SHORT ON TIME? HERE'S A QUICK SUMMARY
For parents of today's hyperconnected children, Norton Family provides extensive parental control and monitoring options. It supports geofencing, blocking and filtering, has tons of useful extras, and has an easy-to-use web interface. Norton Family offers a level of customization that no other parental control tool can, making it ideal for weaning children off parental restrictions as they age or putting up distinct rules for various age ranges. That said, this app is probably best for families who already have open communication about social media and online safety practices.
👍 PROS:
- No cap on the number of monitored devices
- Fair pricing
- Extensive list of features
- Excellent extras like Instant Lock and School Time
- Search Supervision
- Websites and apps blocker
- Simple to set up and configure
- Outstanding geofencing tools
- Robust screentime management
- Supports Windows platform
- Comprehensive online reporting dashboard
👎 CONS:
- Limited features on iOS
- Can only monitor browser-based viewing of YouTube and Hulu
- Unable to disable specific PC games and programs
Get Norton Family - The Leading Parental Control Tool
SEE WHAT USERS HAVE TO SAY
"This tool for monitoring my children’s online activities on their cell phones has exceeded my expectations. With a little bit of exploring and experimentation I was able to tweak the parental settings to my exact liking at anytime from my device whether we’re together or not giving me one less thing to worry about especially the time they spend streaming videos and content I may deem unsuitable. Thank to the whole Norton team, you guys did a great job with this one!"
"I really enjoy the app! We have a teenage son and a preteen son. The app allows me to control what they view on their computers and for how long. I am also able to disable the access by clicking a button."
"Norton has made our lives much more peaceful with regards to children and their computer time. Homeschooling our grands using the computer and internet opened the door for sneaky fun time. As much as I tried to monitor their activities, they always found a way to sneak in searches unassociated with school during school hours. Norton put tools in my hand that allows me to have complete control of their computer activities. I can block what I want, allow what I want and when I say it’s ok to do so and am notified when they try to step outside my set boundaries. It frees up my time and gives me peace of mind about their safety. Thank you so much!!!!"
FEATURES
Norton Family is intended to help you monitor what your children are doing online, safeguard them from unsuitable content, and prevent screen time and smartphone addiction. It accomplishes this and more with the following features:
House Rules - This feature limits what your children may and cannot do online. For the most part, you must set them manually. When you create a profile for your child during setup, Norton Family will prompt you to choose from four limitation levels. The level you select determines the online categories the application labels as appropriate or inappropriate based on your children's ages. Furthermore, the default house rules restrict daily screen time.
Web Filtering - This critical component is what keeps children from accidentally (or actively) visiting inappropriate websites. This function distinguishes itself from other parental control apps in that it does more than simply block the websites. If your children believe that a website has been incorrectly labeled as inappropriate, they can request access to it. Norton Family offers 47 categories in total, including pornography, drugs, and alcohol, as well as everything in between. The "Restricted" and "Allowed" lists allow you to specify whether a website should always be restricted or allowed based on its category. Norton's supervision level can be changed from Blocked to Warn (your child receives a warning but can still access the website). If you prefer a more liberal approach to web filtering, simply select "Monitor" (no blocks, no warnings, but you may analyze browsing history afterwards to see what's going on).
Time Management - This is the perfect tool for parents concerned over their kids' screen time. With this feature, you can set a screen time allowance for each day in increments of 30 minutes. To do this, simply click on the relevant day and select your desired screen time allowance from a dropdown menu.
Time Extension - When the child has less than 15 minutes remaining in their allotted time for the day, they can request a time extension directly from their Norton Family app.
Location Tracking - Norton Family offers a phone locator that lets you create geofences to track the little one's whereabouts. Using "Favorite Locations", you can mark landmarks and places on a map as either safe or risky. You can set the border up to 10,500 feet away from the spot of your choice. Additionally, you can get updates on when your kids enter or leave these geofences.
Video Streaming Supervision - With this functionality, you can see which YouTube and Hulu videos your children are watching. Besides showing you a list of everything your child has watched recently, it also goes above and beyond by providing clips of those videos. But there's a catch: this only works when they're streaming on supported browsers. If they are using YouTube and Hulu apps, this feature won't work.
