Five apps for parental control

The internet is a fantastic source of information. Whether you use it for social media, researching or cheating on the pub quiz, you can find out nearly anything you need to know these days.

But while you might be happy to have unlimited access to all this information, you probably don't want your children to.

Carphone Warehouse published a report in 2012 stating that 1.2 million school children have accessed inappropriate content on their mobile phone so we have rounded up five apps, available for your phone or tablet, to make sure they only see what you want them to see.

McGruff SafeGuard Browser - iOS - FREE

The McGruff SafeGuard Browser will allow you to create different logins for each family member, as well as optional passwords and a schedule for when browsing is allowed.

You'll have to make the McGruff browser your default browser, but after that you can block by age or category and there are over 100 categories to allow or block.

If you want to monitor what sites your child is visiting, this app will also email you activity reports daily or weekly, showing a summary or full history of all the sites they have visited and blocked.

Mobicip Safe Browser with Parental Control - iOS and Android - FREE

The Mobicip Safe Browser comes with age-based filtering where you set the filter at the school level of your child and the app automatically applies the standards accordingly.

There is also a YouTube filter that filters YouTube videos based on title, description or key words and safe search, which is compatible with popular search engines.

If you upgrade to the Premium subscription, you will also be able to access reports online or via email and build your own filter for multiple users.

Browser for Kids Lite - iOS - FREE

Browser for Kids Lite gives you customisable filters meaning you can make sure your child only sees the sites you think are appropriate.

On iPad, up to four allowed sites have a dedicated button in the home screen, while on the iPhone the allowed sites feature in a pop-up list.

You can set up four filters in the Lite version, and unlimited in the full version, and you can also set a daily navigation time limit to restrict the time your child can spend browsing each day.

Funamo Parental Control - Android - FREE (at first)

The Funamo Parental Control app will work on all Android phones and tablets and allows you to not only filter internet sites, but monitor devices too.

You can enforce safe search for Google, Yahoo, Bing and YouTube, as well as set up keyword or phrase filtering and time limits for applications.

Contacts, calls, SMS, websites, applications and locations of the device will automatically be logged and history data is uploaded to the Furnamo server each day, which you as a parent can view from any browser whenever you want.

Kids Place - Parental Control - Android - FREE

You will have to set up a pin when you first log into Kids Place that is then needed to exit the app, but once logged in, it will protect your personal data and restrict your children to only use apps approved by you.

Kids Place will also make sure your kids can't do anything on your device that will cost you money, such as making phone calls, texting or downloading new apps.

In addition, you can block incoming calls when this app is running and disable all wireless signals, as well as have multiple user profiles.

These are just a couple of the apps you can use to protect your children and your bank balance when browsing the internet and using devices, but there are plenty more in the App Store and Google Play Store that allow you to not only monitor browsing, but text messages and phone calls too.

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