When it comes to the responsibilities of parenthood, the most vital element is protecting our little ones, not just in the real world but also online. One of the most efficient ways to ensure this safety is to put parental controls on browsers. This article helps you find the best methods to implement these features on your favorite browser. 

Parental Controls on Browsers: Extra or Necessary? 

As a concerned parent, you wouldn’t feel comfortable letting your little one get out of your eyesight when outside. Similarly, it is crucial to protect your child in this boundless, mysterious world that is the internet. To do so, you should learn more about internet-related matters unsuitable for children so you can identify and avoid them. Here, we will discuss the more imperative ones. 

Inappropriate Content 

Unlike popular belief, inappropriate content goes beyond explicit, pornographic material. Simply put, you should consider any content that excites your child to engage in unethical, unsafe, or unlawful actions as inappropriate. These actions include but aren’t limited to gambling, racism, vandalism, sexism, violent behavior, and seeing/using explicit images, videos, or language. 

Unwanted Interactions 

The internet is a double-edged sword when it comes to online interactions. On the one hand, it allows you to catch up with your friends and family easily. On the other, it creates an opportunity for dangerous people to manipulate children and entangle them in risky situations. 

Excessive Screen-Time 

There’s no denying that the internet has expanded the boundaries of entertainment and even introduced a new dimension to education. However, there are adverse effects that children may experience if you don’t restrict their screen time. They may start having difficulty sleeping, develop chronic back or neck pain, gain excessive weight, or underperform at school. 

Applying Parental Controls on Browsers 

There are several ways you can put parental controls on browsers. Luckily, these methods are not that complicated. Finding the most suitable ones, however, is another story. That’s why we’re dedicating the rest of this article to introducing the two most efficient ways you can your child’s online activity. 

Browser Extensions 

In simple terms, web browser extensions are modules that let you customize your browser however you like. The developers of nearly all popular browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera dedicate websites to gathering all the available extensions in one place. Users can use these platforms to find the extension they’re looking for with a simple search. To make things easy for you, we have nitpicked the most effective parental controls extensions available on the most popular web browsers: 

FoxFilter (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox) 

FoxFilter is a handy tool that automatically blocks explicit and adult content. Thanks to the app’s block list feature, parents can manually remove access to websites they don’t want their kids to visit. The extension is available on Chrome Web Store and the Firefox Browser Add-Ons website. You can also install all extensions from the Chrome Web Store on Microsoft Edge. 

 Porn Out (Opera) 

With this extension, your browser will remove access to websites with pornographic material. Whenever your kid clicks on such web pages, a blocking message pops up on the screen. You can install Porn Out from the Opera Addons website. 

Are Browser Extensions Enough? 

Browser extensions are handy tools for monitoring your kid’s online activity on an elementary level. However, they don’t cover everything. While convenient, a web browser extension’s effects only apply to one browser. This issue allows your kid to bypass the restrictions by switching to a different browser. Even if you install parental control extensions on every browser, nothing stops your kid from uninstalling the extension altogether. Plus, most content control extensions lack the feature to limit your little one’s screen time and are only supported on the PC version of the browsers. Such obstacles urge most parents to use parental control applications like Safes. 

What Is Safes? 

Safes is a premium content control and parental control software suite that offers the broadest range of settings and preferences in parental controls. At Safes, our vision is to help parents worldwide maintain their little ones’ safety on the internet. Our services include but aren’t limited to protection against inappropriate content exposure, social media addiction, manipulation, and predatory behavior. Safes ensures the ultimate online security for your children using the following features. 

Safe Search 

From categories to words, Safe Search lets you choose everything your kid can and cannot see on the web. Let’s say you don’t want your kid to access shopping websites and make a purchase. To do so, you can lock the Shopping category in Safe Search with just one click. Another Safe Search feature lets you lock specific words and phrases. And doing so forbids your kid from accessing online content containing those words. 

Web Filter 

Using the Web Filter feature, parents can manually block any websites they find inappropriate or harmful for their children. This feature also works on websites that aren’t on Safes’s block list. You can even use this feature the other way around. Suppose you want to grant access to a website automatically blocked by Safes. In that case, you can add it as an exception, thanks to the Web Filter tool. 

Screen Time 

To stop your kid from spending too much time on the web, you can set a screen time limit for all browsers on their PC. This way, whenever they reach the time limit, the browser closes automatically. And it remains closed for the rest of the day. You also have the option to pause everything on your child’s device by turning on Instant Block. Finally, the Screen Time tool arranges a list of the last used apps, reporting the exact time your child last opened a browser. 

Activity Report 

The activity Report feature is the ultimate safety measure. It assembles a report sharing the following information: 

• Hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly device activity time 
• App usage for every application installed on your child’s devices, including their browsers. 
• The number of websites visited on the current day 
• The number of searches made on search engines like Google, etc. 
• The exact URL to every website they have visited 
• The content they’ve searched for on search engines 

Using this report, you can evaluate your child’s online interests and prevent them from turning into addictions. Plus, analyzing your kid’s activity on the internet gives you a better idea of the words, categories, and websites you’d want to block. 

Uninstall Protection 

As mentioned, the primary issue with browser extensions is that no matter how effective they are, your kids can easily disable or remove them from the browser. Safes solves this matter by asking for a pin code if your kid tries to remove the app. Without the code, no one can uninstall Safes, including the child. 

Concluding the Importance of Parental Controls on Browsers 

As it’s impossible to deny the internet’s ever-growing presence and its effects on our lives, parents should find a way to consistently monitor their little ones’ online activities. Being handy and free, web browser extensions are suitable for providing a basic level of online protection for children. 

However, getting a premium content control app is unavoidable for moms and dads looking for the most effective parental control tools. And as the #1 content control and parental control application, Safes is a reliable tool that ensures your children’s safety in the online world.