School Time - This function, designed for remote learning, can help reduce distractions while children are studying. It allows parents to approve the sites their children need to attend classes and complete homework without granting them access to the rest of the internet. You can set it to work during certain hours and days and just turn it off at any time, whether automatically or manually. This way, you can be sure your kids are focused on studying and not slacking off watching Netflix shows.
Search Supervision - This feature monitors your child's searches on YouTube, Amazon, Blinkx, and popular search engines like Google, Ask, Bing, and Yahoo. It also allows you to implement safe search on those search engines, ensuring that your children are not accidentally exposed to age-inappropriate information.
Access Request - If for any reason, your kids are dissatisfied with any of your house rules. They can send you a note to express their dissatisfaction with whatever they believe is unfair. This option allows your children to defend themselves. You are not required to honor their request, but they should be able to express their views and feel heard.
Instant Lock - You can instantly disable all of the monitored devices saved in your child's profile. This approach can effectively hinder their online activity, especially if they use unsupported browsers to circumvent your house rules.
COMPATIBLE DEVICES
This parental control app is compatible with Windows, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. It supports the following desktop and mobile operating systems:
Windows 7 all versions with Service Pack 1 (SP 1 with SHA-2 support) or later
Windows 8, 8.1, 10, 11 (all versions), except Windows in S Mode
Android 8 or later
Current and previous two versions of Apple iOS
PRICING AND PLANS
Norton Family discontinued its free tier in early 2018, opting instead for a $49.99 per year subscription alternative. As Norton has maintained its pricing, this is one of the more affordable parental-control choices available today. It's wonderful to see only one package provided, which simplifies things, and it's the only Norton plan you'll ever need because it supports unlimited devices and child accounts. There are no limits on the number of devices that may be added to an account, which is excellent for today's hyperconnected generation. An account can have up to 15 child profiles, which is ideal for large families.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Norton Family has good customer support, but it could be better. You'll find a support library with helpful setup tutorials, troubleshooting guides, and informative articles about Norton Family's features. If you don't want to waste time perusing the website's help area, you may open a ticket or chat with a customer care professional 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Currently, Norton customer support is available in 50+ countries.
"This tool for monitoring my children’s online activities on their cell phones has exceeded my expectations. With a little bit of exploring and experimentation I was able to tweak the parental settings to my exact liking at anytime from my device whether we’re together or not giving me one less thing to worry about especially the time they spend streaming videos and content I may deem unsuitable. Thank to the whole Norton team, you guys did a great job with this one!"
"I really enjoy the app! We have a teenage son and a preteen son. The app allows me to control what they view on their computers and for how long. I am also able to disable the access by clicking a button."
"Norton has made our lives much more peaceful with regards to children and their computer time. Homeschooling our grands using the computer and internet opened the door for sneaky fun time. As much as I tried to monitor their activities, they always found a way to sneak in searches unassociated with school during school hours. Norton put tools in my hand that allows me to have complete control of their computer activities. I can block what I want, allow what I want and when I say it’s ok to do so and am notified when they try to step outside my set boundaries. It frees up my time and gives me peace of mind about their safety. Thank you so much!!!!"
FEATURES
Norton Family is intended to help you monitor what your children are doing online, safeguard them from unsuitable content, and prevent screen time and smartphone addiction. It accomplishes this and more with the following features:
COMPATIBLE DEVICES
This parental control app is compatible with Windows, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. It supports the following desktop and mobile operating systems:
PRICING AND PLANS
Norton Family discontinued its free tier in early 2018, opting instead for a $49.99 per year subscription alternative. As Norton has maintained its pricing, this is one of the more affordable parental-control choices available today. It's wonderful to see only one package provided, which simplifies things, and it's the only Norton plan you'll ever need because it supports unlimited devices and child accounts. There are no limits on the number of devices that may be added to an account, which is excellent for today's hyperconnected generation. An account can have up to 15 child profiles, which is ideal for large families.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Norton Family has good customer support, but it could be better. You'll find a support library with helpful setup tutorials, troubleshooting guides, and informative articles about Norton Family's features. If you don't want to waste time perusing the website's help area, you may open a ticket or chat with a customer care professional 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Currently, Norton customer support is available in 50+ countries.
