Today’s kids are active on all kinds of devices and platforms, which is a problem for parents who want to control their digital activities. Kaspersky Safe Kids works well on Android, iOS, Mac and PC. You can install it on an unlimited number of devices, and Kaspersky Antivirus Key offers almost everything you’d expect from a modern parental control app, including app blocking, location monitoring (with geofencing), web filtering, and time management. While Kaspersky Safe Kids is a great service, Qustodio is our best choice for parental control.
Prices and platforms
Kaspersky Safe Kids offers excellent value for money. For $ 14.99 a year, you can create as many child profiles as you like, regardless of platform, and monitor as many devices as you like. You can also use Kaspersky Safe Kids for free. There are some limitations to this version. Norton Family Premier ($ 49.99 per year) and Screen Time ($ 39.99 per year) are some of the few that do not impose restrictions on the devices.
The Windows and Mac editions are almost identical in terms of functionality, while the Android and iOS editions have some differences. If you want to monitor your child specifically on mobile platforms, check out our roundup of the best parental control apps for your phone.
Start
Installing Safe Kids on a Windows system is quick and easy. All you need to do is log in to your Kaspersky online account or sign up for free. Like Norton Family Premier and Qustodio, you can buy kaspersky internet security to perform configuration tasks primarily through the online console.
This process is more complex on Android. As soon as you accept a longer license agreement on iOS, you must install a configuration profile through Safari and enable certain permissions. Block all other browsers on iOS, including Safari.
Improved web interface
The Kaspersky Safe Kids web interface uses an overall bright color palette, where Kaspersky green is much cheaper and prefers minimalist symbols. Some tuning sections have also been simplified since our last review. It’s better than many competitors’ web-based dashboards, though not as sleek or responsive as the Norton Family console.
Content filtering
Filtering websites with awkward or inappropriate content may be the most common parental control feature. Safe Kids has identified 14 content categories, including adult content, violence and weapons. The restrictions are preconfigured based on the year of birth of each child. Kaspersky Safe Kids identified a number of other categories with a warning difference in our tests. When children try to access a website that belongs to a category marked as such, Safe Kids displays a warning and notifies parents if the child ignores the warning.
Social networks
You can set up Safe Kids to monitor your child’s account on Facebook and VK, a popular social network in Russia. This feature requires the child’s acceptance. To activate it, Safe Kids must send an email with a link that installs an application in the profile of the social network. Norton doesn’t need an app to monitor Facebook, but its monitoring options are limited and often become unusable after a change on the social media site.
Application control
Safe Kids can monitor and block individual apps on all platforms, but with certain restrictions for iOS. A feature that works with iOS is the ability to block access to games or applications based on their age. The Microsoft family offers similar functionality on PC.
Device monitoring and delays
Programming or restricting children’s Internet access or device use is a very common feature of parental controls. Kaspersky’s implementation of this feature is robust, but not the most flexible we’ve seen. With the Lock device option, you can set a total time limit and create a usage plan. However, if the child ignores this warning, parents will receive a notification.
Kaspersky cannot block an iOS like it can on any other platform, but it can prevent children from launching applications.
Where is my son
By installing Safe Kids on a child’s cell phone or tablet, you can activate the location monitoring feature. In this way, you can check your child’s position at any time with just one click. Many parental control apps, including Norton Family and Qustodio, offer at least this level of location tracking. Kaspersky Safe Kids goes further with its geofencing function. In this way, you can set any number of allowed ranges and find out if there is a child in that region. If your child leaves the area for a specified period of time, you will receive a notification.
Kaspersky Safe Kids for Android
As already mentioned, when installing the Kaspersky Safe Kids application, you have to choose between top mode and bottom mode during installation. Before using main mode, you must first set up a four-digit PIN code. The user interface itself is divided into five tabs, which can be found below: Summary, Warnings, Where’s My Child ?, Settings and Additional. In secondary mode, the Kaspersky application is quite simple. In the top section, you can see all of your parents’ responses to any applications or requests to access the website you submit, along with the currently enabled rules.
Kaspersky Safe Kids for iPhone
The Kaspersky Safe Kids app for iOS is also very simple. Basically it is Kaspersky’s secure browser. As already mentioned, Safe Kids blocks all other browsers on iOS so that your child can no longer use them.
A well balanced product.
Kaspersky Safe Kids offers everything you expect from a parental control product and on all popular platforms. In particular, it works on an unlimited number of devices and offers excellent web filtering and application blocking functions. For these reasons, Qustodio remains our choice for publishers due to its great features for all world-class web and mobile platforms and applications.
