How to Keep Mobile Spying Apps in your Kids Phone: Best 5 Tips for Parents

In a study conducted by Stanford University, among kids 15 and under, 25% of kids by the age of 10 years and 75% of the kids by the age of 12 years had phones. By the time they turned 15, almost every child had a phone. By the conclusion of the research, 99% of children who owned phones had smartphones.

In today’s digital age, it is not uncommon for children to have their own mobile phones. While this can provide a sense of security for parents, it also opens the door to potential risks such as cyberbullying, online predators, and exposure to inappropriate content.

Mobile spying apps have become popular for parents to monitor their children’s online activities and ensure their privacy and safety. However, installing these apps on your child’s phone requires careful consideration and understanding of how they work.

In this article, we will provide parents with the best 5 tips for keeping mobile spying apps on their child’s phone while respecting their privacy and building trust.

Let’s get started.

What are Mobile Spying Apps?

Mobile spying apps are software that monitors all the activities on a mobile phone. These multipurpose apps can monitor and track calls, text messages, social media activities, photos, videos, E-mails, internet browsing history, and even location.

These spying apps can be easily installed on the kids’ devices by their parents, guardians, and adults to create a safe digital environment. Mobile spying apps can have a versatile use and importance. For instance, it can be used as a parental control app, employee monitoring app, or even for personal safety.

Here is a step-by-step process for using mobile spying apps:

1. Select the best mobile spy application

Research all the available apps and choose one that seems to be the most suitable and reliable for you. This must include the features you might need, like monitoring calls and texts, location, and other tracking systems. Be sure to check the reviews.

2. Purchase the application

Purchase the app from a reliable source (Play Store or Apple Store). Install it on your child’s device. Remember to check the developers and websites too before installing the application.

3. Set up the application

After installing the app, set up the application by configuring the options and settings. Follow the instructions provided by the app and change the settings as you need. Include alert systems in specific apps, websites, locations, etc.

4. Start monitoring/spying

After setting up the application, you can now monitor the targeted devices. You can monitor the activities remotely using a website or app installed on your device (depending upon application and features).

Importance of Mobile Spying Apps

Mobile Spying Apps have flexible uses and importance. Their importance depends upon the situation where it is being used. For instance, parents can use it for blocking specific apps and websites to prevent them from inappropriate content. They can also use these apps to ensure their kids are safe from cybercrime.

Here are some major importance of these apps

• It can be used as parental control. Parents can monitor and track their kids’ online and offline activities.
• It can prevent online threats among the kids like cyberbullying and online predators.
• It helps create a digitally safe environment where kids can grow, learn and develop.
• It can also be used for kids’ personal safety and can come in handy during emergencies. (acts like tracking locations might be crucial in some situations).

These are the major importance of monitoring applications. However, they can be further classified into smaller details.

Best 5 Tips for Parents to Keep Mobile Spying Apps on your Kid’s Phone

Children may not be aware of the potential risks and dangers of unattended use of mobile phones. They are prone to be victims of cybercrime without proper monitoring. Furthermore, they might unknowingly download these apps, making them vulnerable to unauthorized monitoring and access.

As an adult, it’s your responsibility to take proactive steps to prevent online threats and risks that might affect your kid. After learning the basics and importance of mobile monitoring apps, we have included some major steps you can take to help your kids learn in a safe environment and also help prevent any cybercrime-related problems.

1. Set Up Parental Controls

The first tip for parents to keep mobile spying apps on their kid’s phones is to set up parental control on their child’s devices. This can be done either by setting parental controls on the device or installing and using parental control apps. Almost all phones (Android and iOS) have this feature.

Here is a step-by-step process to set parental controls on your phone:

1. Open settings in your or your kid’s phone
2. Select Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing
3. Create a strong password (Biometric authentication is suggested).
4. Choose and customize features like blocking and limiting apps, websites, calls, and texts.
5. Set time limits.
6. Adjust other settings as per your need.

You can purchase parental control apps if there is no parental control option on the phone. There are many parental control apps available that can be used to monitor your child. You can follow the step-by-step process to use mobile spying apps as mentioned above to use such apps.

These control apps will help you monitor your child’s online activities, monitor the contents that they are engaging in, block inappropriate content, know the location history, and, more importantly, block unauthorized access and monitoring.

