Best Parental Control Apps in Australia | Top 13 Reviewed for 2024

The best parental control apps in Australia let you keep a watchful eye on your children and prevent them from falling prey to online threats, such as cyberbullying and obscenity. With a parental control app, you can set app limits, track your child’s live location, regulate screen time, and monitor their online and social media activities.

However, finding the best parental control app is not an easy task. That’s why we’ve found and reviewed the best parental control apps in Australia based on criteria like pricing, compatibility, number of features offered, and customer support, among others. Read on to learn why apps like mSpy, EyeZy, and uMobix top the charts.

The Best Parental Control Apps in Australia | Top 13 Shortlist

mSpy finds the top spot in our thorough research thanks to its top-notch tracking capabilities, an easy-to-understand dashboard, and robust location tracking, not to forget its 14-day money-back guarantee. See how it fares against other contenders on the list:

1. mSpy — Overall, the Best Parental Control App in Australia | Give it a Try Now With the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
2. EyeZy — The Best Parental Control Software to Shield Your Child From Inappropriate Content | Test it  Free for 3 Days.
3. uMobix — The Best Parental Control Tool to See Your Child’s Deleted Messages & Contacts | See if it’s For You, Risk-Free for 2 Weeks.
4. Cocospy — The Best Parental Control App for iPhone with Impeccable Keylogging | Try it Now With the 14-Day Guarantee.
5. XNSpy — Quality Android Device Tracker for Detailed Activity Analytics | Offers a 10-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
6. Qustodio — Popular Parental Control App Australia for Setting Screen Time Limits & App Blocking.
7. TheOneSpy — Leading Child Monitoring App to Access Your Child’s Passwords.
8. NetNanny — The Best Parental Control App in Australia to Monitor Multiple Kids Simultaneously.
9. KidsGuard — A Must-Have Parental Control Software to Monitor Social Media Platforms.
10. Norton Family — A Solid Location Tracker App With Simple Pricing.
11. FamiSafe — A Versatile Parental Control Software in Australia Compatible with Virtually All Types of Devices.
12. Intego — Antivirus + Parental Control Software Package for 360-degree Security of Your Child.
13. Kaspersky — The Best Free Parental Control App in Australia.

Best Parental Control Solutions in Australia | Top 13 Reviewed

Are you keen to know more about the best phone spy apps for parents? Join us as we discuss in detail the best features, pros, cons, and pricing of each of our top recommendations. Buckle up.

1. mSpy — The Best Parental Control App in Australia

mSpy’s been helping 1.5 million parents across the world keep track of their children’s internet activities for the last 10 years. Supported in over 180 countries, it provides 360-degree phone tracking and monitoring features.

For instance, it lets you track their activities across an array of social media applications such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Viber, and countless others. Through these tracking features, you can see what they post online and who they talk to through chat and calls.

If your child is using social media applications like Snapchat that offer disappearing messages and pictures, mSpy’s screen recording feature will be your friend — it’ll capture those chats before they vanish, leaving no room for your child to do anything inappropriate.

While mSpy offers a robust location tracking feature, you’ll also appreciate its Wi-Fi network tracking feature. With this tool, you don’t have to track your child’s location constantly.

Instead, you can simply go through their daily destinations through the Wi-Fi networks they’re connected to. If you find any of these Wi-Fi networks unsafe for your child, you can also remotely block them with just a click.

Pricing

As one of the cheapest parental control apps, you can get started with mSpy at just $11.67/month. Unfortunately, mSpy’s monthly and quarterly plans aren’t as budget-friendly.

However, you don’t have to commit to it for a whole year from the get-go. Try it risk-free for two weeks, thanks to its 14-day money-back guarantee. If you don’t like it, ask for a full refund.

2. EyeZy — The Best Parental Control Software to Shield Your Child From Inappropriate Content

EyeZy is best known for its easy onboarding process. It not only lets you get started in three simple steps, but if you’re unsure about how the application works, you can also start with a free platform demo.

