How many of you rely on gadgets to keep your child occupied from time to time? My hand is raised. The convenience and the time we get to be able to do things that we need to get done makes it so that we allow our kids to use gadgets more and more. To help us minimize use and filter the content they come across there’s a parental control app such as Kidslox.
Kidslox has many usable features. When I first set it up though I have to admit I was confused. The app will be installed on the parent’s phone and the child’s phone. This way you can make changes in the app when you’re not with your child. You can also control what they use and get reports of their activities online.
Installing the app was simple. There weren’t any extra steps to take as I’ve experienced with some parental control apps. You can choose to have a password (highly recommended) in a number, word or pattern form.
Log in
-
- Lock Screen with Code
-
- App Options
3 Modes
There are 3 modes Parent, Child and Lockdown. This is where I got confused. I was on Jael’s phone trying to set daily limits and define restrictions but my changes weren’t working. The thing about this is to make sure that when you’re in Parent Mode to make the changes then go back to Child Mode so that they take effect. When the phone is on Lockdown mode but you need to extend it for whatever reason you can do so and choose how long.
-
- Parent Mode
-
- Child Mode
-
- Lock Down
-
- Extending time
Schedules
If you want to carve out time for homework, chores, bedtime etc you can do this under the Schedules section. You can create a schedule define the start and end times and easily activate and deactivate it.
-
- Schedules
-
- Editing Created Schedule
I talked to Jael about daily limits. On weekdays he’s allowed 6 hours and within that there’s a limit for entertainment (Netflix, iFlix, etc) and games. On weekends I extend this. As you can see he has plenty of digital time and sometimes I feel guilty not having more time to spend time with him. I make sure though that he’s not on his phone all day and reads and plays. He likes playing outside so he goes out, too. The 6 hour limit though covers me during work when he’s home from school and just before he sleeps. Being a single work at home mom of 3 is not easy….
Daily Limits
-
- Daily Limits
-
- Editing Daily Limits per category
Here’s a full list of the Restrictions section. Here’s where you’ll see Games, Entertainment, etc and give them access or not to what’s listed. The padlocks in green are apps that have been locked and he doesn’t have access to. The ones in red are unlocked.
SIGN UP TO GET KIDSLOX FREE
You will get a 14 day free trial to try their Premium plan and see if it works for you and accommodates your needs. After which if you decide not to purchase you’ll be put on their Basic plan.
The current prices are:
Monthly subscription = $3.99
6 month subscription = $19.99
1 year subscription = $39.99
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2018
This is a good app to invest on if a parent wants to limit their child’s gadget use. We don’t use this app but we set timers instead. We only limit the use of gadgets to a maximum of 2 hours per day for the older boys. The youngest who is just a toddler only has 30 minutes to 1 hour. Because of those limits, their reading levels are way higher than their peers. They also play musical instruments and sing. So, these activities keep them busy daily aside from unstructured play. Lego is one of their favorites.
This is nice! Sometimes, I find it hard to control my daughter in using her iPad. With this app, it would be easier to limit her time of usage. I would give this a try!
This is a good app for your kids’ smartphone. However, my kid is just 6 so the phone I gave her (for emergency use) is just the simple call-and-text kind. But we have an old tablet I let her use after she’s finished with her school work. Similar to this, I also use an app to limit her screen time. It’s an offline app though, but it’s useful enough. It’s called Kids’ Place and it basically provides a dedicated home screen with only the permitted apps to be used, and you can keep the WiFi completely off if needed. It’s PIN-protected, and the timer function is especially useful for us. 🙂
I also used Kids Place and it worked well. This just has more features which I like since kids seem to be smarter about gadgets at an earlier age.