Parental Control YouTube | Top 7 Parental Control Apps Reviewed for 2024

Parental control on YouTube is essential to ensure that your child doesn’t interact with inappropriate content on the world’s largest video streaming platform. While YouTube videos are somewhat moderated by the platform’s community standards, as a parent, you still want to know what videos your child is watching and ensure they don’t consume content from dubious individuals and YouTubers that can be a huge negative influence on them.

In this guide, we’ve reviewed and compared the best parental control YouTube apps, so you can see how they compare and choose the one that provides all the functionality you need. Read on to learn how providers like mSpy, EyeZy, and uMobix can help you keep tabs on what your children are doing on YouTube.

Parental Control for YouTube App | Top 7 Solutions Ranked

Here’s a list of the best YouTube parental control apps that’ll provide a comprehensive overview of your kids’ YouTube activity and let you block specific content on the platform:

1. mSpy — Overall the Best YouTube Parental Control App in 2024 | Try it Risk-Free With the 14-Day Guarantee
2. EyeZy — Feature-Rich Parental Monitoring App With Remote Website and App Blocking | Test it in Practice Risk-Free for 14 Days
3. uMobix — Powerful Parental Control App That Lets You See Every Like and Comment on YouTube | See it in Action With the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee
4. Cocospy — Decent YouTube Parental Control App With Screen Recording
5. FamiSafe — Affordable Parental Control App With a Dedicated YouTube App Control Feature
6. Qustodio — Full-Featured Parental Control App With a Complete YouTube Viewing History
7. Norton Family — Popular Parental Control With Video Supervision That Lets You See Every Visited URL

Best Apps for Parental Control on YouTube | Reviewed

Read our in-depth review of the best parental control apps for YouTube to learn more about the features and functionalities each app offers and the value-for-money different solutions provide.

1. mSpy — Overall, the Best YouTube Parental Control App in 2024

mSpy is a robust parental control app that lets you see everything your kids are typing, read all their messages and social chats, and restrict what content they can access online.

Unlike other YouTube parental control apps, mSpy doesn’t just restrict specific content. Instead, it allows you to see every video they watch and put limitations on your children’s screen time.

This is crucial to ensure your child doesn’t spend all their free time staring at the phone screen. Additionally, you’ll be able to review their browsing history, including every video they watch on the platform, so you’ll know exactly what content creators they follow and what videos they interact with.

Another invaluable feature of mSpy is real-time keyword alerts. The app lets you set up filters for certain words and phrases and will notify you when they type those words into the YouTube search bar. This lets you step in and react before they can view inappropriate content while relieving you of the pressure of having to monitor them 24/7.

In addition to YouTube, mSpy lets you see what content your children interact with on other popular social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. You can even take screenshots or record their screen remotely to see exactly what type of content they’re exposed to and prevent unwanted behavior.

Read our in-depth mSpy review for more.

Pricing

You can get mSpy for as little as $11.67/month if you commit to an annual subscription plan. Alternatively, you can opt for the three-month subscription at $28/month or the standard monthly subscription at $48.99/month.

2. EyeZy — Feature-Rich Parental Monitoring App With Remote Website and App Blocking

EyeZy is a feature-rich parental control solution that lets you monitor everything your kids do on their phones.

The Web Magnifier feature lets you leverage keywords to set boundaries for the content your children search, watch, and interact with online. Whenever any of their messages or searches contain a particular word or phrase you deem inappropriate or dangerous, EyeZy will notify you through its Magic Alerts.

This ensures you’re always aware of what your children are doing on the internet without having to monitor them 24/7. Whenever they search for a particular topic on YouTube or a specific content creator, you’ll get a notification on your device, so you can step in and react.

If you’re not physically present, you can always issue remote controls to their phone to block access to YouTube or even completely disable their Wi-Fi connection. In addition to real-time monitoring, you’ll also be able to review their browsing history, including all the websites they visited and all the YouTube videos they watched.

You can also prevent them from accessing certain websites that promote inappropriate content like gambling, mature content, or violence. Another crucial feature of EyeZy is the files finder, which lets you see all the photos, videos, and files stored on your child’s device.

This is crucial if you believe they might share inappropriate photos or videos on popular social media platforms like Instagram.

Pricing

You can get started with EyeZy for as little as $9.99/month on the annual plan. Much like mSpy, EyeZy also offers a three-month plan at $27.99/month and a monthly plan at $47.99.

3. uMobix — Powerful Parental Control App That Lets You See Every Like and Comment on YouTube

uMobix is another excellent choice if you’re looking for parental control for the YouTube app, given that it allows you to trace every step your child takes on the platform.

