Set up and lock down parental controls. Parental controls on phones, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, and smart TVs can reduce the risk of kids’ seeing inappropriate content, keep them from sharing personal information, and prevent them from making accidental, unwanted purchases.
How parental controls work differs by device, and you have to set them up individually. On iPhones and iPads, parental controls are built into a setting called Screen Time. Android offers parental controls under Family Link. Wirecutter editor Harry Sawyers, a dad of three adolescent boys, also encourages parents to create a super-secret password (or PIN) for each device’s parental controls that the children can learn under no circumstances. Store that impossible-to-crack password in one of our favorite password managers.
Use apps to manage screen time. Even if your devices are all locked down, managing how much time your kids are spending with little glowing rectangles in front of their faces can still be daunting. Apple’s Screen Time controls work well for children of all ages. Google’s Family Link offers sufficient screen-time management controls for kids under 13. A more advanced, subscription-based app such as Qustodio may be beneficial for Android users once you have older children who can learn to circumvent the more basic built-in parental controls.
These apps allow you to build in routine screen-free time, limit or block the worst app offenders (such as YouTube or TikTok), and track how much total time your kids are spending on each device. Some parents, like Harry, recommend approving screen time only incrementally, as a reward for homework, hygiene, or chores.
Ban YouTube from your house (sort of). One of the biggest tech struggles in a household is over how and when kids get to watch YouTube. You can set screen-time limits on YouTube using the tip above, or you can remove access to it altogether.
Remove the YouTube app on your kid’s iPhone or iPad and prevent redownloading by tapping Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > iTunes & App Store Purchases > Installing Apps > Don’t Allow.
To block the website on iPhones, tap Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > App Store, Media, Web, & Games > Web Content > Limit Adult Websites > Never Allow and add both the main YouTube website and the mobile version, m.youtube.com.
Kids may also attempt to get around YouTube restrictions by using FaceTime’s SharePlay to watch videos with friends. You can block SharePlay under the same Screen Time setting: Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps & Features and toggle SharePlay off.
For Android devices, go to Settings > Apps > All apps and select YouTube from the list. Select Uninstall if it wasn’t preinstalled or Disable if it was. To block reinstallation, use Family Link. To effectively block the website across the most popular Android browsers, get the BlockSite app from the Google Play Store and add both youtube.com and m.youtube.com to the block list.
Gain admin access to your router. One of the most crucial things you can do as a parent is to stay on top of your home’s internet usage. Install your router’s companion app or create an account on the router maker’s website. From there, you can access your router’s settings to see which devices are currently connected and using your network.
More importantly, you can temporarily suspend internet access (such as after bedtime) to ensure that your kids are counting sheep rather than surfing the web. If your router has a companion app, you can have a similar level of control right on your phone. The app may allow you to enable Wi-Fi scheduling, a feature that automatically turns your wireless network on or off without powering down the router entirely, or parental controls, through which you can create device profiles for each child, block categories of content, set up time limits, and see their usage at a glance.
If you have older kids, consider using a firewall to lock down the internet. Your router’s parental controls can work well when your kids are on the younger side, but tweens and teens are likely to figure out ways to circumvent them.
If your child possesses enough tech wizardry to get around your router’s parental controls, check out the Firewalla Purple firewall and router. Wirecutter router expert Joel Santo Domingo notes that while the Firewalla device is expensive and a bit complicated to set up, it was the only option that worked after his teen managed to evade the parental controls on a long list of otherwise well-rated routers. But Joel also cautions that even a dedicated firewall and router is only a temporary speed bump for circumvented parental controls: “The best way to help your kids stay safe on the internet,” Joel says, “is to talk with them and guide them so they can navigate the online world safely on their own.”
Create separate profiles on streaming platforms. If your kid loves TV and movies as much as mine does, you’re sure to be launching KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix on a weekly if not daily basis. It’s quite easy to create a profile for your child (or for each kid separately, if they’re of disparate ages) to filter it for age-appropriate content, though most parents we polled suggest that you still supervise your child’s TV time.
Most major streaming services (Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV) also allow you to set a PIN for the adult profiles or restricted content on your account, so your child won’t be able to access them in order to get around the content-rating filtering.
Hide or lock apps on your TV. More than one set of parents told us that when it came to controlling TV access, they weren’t above locking their clickers in a safe. But virtually all of the major smart TV platforms offer a way to set restrictions by program rating, set time limits or designate specific hours when usage is permitted, remove or restrict apps (like that darn YouTube), and lock everything down with a PIN.
The instructions vary by platform, but if you have a Google TV, which most modern Sony, Hisense, and TCL TVs are, use the settings or gear-icon button on your remote to open the menu and navigate to Settings > Channels & Inputs > Parental Control to lock content, schedule blocking, or block by program rating. Google TV also allows you to add a Google kids profile.
If you have a Samsung TV, open Settings and navigate to General & Privacy. You’ll find the Parental Settings menu close to the bottom of the menu. Here, you can toggle on Parental Lock, restrict content by program rating, and lock apps so that they require a PIN for access.
If your TV is based on a different platform, you can search for your model online to find its parental-control settings.
Lean on single-use devices. If you don’t want your child using a smartphone or tablet at all, you can find plenty of fun tech gadgets that give them that same sense of discovery without the boundless freedom of a smartphone. An E Ink device such as the Kindle Kids e-reader, tech-infused learning and STEM toys, or, for an older child, even a cheap point-and-shoot film camera can encourage exploration and creativity while keeping unexpected variables to a minimum. Wirecutter has lots of great light-tech recommendations for kids.
Before handing your iPhone to your kid, enable these two settings. If, like me, you sometimes allow your child to look through your phone’s photo library or browse the weather app, you’ve probably noticed that they always manage to end up somewhere else.
Wirecutter tech editor Signe Brewster uses an iPhone and iPad setting called Guided Access, which keeps the phone locked to one app. In Settings, tap Accessibility > Guided Access to activate the feature, which prevents whoever is using your phone from exiting an app and opening another one. Just remember to turn it off once you get your phone back. You can also restrict specific apps to be opened via Face ID by long-pressing the app icon and tapping Require Face ID.
Use a timer that your child can see. If you have toddlers who are just starting to watch TV shows or movies, it can be helpful to use a visual timer, which allows your child to see exactly how much time they have left to watch what they’re watching. Kids this young don’t have the faculties to understand the abstract passage of time like older kids do, but they can see a clock hand moving or a space becoming a different color, and it may prevent those TV-just-turned-off tantrums every parent fears.
Do you have your own tech tips or tricks that have worked for your family? We’d love to hear about them in the comments.
This article was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Jason Chen.
