Child protection for mobile devices
Test the free apps for the child protection of smartphones
We have tested free child protection apps. There are many good programs for this, but most of them are paid for. As the previous survey showed that most parents are not willing to pay for this offer, we have looked at so-called "free" apps to test whether we can recommend them to their parents. These are apps that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and are available only for Android operating systems. For Apple devices with an iOS operating system, no extra programs are required. The security settings can be made directly under the "Settings" menu item.
Child protection for Android
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Kids Place
Kids Place is a great little app that works as a child-proof Homescreen (the "desktop" of smartphones). The app is easy to use and set. First, a PIN (master password) is entered, with which the child protection can be switched off again and the app can also be left again. Then you can select from a list the APPs, which are released for the child. All selected apps come from the individual, child-friendly Homescreen. If you try to start another app or close the "Kids Place App", a backup screen will appear. The action can be continued after the master PIN entry. At the end of the session, parents can see how long each shared application has been used.
There are some plugins (extensions) for the app. This allows you to set up a clock that allows you to set the times when the phone can be used (Kids Place Screen Time), a secure video capture (Kids Place video player), and safe viewing of pictures (Kids Place Picture Viewer).
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Kids Zone
Kids Zone is also a children's safe Homescreen. According to "Kids Place", a master password is set up, which can be used later to switch off the app. In Kids Zone, profiles are set for the children according to their age group. After this setting, the apps that can be activated for children are also selected here. The difference to "Kids Place" is that Kids Zone already has tips on which apps are already installed and which are not. This can be helpful for parents who do not know the preinstalled apps on smartphones so well. Also in Kids Zone you can only use shared apps and even with a switch off the device it is not possible to bypass the child protection.
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Shield my teen
Shield my teen is an app that offers a complete child safety, or rather children's control. The app is more for parents of teenagers who want to have control over the use of the mobile phone. The app is installed on the device of the child (or children) and after you have set it, the app runs in the background and can not be turned off without the parent password. Parents can then follow their steps of the child via their mobile phone or online on the page of "Shield my teen". You can see what the child has looked at, lock pages on the Internet, read SMS messages, check with whom their child has been communicating and they can locate the smartphone. If the child wants to see a blocked page, the page is immediately blocked and the parent handy gets a message about which site the child wanted to look at. Parents can then decide whether to unblock the page. The app is only 15 days free, then it costs 30 EUR per year.
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Safe Browser
Safe Browser is a browser that works together with Kids Place. It already has a built-in filter, which does not block child-friendly categories. You can also enter keywords that are also blocked and you can also block individual pages. Safe Browser is a good browser for parents who want to track the Internet usage of their adolescents.
Child protection for Apple devices (iOS operating system)
The child protection or the protection of minors for Apple devices can be activated via iOS version 8.1.3 via selectable options in the "Settings". To do so, select the "Restrictions" menu item under "General" and activate the desired restrictions with a four-digit PIN. You can only disable these restrictions by entering this PIN. A special feature of Apple 's child protection system is that apps, videos or music files can be unlocked or disabled (by setting or removing checkmarks) for certain age levels such as 4+, 9+, 12+ or 17+.
