FamiSafe Review: A Concerned Parents’ Guide to Parental Control App

Today’s digital world has opened up new avenues of learning and entertainment for everyone. However, there are also certain risks associated with the digital medium, especially for the young ones who are most vulnerable to these risks.

Being a parent myself, I know that keeping your kids safe in the digital world is as important as protecting them in the physical world. But, you don't want to come off as a helicopter parent hovering over your kids all the time.

As it is a sensitive matter to monitor your kid’s mobile use, you need a reliable and versatile tool to do it right and completely undetected.

That’s why I recommend FamiSafe parental control app. It is an intuitive app that allows you to monitor your child’s digital activities, track their location, and block inappropriate content.

In the following, I am going to give you a brief introduction to FamiSafe and how to use it for your specific monitoring needs. Let’s take a look.

What is FamiSafe?

In the digital age, most kids have their own mobile devices. Well, there's no harm in that, however, parents need to be vigilant about their kids’ device usage but they don’t know just how to do that. And this is where FamiSafe comes in.

As mentioned before, FamiSafe is a parental control app for keeping an eye on your kid’s digital media usage. You can use it to control their screen time, detect and block the content that’s unsuitable for their viewing, and track their real-time location right through your own device.

But that’s not all. FamiSafe has a number of useful features that are aimed to give complete peace of mind to the parents. Here’s a list of some of its most intersecting features:

• Get a daily activity report of your kid’s device with an outlook of app timeline, installed apps, and deleted apps.
• Block inappropriate websites by adding them to a blacklist.
• View deleted browser history.
• See how much time your kid has spent on each app.
• Limit app usage or block certain apps altogether.
• Get notifications on suspicious texts.
• Schedule screen time.
• Real-time tracking of your kid’s location and see where they've been.
• Create geofencing by setting safe zones and getting alerts if your kid goes out of this location.
• Get an outlook of your kid’s TikTok app usage – the duration and type of videos they’re watching.

Additionally, the FamiSafe app can monitor a number of devices at the same time and (at the time of this writing) it is available for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, KindleFire, and desktop.

How does FamiSafe work?

If you are a concerned parent like me, you’ll love the way FamiSafe undertakes comprehensive monitoring of any device that your kid is using. However, from my own experience, I know that it may get a bit overwhelming to use the many features that FamiSafe has to offer.

So here I’ve prepared a how-to guide on installing the app and using some of its most interesting features.

1. How to install and register FamiSafe on parents’ phones?

To start using the FamiSafe app, the parents first need to install and register it on their own phones through which they could conduct the monitoring. To do that you need to:

1. Download the FamiSafe app for your Android or iOS device.
2. Launch the app and select your identity as a Parent.



3. Next, the app will ask you to sign up using an email address or via third-party accounts.



4. Once you have registered an account on the app, you’ll land on a page that shows you a pairing code with some instructions. You can follow the instructions and use this code to pair your kid’s device.

You can sign up and register on the FamiSafe desktop app as well, using the same steps to receive a pairing code and tie up your kid’s device.

2. How to pair my kid’s device with my FamiSafe account?

To pair your kid’s device with your FamiSafe account, you need to perform certain steps on their device.

1. Download the FamiSafe Jr. app (iOS, or Android) on your kid’s Android or iOS device.
2. After an introductory walkthrough, you’ll land on a sign up page. Since you already have an account, you can tap the Log in option or you can select Pair with Code to register.



3. Once you tap the Pair with Code button, you’ll be required to enter a 6-digit code that you got in parent’s device to complete the pairing process.

Note: It is important to remember that for pairing every new device, you need to tap the refresh icon beside the pairing code in parent’s phone to receive a new code.

4. Once the binding is done, you’ll be asked to grant certain permissions to the app.
5. If you’re pairing your kid’s Android device, the app will ask you to Activate Accessibility, Display Over the Apps, App Supervision, Notification Access, Device Administrator Permission, and Contact List and Location Permission.
6. If you’re pairing your kid’s iOS device, you’ll be asked to Activate Location Tracking and then install iOS Profile to apply the rules that you select.



7. Once done, you’re all set to monitor your young ones' phone through your own device.

3. How to get my kid’s phone usage activity report?

One of the most important features of the FamiSafe app is getting insights on your kid’s device usage activities. It updates you on the things your kids are browsing on the internet and how much time they’re spending on their devices.

Let’s take a look at how to access these features.

Activity Report (Android only)

If you are monitoring your kid’s Android device, you’ll be able to get a real-time activity report in a timeline format. It tells you about the apps your kid has used and for how much time. Apart from their current activity, you can check the activity record of the last 3 months.

To access the activity report:

1. Tap Features and then go to Activity Report. You’ll see your kid’s device usage activities in the form of a list.
2. You can scroll down or tap “<” or “>” to view the activities of the previous days.



3. If your kid has accessed some websites, you can click on those web pages right through the activity report timeline.

Browsing History

You can check the browning history of your child’s device through your FamiSafe account. It also enables you to block a website that you deem inappropriate for your kid. Here’s how to use it.

1. Tap Features and go to Browser History.
2. You can scroll down or tap “<” or “>” to view the browsing activities of the previous days.



3. If you want to block a web page to keep your kid from accessing it, just tap on the lock icon on the right side.

Screen Time

With the help of the screen time feature, you can block or limit the time your young one spends on their devices. It offers you to get a detailed picture of device usage of a single day to the last 30 days with time spent on entertainment, games, or other activities.