EyeZy offers quite a few special phone tracking features. For instance, thanks to its magic alert tool, you don’t have to track your child around the clock. Instead, you can just set boundaries and get notified every time they cross one.

Also, you can set inappropriate words for your child, and you’ll be notified anytime they use it in a message or search query. Need we say more? We do. You can also set boundaries on their location and get notified anytime they cross their designated territory with EyeZy’s geo-fencing.

It comes with a friendly installer that lets you choose your own way of tracking your child’s phone. You can either sync their iCloud, jailbreak, or sync locally over Wi-Fi — it’s up to you. This way, you’ll have enough options regardless of your child’s device type or your level of technical expertise.

The best part is your child will never know that you’re remotely tracking them. EyeZy comes with a unique invisible shield that masks your presence on their device, hides the app, and prevents detection even by other third-party applications.

Pricing

EyeZy’s plans are cheaper than mSpy. At just $9.99/month on the yearly plan, you’ll be using some of the top-tier parental control functionalities, such as live location tracking, keystroke monitoring, and more.

Unsure? Try EyeZy’s free demo and a 3-day free trial to wrap your head around the suitability of the tool for your needs. Plus, there’s also a 14-day money-back guarantee to ensure you don’t lose any money if EyeZy isn’t for you.

3. uMobix — The Best Parental Control Tool to See Your Child’s Deleted Messages & Contacts

uMobix is a lot more advanced than most of its peers when it comes to remote device monitoring and control. For example, if you find an application on their mobile that seems inappropriate for their age, you can uninstall it remotely.

Similarly, if you find your child frequently visiting a website not suitable for them, you can block it without even needing to touch their phone. Other remote control features include:

• Restricting unwanted callers
• Disabling messages
• Blocking the connection from unsafe devices
• Regulating data storage

And more. Besides this, a massive uMobix USP is that it gives you access to deleted information. Say your child deletes their call history or messages — you’ll still find them on your uMobix control panel.

Another benefit of this feature is that if you ask your child to delete a contact and they try to outsmart you by simply renaming it, uMobix will inform you of the same instantly.

If you want deeper access to mobile activities even when your kid is offline, you’ll certainly love uMobix’s keylogger feature. With this tool, you can record every keystroke — track messages that your child typed but didn’t send or queries that they left unattended midway.

Furthermore, you can also monitor your child’s surroundings thanks to uMobix’s audio and videos streaming feature. All that you have to do is remotely turn on the camera and microphone and let it record its surroundings secretly.

It’s the best way to ensure your child is safe even when they’re out of your sight.

Pricing

Competitively priced, uMobix will cost you $12.49/month on its yearly plan and provide you with features like contacts, location, and social media activity tracking, plus more.

See all that uMobix has to offer with the free live demo + the 14-day money-back guarantee. No risk of losing any money.

4. Cocospy — The Best Parental Control App for iPhone with Impeccable Keylogging

Cocospy is easy to use and fairly diverse when it comes to its device tracking features.

It’s currently used by over a million customers in over 190 countries around the world and has a superior customer support wing that’ll help you get started in three simple steps and solve any queries that you might have.

As one of the best keyloggers for Android, Cocospy keeps a record of every button your child presses on their phone. This way, you’ll be alerted of their activities even before they go through with them.

What’s more, you can access this advanced keylogging feature without needing to root the target device. On top of this, as one of the best spy apps for iPhone, Cocospy will give you instant access to all the photos and videos on your child’s mobile devices.

Even if they have a secret photo-hiding app, Cocospy will find whatever file they’re hiding on their phone and show it to you. And to sweeten things further, it also helps you monitor and regulate your kid’s online browsing activity.

Not only can you check what websites they visit, but you’ll also see the timestamps and how often they visit each website. This way, if you find them wasting too much time on inappropriate content, you can easily block the site or limit their time on it.

Pricing

Cocospy has the same pricing as uMobix, with the best value-for-money pack being the annual plan:

Like our top picks, Cocospy, too, comes with a generous 14-day money-back guarantee. Try it risk-free today.

