I was recently informed that my 12 year old step-daughter would be getting a smart phone for Christmas. I knew it was a done deal by the tone in which I was informed, so I decided to do some research to find out the best way to restrict the phone at an age-appropriate level, as well as track the location of the phone.
iPhone or Android? Pretty much a no-brainer for me, because of all of the spying that Google does continually. But maybe it’s not such a no-brainer, because after purchasing the phone and then researching parental control software, I found to my horror that it is very difficult to do parental control on an iPhone, because of how tightly Apple locks everything down – basically, the apps can’t speak to each other, a basic requirement for parental control software. But there is something called “MDM” which Apple has provided, like an API in Windows, so that some parental control can be done. But in all honesty, if I had not already purchased an iPhone and signed the contract, I might have gotten her an Android, because you can totally control and monitor an Android phone via parental control software, because Android isn’t locked down like iPhone.
Having said that, there is a parental control program called “OurPact” which specializes in doing parental control for the iPhone. It is reputed to be the best such software for the iPhone, so I decided to try it. More about that in a minute.
(OurPact also works for an Android phone, but since I don’t have an Android, I was unable to test the Android version.)
The phone arrived today, and as I was getting it set up for use, I was asked for my step-daughter’s name and birthday. I was reluctant to enter the information, but I trust Apple, so I entered it. To my joy, I was then told that it would have to be linked to a “parent” phone (i.e. my wife’s iPhone)!
I got her phone all set up, and now it is time to install OurPact. It took almost 45 minutes to go through the entire process:
* I installed the app on my wife’s phone and then my step-daughter’s phone.
* I paired the two phones.
* I logged onto the website and upgraded to Premium ($6.99 per month).
* I then had to upgrade the app on the two phones.
* I then had to install the profile on my step-daughter’s phone (providing Mobile Device Management).
* …and on and on and on.
At one point in the install process, I had to download and install a program on my computer. You have to have Windows or a Mac for this step; it won’t work in Linux.
Finally I was completely finished with all set up! If you can hang in there till you get to this point, it’s easy from here on.
I can now log on to the parent app either on my wife’s phone or on my computer. Once I have done that, I can set up controls on my step-daughter’s phone:
* Schedules: If you create a schedule, your child’s phone is completely disabled for the duration of the schedule, except that he/she can make phone calls. But nothing else – no texting, no apps, no web surfing. For example, you might make a schedule called “Bedtime”, and define it as 10 PM to 7 AM, seven days per week. You can then turn that schedule on or off. Whenever it is on, your child can’t play with the phone (except for making phone calls).
* Grants: If you want to override a schedule, you can issue a “Grant”, which is in effect either for a limited amount of time, or until you turn it off.
* Blocks: A block allows you to disable everything except for making phone calls for a limited time, or until you cancel the block.
If you are trying to make any changes to your child’s profile (what they are allowed to do or not to do on their phone), you’ll have to unblock the phone while you are making the changes.
You can block adult content, and you can block or enable any or all apps. You can also disable the ability to uninstall apps (such as OurPact), disable the ability to do a factory reset, and disable the ability to change the lock code.
OurPact does not allow you to see your child’s text messages, but if you issue a block, he/she won’t be able to do any texting until you cancel the block. More about this in a minute.
Finally, location tracking is available with the premium version of OurPact – with Location Tracking, you can see where your child’s phone is at any time.
OurPact is unbelievably easy to use, either from your iPhone or from your computer. And it has a rock-solid feel to it – I didn’t find a bug anywhere – everything worked perfectly. And any change you make (e.g. blocking usage of the phone) happens instantly.
Now, to the topic of texting. You can use OurPact to monitor your child’s text messages, if your child has an Android, but not if your child has an iPhone. However, I found the following information, which tells you how you can automatically get a copy of each of your child’s text messages via iCloud:
https://netsanity.net/emast/doc/netsanity-imessage.pdf
I haven’t tried this yet, but I will post back here as soon as I do.
Here are a couple of reviews of some of the parental control software out there:
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-parental-control-apps,review-2258.html
https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/240282/the-best-parental-control-software
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM