Phone Monitoring App

We frequently get questions from members of The Joyful Stepmom Facebook community about phone monitoring apps. To assist in protecting your family, we wanted to share some resources.

A book I really like on this topic is Screens and Teens by Kathy Koch. When your children are entering the stage of using electronics, I highly recommend this as part of your reading stack.  

What to monitor?
Primarily, we received requests for phone monitoring apps. We can't stress enough the value and importance of monitoring ALL devices for your children. Apps, texts, websites - you want to watch it all.

Focus on the Family's Plugged In has a great, quick guide for parents on the what and why. CLICK HERE to read. 

Recommended Monitoring Apps
Consumer Advocate gives a list of the Top 10 Parental Control Apps. Each app has a bullet point description that is very helpful in breaking down the advantages and directing parents in what to look for. I see that Qustodio is on this list, which is frequently mentioned by parents in The Joyful Stepmom.

Focus on the Family's Plugged In recommends some of the same parental control apps. This list also adds Covenant Eyes which is another app recommended by members of The Joyful Stepmom.

Below is a list of parental control apps that made both lists, including those frequently used by members of our stepmom community:
NetNanny
Norton
Qustodio
Covenant Eyes

We share this information with no ranking or bias, only in the hopes that when you are on the search for this information it helps to have a few resources gathered. As mentioned, we have received the question enough times from members that we wanted to gather our own list to provide a little information for you. Protecting the hearts, minds and eyes of your family is precious to us as parents.