Securing Devices

I t takes work to have any peace in letting your child use a phone, tablet, or computer. Sure, many parents gladly open up all of their household devices for their child to use. Still, as we've discussed, genuine dangers exist on the other side of that glass.

While the protections covered in this guide may provide peace of mind, you should use them alongside the other steps in your Action Plan from The Digital Parenting Guidebook. These boundaries alone aren't enough.

What Needs to Be Secured

A smartphone or tablet is a complicated device. Unless you have a background in tech, you may feel intimidated when it comes to securing it. While I understand this feeling, I want you to know that anyone can accomplish what this article covers.

The first step is letting you know what you should secure on each device. At a minimum, we recommend you place the following boundaries on any device your child is allowed to use:

• Ensure that your child cannot install apps without your permission
• Ensure that your child cannot make purchases without your permission
• Limit what websites (if any) your child can access
• Provide reasonable screen time limits
• Limit who can contact your child (We will cover this in another guide)

While this is the bare minimum, there are other areas we encourage parents to address if the device supports it:

• Limit the media that can be played on the device by rating

These boundaries all address specific dangers that are present on the device. With every step you accomplish, you limit your child's online dangers.

While I realize it may be tempting to hold off on implementing these steps, I encourage you to block your child's access to the devices in your home until you implement the recommendations in this guide.

How to Secure Your Devices

I recommend a dual approach to securing the devices in your home. First, I recommend securing the devices your children are allowed to use. Second, I recommend securing your home network so that no one on the network can view inappropriate content. This dual approach provides a safeguard if one of the methods is not working as intended.

There are two different approaches that you can take to secure the devices in your home:

• Using a Parental Control Product
• Using the Built-in Controls

I will address each approach's pros and cons in this guide.

Using a Parental Control Product

Thankfully, companies exist that focus on providing parents with more control over their child's digital experience. What has been offered by the big tech companies and device manufacturers is lacking the kind of control that parents need.

Pros and Cons

Many benefits come from leveraging a third-party parental control platform. Most platforms are easy to use when compared to the built-in controls. There are also in-depth tutorials and resources to get you started with the platform. They also have additional controls not present with the controls built into your devices.

The downside of using one of these platforms is their additional cost. The cost is usually a monthly or yearly subscription. I know that families don't have an unlimited budget to tackle the challenges of digital parenting, so this may or may not be something you can implement.

Our Recommendation

After reviewing the options, we recommend Bark as the best overall parental control platform available today. This platform implements the protections we recommend at DigitalParenting.com while allowing you to manage settings in a single app.

If you are interested in Bark, we recommend reading this entire guide. You must also understand what it can and cannot do for your family. Since this is just a tool, it cannot replace the discipleship discussions we recommend you have with your child.

How We Recommend You Use Bark

No matter which approach you use to secure devices, we believe you should tackle several risks. You will need to address mobile devices, computers, televisions, and gaming consoles that your child has access to. To accomplish this with Bark, you will use multiple products they offer.

Remember, if you find the solutions through Bark too expensive, you can use the Built-In Controls provided on each device. Those controls will be discussed later in this guide.

Securing Phones and Tablets

Bark provides two different subscription offerings depending on your needs. A Bark subscription will protect the phones and tablets in your home. The first option is Bark Jr. This option supports creating screen time schedules, blocking specific websites and apps, and getting location alerts when your kids arrive at or leave specified locations. There is one monthly cost that covers all of your devices.

Bark Jr.

With Bark Jr, you can manage screen time, block websites & apps, and get location alerts.

View on Bark.com

The second option is Bark Premium. This option supports all of the features of Bark Jr. while adding content monitoring to provide alerts if any of your child's online behaviors are concerning. This additional monitoring includes texts, emails, and over thirty apps and platforms.

Bark Premium

Bark Premium is the gold standard for parental monitoring. Help protect your kid online and in real life with alerts.

View on Bark.com

Once you have a subscription, you will configure each device to work with Bark. Bark provides a collection of helpful Tech Guides to help you get started.

Securing Your Home Network

Bark provides another device, Bark Home, to protect the other devices in your home. These protections apply to computers, televisions, and video game consoles. This device can seamlessly connect to supported routers to provide protections you can manage from the Bark app. It is important to note that Bark Home does not work with all routers, so check the link above to verify if your router is supported.