5. XNSpy — Quality Android Device Tracker for Detailed Activity Analytics

XNSpy is by far the most advanced device-tracking platform for parents. It not only accurately tracks the children’s activities but also presents their findings so neatly on your control panel that you don’t have to spend hours sifting through data.

One of our favorite XNSpy features is analytics. Instead of going through your child’s daily call log to see who they talk to most frequently, you can simply log on to the analytics page and find your answer under the “daily favorite caller” tab.

Any time you log into your control panel, you’ll get to see the top five callers of the day, the top 5 call durations, and even the top 10 websites visited that day.

If you don’t have the time to monitor their phone activities constantly, you can pinpoint specific words or activities that will then trigger a notification on your phone. These specific triggers can be set up with regard to your child’s emails, SMS, call log, and even location.

XNSpy is also one of the few parental control applications that let you track your child’s email. Sure, children these days don’t use email as the primary mode of communication. However, if you’re trying to protect them from scammers or fraudsters, emails should be mandatorily monitored.

Pricing

XNSpy offers a rich catalog of features at an affordable price, making it a worthy pick for most parental monitoring needs. You can get started at a reasonable $7.50/month.

Try XNSpy without putting any money on the line, thanks to its 10-day money-back guarantee. If it’s not your cup of tea, return it and ask for a full refund.

6. Qustodio — Popular Parental Control App Australia for Setting Screen Time Limits & App Blocking

Qustodio is the perfect parental control app for parents who want to monitor their kid’s cell phone activities as well as limit the amount of time their kids spend on their devices, thanks to its screen time monitoring feature.

With this tool, you can set a timer for your child’s screen time. Once the timer is up, the device will automatically shut off. This feature helps your child maintain a healthy balance between their real and digital life, as well as focus better on their homework and get better sleep.

Another unique feature of Qustodio is the panic button or the SOS feature. While most other parental control apps only let you monitor your child’s location, Qustodio lets your child reach out to you at the press of a button in case they’re in danger.

To simplify regular location monitoring, Qustodio also lets you save frequently visited locations such as their school, home, or a friend’s house.

Instead of tracking them every day on their way to school, you can get a notification whenever they reach a bookmarked location — it’ll give you much-needed peace of mind and negate the need to constantly be on the lookout.

The plus point is that this feature applies to both arrival and departure. So if you’re using it to track your child on their way to school, you’ll be notified not only when they reach in the morning but also when they leave for home at the end of the day.

Pricing

Qustodio is a champion of monitoring multiple devices, and it’s by far one of the cheapest parental control apps:

On the whole, compared to its rivals, Qustodio wins the race for multiple device monitoring with its plans that cover 5, 10, and 15 devices, respectively.

In addition to this, Qustodio offers a whopping 30-day money-back guarantee — almost double our other picks so far. You’ll have a full month to find out if the tool suits your needs.

7. TheOneSpy — Leading Child Monitoring App to Access Your Child’s Passwords

TheOneSpy is primarily a spying app for cheating spouses, which means its features are more sophisticated, and the results are accurate. Hence, you can use it to keep an eye on your kids as well.

While most other parental control apps only let you record your child’s call logs, TheOneSpy will also grant you access to their phone’s microphone and record their calls.

Listen to their entire conversations in the exact tone and manner, and that too, in real-time — the perfect way to gather evidence. Plus, TheOneSpy will also access the target camera and program it to remotely record the surroundings.

For example, if you’re worried about your child getting bullied in school, you can turn on the camera on their phone and check their surroundings to ensure their safety.

Another unique feature of TheOneSpy is the password chaser. You might not always want to use a spy application to access your child’s device. To get direct access to their phones, this tool will help you hack their password.

Whether it’s a pattern lock or a regular passcode, TheOneSpy can crack both. In addition to that, this feature works well with the home screen lock and individual app locks such as messenger or email passwords.

