Promoting A Healthy Mind and Body in Children & Youth: Caregiver Apps that support online safety for kids

Hi Caregivers,

Before we end this series, I wanted to share a few social media safety apps and suggestions that have been helpful to caregivers in the Durham community. Please take your time and do your own research to find an application that works best for your household goals. Many applications permit parents and caregivers to be completely invisible while navigating their youth’s socials, however, I do think in most cases it is important to have safety talks with your youth and to discuss why the caregiver apps will be utilized and to have open discussions on the pros and cons of online platforms. Some of these suggestions are free, and others have monthly subscriptions. Remember, no application is perfect for monitoring and nothing can replace loving boundaries set by caregivers and safe non-judgemental discussions with loved ones that can help promote wise scrolling. Lastly, remember if your child or teen needs a phone to stay connected with you, there is nothing wrong with an old flip phone that has access to calls and texts only, our generation survived, so will they - lets get away from the screen.

1. Set Screen Time Limits: Discuss the importance of screen-free time, and how this time away from the phone impacts their brain, body and heart in a positive way. With your youth present, set time limits on each social media app so when the time limit has been reached, the platform shuts down until the next day.

2. Qustodio: This application allows parents and caregivers to have visibility for their youth that own an iphone. The application allows for social media monitoring, filtering out inappropriate websites, the ability to see your child’s location and supports with time limit setting.

3. Facebook Messenger for Kids: This application allows caregivers to see every conversation between your child and their friends, and you also have the ability to see every image sent. This allows for close monitoring of all interactions online, which is important for your child’s safety.

4. Google Family Link: This is a free platform that permits caregivers to monitor iOS and Android devices from online restrictions to setting time limits in your youth’s device.

5. mSPY: This is a parental monitoring application for iPhones and Androids that will support caregivers in monitoring their youth’s socials, tracking locations, decreasing online bullying and more. This application permits the caregiver to stay invisible online while navigating online platforms that are often unhealthy and not age appropriate.

6. Norton Family: Parents and caregivers will be able to support their children with online safety by monitoring what their youth website searches and views and supporting online safety by setting screen limits, promoting wise scrolling and decreasing exposure to inappropriate content.

7. Apple’s built-in safety app: This is free and allows parents to monitor their child’s screen limits, promotes content restrictions and allows for general monitoring.

8. Household Rule: At night, put away the phones in a drawer in the kitchen. No one needs their phone at night, especially youth. At night, youth need to focus on their sleep hygiene and bedtime routine versus scrolling through socials that increases anxieties and exposure to inappropriate images and topics before bed.