While Bark Home will enable you to turn the Internet on and off for specific devices like game consoles and computers, it doesn't do everything you might need on these devices. For example, if you want to set a rating limit for your video game console, you still need to use the built-in controls for that device.

Bark Home

Utilize Bark's internet parental controls to manage screen time and filter websites on all of the internet-connected devices in your house — including gaming consoles, TVs, and more.

View on Bark.com

What About the Bark Phone?

Bark has created an Android smartphone that works seamlessly with its parental controls. It even supports features that aren't possible with standard iOS and Android phones. This includes managing contacts and preventing text messages from being deleted. While we don't recommend parents get their kids a smartphone unless required, the Bark phone provides the best experience for parents and kids of any smartphone we have tested.

Bark Phone

The only phone that comes with Bark built in. Bark's award-winning monitoring tool scans your child's texts, emails, social media, and apps for digital dangers and sends you alerts.

View on Bark.com

Using the Built-In Controls

Almost every device has some built-in parental controls. You can leverage these controls to put boundaries in place on the device. The work required to implement these boundaries may look a lot different than using a parental control platform, so I want to review the pros and cons of this approach.

Pros and Cons

The benefit of using the built-in controls is that you don't need any additional tools to get started. If you have a device, you can read the referenced documentation and get started immediately with putting the boundaries in place.

There are a few drawbacks when it comes to the built-in controls. First, if you have different types of devices, it will require researching each device. In addition, not all devices provide the same level of control. You may find that one device can fully implement the recommended boundaries while another can only implement one.

Getting Started

As a part of this step, we recommend configuring protections on each device. Depending on the type of device, the instructions will differ. We also recommend that families secure their home Internet network. Depending on your router, adding protections may be simple. For other routers, there may be no built-in controls. Simply limiting access to your home network won't prevent mobile devices from using their built-in cellular connection to access the Internet.

If you have questions on any specific device, please post a question to the Digital Parenting Community.

Quick Links

• Apple Devices
• Android and Chromebook Devices
• Microsoft Windows and Xbox
• Nintendo Switch
• Your Home Network

Apple Devices

If you used Screen Time to set up screen time limits on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Mac, you will be using the same system to add these additional boundaries. You can use the following links to find instructions for setting up these controls.

• How to Set Up Apple iPhone and iPad Screen Time Parental Controls
• How To Set Up Screen Time Parental Controls on a Mac

Android and Chromebook Devices

You will implement boundaries on Android and Chromebook devices through the Google Family Link app. This app was the recommended solution for configuring screen time limits on these devices.

• How to Set Up Google Family Link Parental Controls

Microsoft Windows and Xbox

If you want to configure parental controls on a Windows or Xbox device, you use Microsoft Family Safety. The following links will give you the instructions to set up these protections on both Windows 11 and current Xbox devices.

• How to Set Up Windows 11 Parental Controls
• How To Set Up Xbox One S Parental Controls
• How To Set Up Xbox One X Parental Controls

Nintendo Switch

Content protections on a Nintendo Switch use the Switch Parental Controls app. This app was the recommended solution for configuring screen time limits on these devices.

• How To Set Up Nintendo Switch Parental Controls

Your Home Network

Unfortunately, there is no standard way to set up parental controls for all routers. Because of this, you will need to determine the manufacturer and model of your router to see what parental controls are supported.

Bark provides a device, Bark Home, that protects the devices on your home network. This device seamlessly connects to supported routers, delivering protection you can manage from the Bark app. It is important to note that Bark Home does not support all routers, so check the link above to verify if your router is supported. This device does not require a monthly subscription.

While Bark Home will enable you to turn the Internet on and off for specific devices like game consoles and computers, it doesn't do everything you might need on these devices. One example would be configuring the allowed ratings for a video game console. This boundary requires using the built-in controls as Bark Home cannot address this concern.

Bark Home

Utilize Bark’s internet parental controls to manage screen time and filter websites on all of the internet-connected devices in your house — including gaming consoles, TVs, and more.

View on Bark.com

Conclusion

I realize that this guide likely didn't answer every single question you have about every device in your home. If you have additional questions, please visit the Digital Parenting Community. Here, you can ask any questions you may have and interact with other digital parents.