Pricing

TheOneSpy is one of the few parental control apps that differentiate its plans based on what features they unlock:

For example, the cheapest TheOneSpy plan will cost you $65/year and fetch all the standard child monitoring features except call recording of your child’s conversations, which you’ll get only on its Pro plan at $155/year.

The best part? There’s a 7-day money-back guarantee. See for yourself if TheOneSpy app is for you.

8. NetNanny — The Best Parental Control App in Australia to Monitor Multiple Kids Simultaneously

NetNanny is one of the few parental control apps that help you build a healthy and transparent relationship with your child.

For example, it offers separate account apps for both the parent and the child. Your kid can use the app to check their screen time limit and see how much time is left for the day. This is an excellent way to teach them to budget their own time.

On the other hand, the parent app will have more diverse features, such as web content, YouTube, and screen time monitoring, amongst others. Although there’s an option to enable unrestricted mode even in the kid’s app, they’ll still need your username and password to enable it.

Another benefit of using NetNanny is the family feed. If you have multiple children all tracked by NetNanny and you don’t want to go to their individual profiles, the family feed option will give you the latest update on all of their activities and location in one place.

Although you can monitor your kids simultaneously, it still gives you the freedom to choose what each kid gets to see through customizable filters. It’s an excellent way to manage kids of different ages without depriving them of any content appropriate for their respective age groups.

Pricing

NetNanny’s starter plan doesn’t include mobile monitoring. To monitor your child’s smartphones, get one of NetNanny’s family (multi-device coverage) plans:

Monitor up to 5 devices, whether it be PC, Mac, or mobile, at a reasonable $54.99/year. Test it risk-free with the 2-week long guarantee before committing.

9. KidsGuard — A Must-Have Parental Control Software to Monitor Social Media Platforms

KidsGuard is compatible with both Android and iOS, but the best part is that you can track both these devices without jailbreaking them. Since most parents aren’t technically adept, easy-to-use apps like KidsGuard are a godsend.

It’s an excellent application for social media monitoring. It covers all popular apps like Viber, Line, Telegram, Instagram, and more. If your child is using a dating app such as Tinder, KidsGuard will immediately let you know and also share the conversations with you.

Whether it’s through phone calls, photos, or chat — nothing remains hidden from you. Another feature that you’ll surely like about KidsGuard is its all-in-one location tracking.

Under this feature, you not only get a live update of your child’s current location, but you can also check the timestamps of when they arrive or leave saved addresses. This is an excellent feature to cross-check your child’s story in case you feel they’re lying to you.

If you’re using KidsGuard on an Android device, you can also access its Wi-Fi logger feature, which tells you which Wi-Fi networks your child has connected to recently.

For example, if they’re on a limited data plan, they’ll look for a Wi-Fi connection everywhere they go, and you’ll find out if they visit someplace you didn’t permit them to.

Pricing

KidsGuard, although a little low on our list, still grabs one of the top spots for affordability. Its cheapest Android plan is just $8.32/month:

That’s not it. KidsGuard also offers one of the most affordable monthly and quarterly plans, plus a lengthy month-long money-back guarantee. Give it a try risk-free now.

10. Norton Family — A Solid Location Tracker With Simple Pricing

Norton is quite popular for its antivirus solution. Still, its parental control app is equally adept, making it a superb tool to get your child 360-degree security — against digital threats, offline dangers, and all other online and offline dangers.

The best thing about Norton Family is its simplicity. You get enough features to keep an eye on your child without making it too technically complicated or invasive.

For starters, you get a full list of all the applications on your kid’s device. So in case you find something inappropriate such as a dating app or a violent mobile game, you can immediately uninstall it.

It also offers a screen time monitoring feature which comes with the additional benefit of scheduling. This means you can set up a screen time limit for your child in advance in case you have a busy routine the next day.

Another benefit of using the Norton Family app is you can monitor as many children and devices as you want through one account. This is the perfect solution for families with multiple children looking for a cheap plan that covers everyone.