2. Regularly Check the Phone

Another tip to ensure safe mobile use is to check the phone regularly. Make a habit of checking your child’s mobile on a regular basis for any signs of unwanted activity like exposure to inappropriate content, unhealthy screen time, inappropriate calls, text messages, emails, and social media activity. You can also check for unauthorized monitoring and access.

In case you find something suspicious, take immediate action, investigate, and address the situation.

Here are some steps you can take for regular checking of the phones:

• Communicate with your kids about what things you will be checking and set the expectation.
• Check for installed apps on the device and delete or uninstall any unfamiliar and suspicious apps.
• Regularly check the browsing history to check for any inappropriate websites. If found, discuss the consequences of engaging in such websites.
• Monitor messages and social media, and look for any messages from strangers and signs of cybercrime.
• If you find any suspicious activity, investigate and address the situation immediately.

3. Educate Your Child

Regularly checking the phones for every message, every search in browsing history, and every social media activity can be difficult in some cases where parents have hectic schedules. So, as a parent, you can educate your child in the first place.

Tell your kids about such apps’ potential risks and dangers to their privacy, safety, and security. Encourage your child to be very careful and cautious while downloading apps or visiting websites. Teach your child about setting boundaries in the digital world.

You can do the following steps to educate your child:

• Start talking to your child about online safety early and teach them about the importance of protecting information and privacy.
• Teach them about the apps and sites to avoid.
• Educate them about dangerous apps.
• Promote open communication and discuss all their issues and concerns.
• Teach them about setting strong passwords and using password managers.
• Talk about the potential dangers of sharing private information.
• Understand and teach about the effects of rooting or jailbreaking (modifying androids and iPhones, respectively).

There you go; your kids are now digitally literate, at least on some level.

4. Use Anti-spyware Software

Another way you can protect your child from online dangers, risks, and unauthorized mobile spying apps is by using Anti-spyware. This is one of the best preventive measures, as these software can detect and remove such apps that might be installed on your kid’s phone.

First of all, Spyware is software that monitors a user’s activity and gathers their personal information. Anti-spyware is simply those programs that prevent spyware. Installing anti-spyware when you suspect that your kids’ phone is being monitored is a good measure; however, taking a proactive step and installing such programs beforehand is a perfect step.

Choose a reputed and reliable brand, look at the review, and select the perfect one. This software can prevent problems (both current and future). Furthermore, these apps can help you save a lot of time from having to check your kid’s phone daily.

5. Stay Informed

Be informed about the current digital situation and know the ongoing trends. You should also be updated with the latest threats related to mobile spying apps and their consequences. There are many resources where you can learn about these threats. For instance, there are numerous reputed online safety organizations that you can consider subscribing to for better knowledge.

Here are some steps you can take to stay informed about the trends and threats.

• Check the online resources that are dedicated to online safety on a regular basis. This includes blogs, articles, and social media.
• Follow experts (advocates and researchers) who are reliable in online safety, like cybersecurity. Follow them on social media and other channels.
• Subscribe to reputed newspapers and newsletters for regular information.
• Consider using security software, and install security software on the child’s mobile devices to prevent online threats ( it will monitor the child’s activities and online activities). Moreover, it will alert you when the kids are exposed to any suspicious activity.

Viola, there you go. Now you can prevent most threats on your child’s phone.

Conclusion

The rise in the usage of mobile phones among children has increased the threats to privacy and online safety. So, parental monitoring has been inevitable. Both parents and kids should be educated and familiar with these topics.

For instance, setting up parental controls and installing parental control apps, regularly checking the phone and screen time, educating your child, using anti-spyware software, and staying informed about the trends and threats are the best ways to promote a safe learning environment for your kids on digital platforms.

Teach your kids about the importance of establishing boundaries and keeping private information safe; you can help them by installing password managers to maintain strong passwords. Promote time management and set time restrictions for safer usage. Educate your kids about the consequences of using some specific apps.

Maintaining open communication and trust with your kid is important, especially when it comes to protecting their privacy and safety on digital devices. When children feel open and confident to talk to their parents, they are more likely to reveal any suspicious and unfamiliar information. Better family life can promote open communication.