You can also block any of the apps, create a time limit for app usage, and create a schedule to set a time and location for blocking your kid’s phone. To check the screen time activities:

1. Tap Features and go to Screen Time.
2. Here you’ll find an outlook of screen time and other sub-features.



3. To get deeper insight into screen time usage, tap View beside Details.
4. You’ll be able to see a graphical visualization of screen time usage of the present day or an overview of the last 7 to 30 days.

4. How can I monitor and manage my kid’s location?

FamiSafe has excellent location features to track your kid’s location, mark a safe zone, and get notified if the young one goes out of the marked location. Following is a detailed look at each of the location safety features.

Real-time location

The real-time location feature allows you to track the live location of your kid through their device. You can also see your kid’s phone battery level and get a notification when it’s below 20%.

To go to the real-time location:

1. Tap Features and go to Real-time Location or you can check the real-time location right at the home page.



2. To update the location, tap the refresh icon on the top-right corner.

Location history

With FamiSafe, you can check where your kid has been in the last 30 days through the location history. It allows you to see if your child has been to some place where they were not supposed to be. For accessing the location history:

1. Tap Features and go to Location History.
2. You’ll be able to see all the places where your kid has been along with all the stops they made along the way. There’s also a timeline view of the location just below the map view.



3. Tap “<” or “>” to view the location history of the previous days.

Geofencing

The Geofencing feature enables you to create a safe zone around the places that your kid visits every day. Therefore, whenever your young one goes out of this marked safe zone, you’ll be notified with an alert. Here’s how to set geofencing:

1. Tap Features and go to Geofencing.



2. Tap Add to create geofencing on a specific location.



3. Search the exact location and drag the slider to select a range.
4. Give your geofence a name and tap Save.

5. How can I do content detection on my child’s phone?

One of the roles of a parental control app is to detect and manage content that is used by your kid on different social media platforms. In this regard, FamiSafe offers efficient content detection and flagging features so you can monitor what type of content your kid is exposed to.

Following are some of the content detection features that you can use.

Explicit Content Detection

The Explicit content detection feature enables you to monitor many social media platforms including SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Messenger Lite, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Kik, Gmail, and many others. If you detect explicit content in your kid’s phone, you can review it or take suitable action.

Here’s how to access it:

1. Tap on Features and go to Explicit Content Detection.



2. Here you’ll find a list of apps. To monitor any of these apps, you need to connect your kid’s account by tapping Connect Account.
3. Tap on the three vertical dots at the top-right corner to add Suspicious Text Base or Add Suspicious Words to be detected by the app.

Web Filter

You can detect and manage inappropriate web content through the Web Filter. It has a list of 10 categories of websites that you can toggle on/off to keep your kids from accessing harmful content.

To access the Web Filters:

1. Tap Features and go to Web Filters.



2. You can toggle on/off any of the categories mentioned in the list.
3. You can also manually add any website in the Web Filter by tapping on the Add an Exception button.

TikTok History

TikTok is increasingly becoming popular among the youth providing a source of fun and entertainment. However, the app is also host to some sensitive videos or the type of content that’s inappropriate for the young ones.

To check what type of content are your kids watching, FamiSafe offers you to check the TikTok history on your child’s device. Here’s how to use it:

1. Tap Features and go to TikTok History.
2. You’ll be able to see a timeline view of videos that have been watched on your kid’s device as well as the duration of app usage, hashtags, thumbnails, and video details.
3. Tap “<” or “>” to view the location history of the previous days.
4. Too see the content from a specific account, click the View button beside it.

6. What are the benefits of FamiSafe for school?

Digital media is a great source of teaching kids, but to find a platform where teachers can get all kinds of information on their students, track their progress, and deliver lessons is quite a feat.

In this respect FamiSafe for school can be a wonderdul platform for teachers. It provides a smart dashboard to aggregate all the information on the students and allows you to manage their devices through a single source.

With FamiSafe school app, you can control the screen time, create a study schedule, and block the apps or websites on your students’ device that could be potentially harmful for your them.

There are multiple subscription options to choose from in terms of duration and number of devices that you would want to monitor. Moreover, you can manage multiple students and multiple devices simultaneously with one account.

7. What are the different price plans the FamiSafe app offers?

After reading about all the wonderful features of the FamiSafe app, you’d think that it must be pricey as it offers such a sophisticated solution for parental control. But I assure you that it isn’t so.

There are three pricing options you can choose from – $9.99 per month, $19.99 per quarter, or $59.99 per year. The monthly pricing plan allows you to monitor up to 5 devices with all features and the quarterly and annual pricing plan offers you to monitor up to 10 devices with all features included.

Also, if you're not decisive about subscribing to any of the paid plans, you can take a three-day free trial to experience the app first hand and make an informed decision.

To conclude

The online world is informative and entertaining but it also carries many threats for the young and feeble minds of our kids. You never know when your kid is exposed to inappropriate content or is bullied online. That’s why it is important to invest in a good parental control app.

Why I recommend the Wondershare FamiSafe parental control app is because it is reliable and feature-rich that you won’t have to monitor your kid's mobile device manually. The app takes care of all kinds of tracking and monitoring with appropriate discretion and covers even the aspects that you may overlook.

On top of that FamiSafe is intuitive with a simple-to-use interface that anyone can navigate through. And if you find trouble in working with any of the features, you can simply take help from this guide.

Let us know about your experience with FamiSafe and how it helped you with your monitoring needs.