents to ensure their children's digital safety. Unlike other apps that simply block websites, Net Nanny analyzes web pages and allows parents to create their own filters to cater to their family's needs. With detailed activity reports, parents can monitor their children's screen time habits and set limits on device usage to ensure they engage in other activities like playing outside or doing homework.
Although it has a rating of 2.8/5 on the App Store, Net Nanny remains one of the most popular parental control apps available in 2023, thanks to its user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set. Parents have praised it for its ease of use, making managing digital safety easier than ever before.
PRICE: $39.99 to $89.99/year, available with a 14-day free trial
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With its robust security measures and comprehensive tools, Net Nanny is one of the best options available for iPhone parental control. Now, let's take a look at Screen Time to see what it has to offer.
Screen Time provides parents with the tools they need to take control of their kids' digital devices. This app, as you may have guessed, is all about keeping track of how long your little ones spend on apps, games, and browsing.
With Screen Time, parents can see which apps their kids are using, how long they're being used for, and even which websites and social media platforms have been visited.
Want to control access to apps and activities based on the time of day? No problem. Screen Time has got you covered with various timing mechanisms.
What sets Screen Time apart is its unique reward system that enables parents to incentivize their kids with additional screen time for completing chores or good deeds. This feature has become a favorite among parents, making Screen Time one of the more popular parental control apps available today.
With a 3.5/5 rating, Screen Time proves to be a worthy contender among the more expensive options currently available on the market.
PRICE:
$6.99/month, available with a 7-day free trial.
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If limiting your child’s screen time is your main priority, the Screen Time app is a great choice. However, for more advanced child safety features, Bark may better suit your needs. Let's take a closer look.
Bark offers powerful tools to protect kids from digital dangers like cyberbullying and sexting. Bark alerts parents whenever potential issues like inappropriate content or cyberbullying are detected. The app features monitoring of text messages (SMS/MMS), emails, YouTube videos and comments, social media accounts like Facebook Messenger, and potentially dangerous websites. It also tracks location history, sets time limits for device usage, and blocks apps and websites if necessary. You can customize alerts for specific topics or keywords of concern.
With millions of users worldwide, Bark is one of the most popular parental control apps, thanks to its comprehensive set of features that make it easy for parents to stay informed about their kids' online activities.
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With so many parental control apps to choose from, it can be tough to know where to start. However, Carrots&Cake stands out from the competition in a few key ways. Let’s check out how.
They address the wrong problem:
Kids don’t like hearing “no.” It triggers reactance - negative behavior caused when kids feel they are being ordered around. Kids become determined to engage in the forbidden activity. While traditional parental controls might work temporarily, they don’t curb a child’s desire to go online or change their behavior during screen time.
No support for withdrawal
When kids game and stream videos, their dopamine levels spike. A high dopamine level can lead to aggression and poor impulse control. It’s linked to ADHD, binge eating, and addiction. When an activity is cut off dopamine levels plunge. Without support, kids experience confusion and tantrums.
Kids break out
With traditional parental controls, kids can tweak default times, reinstall their favorite apps, and reset passcodes to bypass restrictions.
As parents, it is important to be aware of the different iPhone parental control apps of 2023 in order to ensure our children's safety and well-being. We have looked at the top six, comparing their features, price, rating, popularity, and reviews.
Each app has its own advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into consideration when making a decision on which one is best for your family.
Parents, it's time to take back control of your kids' screen time. With Carrots&Cake, you can easily monitor and manage the digital activities of your children in a balanced and responsible way that emphasizes learning. The app is built with doctors, teachers, and scientists so parents can trust their child’s online experience will be secure while also helping them develop healthy habits around technology use.
Download now to start protecting your family today & get your first 6 months absolutely free.
Is there a parental control app for iPhone?
Yes, there are various parental control apps for iPhones. Carrots&Cake is an innovative solution that helps parents keep their children safe online and manage their screen time in a healthy way. It's designed to be easy to use and understand, with features like content filtering, activity monitoring, and device management that give parents the power to set limits on what their kids can do online. With Carrots&Cake, parents can ensure that their children are using digital devices responsibly while still having fun.
What is the best app for parental control on Apple devices?
The best app for parental control on Apple devices is Carrots&Cake. Designed using science-based solutions, Carrots&Cake is a parental control learning app for kids. It's built by parents and developed with doctors, teachers, and scientists. Carrots&Cake helps kids develop healthy digital habits that make screen time more beneficial and less addictive.
With Carrots&Cake, kids learn first and play later. The app applies the oldest parenting technique to screen time: "Do your homework before you play." In other words, "Eat your carrots before your cake." Once parents download Carrots&Cake, they select their favorite educational apps (anything available in the AppStore.) When kids turn on their devices, they have to complete the educational apps — Carrots — before they can enjoy free time — Cake.
How can I monitor everything on my child's iPhone?
Carrots&Cake is the perfect parental control app for monitoring your child's iPhone. With the app’s comprehensive suite of features, you can easily keep track of their screen time, set limits on apps, and help your child build long-lasting positive screen time habits.
Educators