In case you’re managing multiple children, your control panel will be divided into separate children profiles with their individual data categorized accordingly.

This will make it easier for you to get individual activity reports and monitor each child instead of going through a mess of combined data.

Pricing

With just a single plan on offer, Norton Family has the simplest pricing one would’ve hoped for:

That said, if you’re also looking for one of the best antivirus software solutions for your child’s device, consider getting the Norton Deluxe or Ultra plan, both of which include the Norton Family at no additional cost.

What you’ll also like is Norton’s whopping 60-day money-back guarantee. If, at any point during the first two months, you feel like the tool isn’t for you, return it and ask for a full refund.

11. FamiSafe — A Versatile Parental Control Software in Australia Compatible With Virtually All Types of Devices

FamiSafe’s biggest USP is that along with mobile apps for android and iPhone, it also has a beginner-friendly built-in parental control interface for Chrome, Windows, and Mac. Covering a much wider range of devices, FamiSafe has made parental control quite accessible.

Our favorite feature of FamiSafe is its app usage regulation. This feature works in collaboration with the screen time monitoring tool, which tells you how much time your child spends on each app every day.

Once you figure out what application they’re most addicted to, you can set a custom time limit on it. In addition to that, you can also block all the apps at once or a particular list of apps once the daily screen limit is up.

This is an excellent way to let your kids use the phone for educational purposes while preventing them from indulging in gaming or unnecessary browsing.

To create a smooth communication medium between your child and you, FamiSafe also has a kid’s version of the same app where they can request extra screen time even when you’re not at home.

To top it off, FamiSafe provides a daily activity report where you can see what websites and apps were used, how often, and for how long by your kid. If you’re looking for a simple overview of the daily activities instead of poking in for details, this feature is all you’ll need.

Pricing

FamiSafe is the best parental control app for a shorter commitment. Its monthly plan is just $10.99/month, plus you can monitor up to 5 devices on this plan:

Take full advantage of its 7-day money-back guarantee to try out the tool before putting any money on the line.

12. Intego — Antivirus Parental Control Software Package for 360-Degree Security for Your Child

Intego’s parental control features are integrated into its antivirus plan — you can’t get one without the other.

On the plus side, it actually guarantees double protection — protect your child from dangerous malware and viruses as well as from dubious people and situations both offline and online.

Speaking of its parental control features, Intego has something unique to offer. Along with regulating their screen time, you can also regulate when your child can connect to the internet.

By restricting network access at times, you can allow them to use the internet only for educational purposes during allotted study time. On top of this, another benefit of using Intego is that it takes screenshots of your kid’s mobile screen.

You can use this feature to gather adequate evidence of their mistakes in case you want to sit down and discuss the matter face-to-face.

Plus, if you’re tracking multiple children through the same account, Intego’s custom user configuration feature will let you tailor each account according to their different needs.

For example, for your toddlers, you might want to focus more on their YouTube history, whereas, for your teenagers, you might be more focused on their chats.

The only downside of using Intego is it doesn’t have a social media monitoring feature. But to make up for that, you get a built-in antivirus solution with automated scans, real-time protection, a system optimizer, and more.

Pricing

We recommend getting the $69.99/year Intego plan since it comes with dual protection for both Mac and Windows:

Yes, it’s true that Intego doesn’t have a plan for mobile devices, but its value-packed combination of antivirus + child tracking makes it a formidable pick. Try Intego risk-free now with the solid month-long money-back guarantee.

13. Kaspersky — The Best Free Parental Control Software in Australia

Kaspersky is a popular antivirus solution with a parental control app — like Norton and Intego.

But what differentiates it is that its parental control app, Kaspersky Safe Kids, isn’t an add-on to its antivirus solution. You can purchase it separately. Plus, it also has a free forever plan on offer.

The biggest benefit of using Kaspersky Safe Kids is the SafeSearch feature. While other apps require you to manually block inappropriate websites, with this SafeSearch feature, all age-inappropriate content on Google and YouTube will be automatically filtered out.

In addition to that, you can obviously add more websites that you don’t want your kids to see. Plus, the tool also provides 14 smart web filters, including labels such as adult content, alcohol consumption, narcotics, and more.

You can choose whether you want to allow these categories, forbid them, or have the app warn you if your kid looks them up. Similarly, Kaspersky Safe Kids also lets you permit certain apps to work even when the phone is blocked after their screen time is over.

For example, if you’re at work and your kids have already used up their screen limit for the day, you can still let them use WhatsApp or the phone app to get in touch with you in case of emergencies. If you’re worried that they might use it for other purposes, you can always track their activity.

Pricing

Kaspersky is the only free forever parental control software on our list. Get capabilities such as screen time management and restricting app usage on the target device at no cost.

What about premium features? They’ll cost you just $14.99/year, which makes Kasperksy the cheapest parental control software.

Given Kaspersky’s low price, it’s easy to assume that it lacks essential features. See for yourself. You have a 30-day money-back guarantee to save you from losing any money.

Top 13 Parental Control Tools in Australia | Compared

You might not have the time to read through our detailed, well-researched reviews. We’ve got your back. Here’s a short table highlighting the key differences between our top picks to help you decide better:

Why Do I Need a Parental Tracker App?

Parental tracker apps can provide peace of mind by offering a range of capabilities that help keep children safe while allowing them the freedom to move around.

These apps also offer features such as monitoring unauthorized use of the child’s phone or devices and providing information on who the child is talking to, where they are, and what they’re doing. Here’re a few reasons why you need a parental tracker app:

Monitor Inappropriate Content

It’s important to monitor and prevent access to inappropriate content to ensure the safety of children when using unrestricted online platforms. This can include content that depicts violence, pornography, or other forms of harmful or offensive material.

One way to do this is by using parental control software, which allows you to set restrictions and monitor your child’s online activity to ensure they’re not exposed to inappropriate content.

Help in Emergency Situations

Parental control apps can serve as a valuable tool for ensuring the safety and well-being of children, particularly in emergencies.

Since you can’t always be with your children, these apps allow children to quickly and easily contact you or other trusted adults for help if they find themselves in a dangerous or emergency.

The apps can also track your child’s real-time location so you can quickly and easily locate them in an emergency.

Ensure Digital Safety

Ensuring children’s digital safety is crucial in today’s digital age, where many potential dangers lurk online. Children may face cyberbullying, one of the most prevalent online crimes involving using technology to harass, intimidate or threaten others.

This type of harassment can take many forms, such as spreading rumors or sharing personal information, and can take place on social media sites, chat rooms, and other online platforms.

Monitor Online Activity 

Another major online threat to children’s safety is the presence of predators and child molesters on dating and gaming sites.

Parents can use parental control apps to monitor their child’s online activity, set time limits, and block access to specific sites and apps to protect children from these and other digital dangers.

Educating children about online safety, including recognizing and avoiding potential dangers, can also help empower them to make safer choices when using the internet.

How to Use a Parental Control App | Step-by-Step

There are numerous parental control apps in the market. Here we’ll look into mSpy as an example. Installing mSpy on your device requires only a few simple steps:

1. Create an account on the mSpy website by providing personal and billing information.
2. Select the type of device you want to install mSpy on, whether Android or iOS.
3. Purchase a subscription plan that fits your needs.
4. Disable Play Protect on the target device to install mSpy.
5. Download the mSpy installer from the link – https://getmspy.net/  and install the app on the device.
6. Accept all prompts to allow mSpy access to the device.
7. Enter the registration code you received when you created the mSpy account and complete the setup process.
8. Log into your mSpy account to monitor the target device’s activities and set limits and restrictions as needed.

After installing a parental control app like mSpy on your device, you can access the app’s control panel from your smartphone or computer. You can monitor and manage the target device’s activities remotely and in real-time.

Parental Control App FAQs