With uMobix, you’ll easily see all recently watched YouTube videos, including their titles, thumbnails, and durations.

What’s more, you’ll also see every like and comment your child leaves on YouTube videos, so you can better understand what content they enjoy, how they interact with content creators, and what types of conversations they engage in on YouTube.

If you find any content you disapprove of, you can block their access to YouTube altogether, disable their Wi-Fi network, or even lock the device — completely remotely. You can also use uMobix to schedule application use, limiting the time your kids can spend on YouTube.

That said, we’d like to see uMobix include the ability to filter out specific words and phrases and automatically prevent access to specific videos.

However, beyond full parental control on the YouTube app, uMobix lets you see their complete internet browsing history, view all of their conversations on social media, take camera snapshots, and tap into the device’s microphone and camera to see what your child is doing in real-time.

Pricing

uMobix follows the same pricing structure as mSpy and EyeZy, offering three pricing plans. The annual plan provides the most value for money, giving you access to all features for just $12.49/month.

4. Cocospy — A Decent YouTube Parental Control App With Screen Recording

Cocospy is a simple, easy-to-use parental control app that lets you track everything your children do on YouTube and all popular social media platforms.

With Cocospy, you can see how often they visit YouTube and see the timestamps for each visit. On Android devices, you can also see their every keystroke, so you can tell exactly what content they search for on YouTube and other platforms.

While you won’t be able to see every video they watch, you can always record their screen or take screenshots to better understand what content they interact with on the platform. Thanks to the keylogger, you’ll also see their entire YouTube search history, and you can always type the same words and phrases on your device to see what videos pop up.

Suppose most videos associated with a particular word or phrase are inappropriate or disturbing. In that case, you can always remotely block their access to YouTube, disable their Wi-Fi connection, or completely lock the phone.

Other useful features of Cocospy include GPS location tracking, SMS and social media chat monitoring, and call monitoring.

Pricing

Cocospy offers three pricing plans — the annual plan at $12.49/month, the quarterly plan at $29.99/month, and the standard monthly plan at $49.99/month.

5. FamiSafe — Affordable Parental Control App With a Dedicated YouTube App Control Feature

FamiSafe is a robust parental control app that lets you keep track of every digital footstep your children take and ensure they stay protected online.

The app has a dedicated YouTube App Control feature, which lets you scan their complete YouTube watch history and block any harmful or inappropriate videos or channels. FamiSafe also has built-in explicit content detection, which lets you create a list of suspicious words (e.g., bullying, drugs, sex, suicide) that the app will scan for.

If it detects any of those words in video titles or descriptions, FamiSafe will prevent your children from viewing them. You can also remotely control your children’s YouTube screen time and limit it to however much time you deem appropriate — be it half an hour or a couple of hours.

If push comes to shove, you can always remotely block their access to the YouTube app altogether until you can talk to them in person and explain why they shouldn’t be interacting with particular content.

Pricing

You can get started with FamiSafe for as little as $10.99/month on the monthly plan, which is much more affordable than most popular parental control apps. If you opt for the annual plan, you’ll get 12 months of parental control for just $60.99 — only a little over $5/month.

6. Qustodio — Full-Featured Parental Control App With a Complete YouTube Viewing History

Qustodio is a full-featured parental control app that lets you monitor your children’s online activity, filter content and apps they can access, and set screen time limits to ensure they aren’t spending all of their free time glued to a screen.

When it comes to YouTube control, Qustodio provides a wealth of information and a level of control that’s only second to uMobix. It lets you see the full list of viewed videos, the timestamps of each view, and the thumbnail of every single video, so you can immediately deduce if it’s suitable for children.

Additionally, you’ll have the option of setting up filters for specific categories, so Qustodio knows when to allow access, when to notify you, and when to automatically block certain videos and websites containing specified keywords and phrases.

For instance, if you add “gambling” to the list of forbidden words, Qustodio will automatically block access to all gambling websites and gambling-related YouTube videos.

On top of full control over their YouTube usage, Qustodio also lets you track their location in real-time, monitor their activity 24/7, set screen time limits, and track all their calls and SMS messages to ensure your children stay safe online.

Pricing

The best part about Qustodio is that you can monitor up to five different devices with a single account for as little as $54.95/year. That’s less than $5/month, which makes Qustodio the most affordable parental control YouTube app on our list.

7. Norton Family — Popular Parental Control With Video Supervision That Lets You See Every Visited URL

Norton Family is a parental control tool that gives you all the information you need to keep your child safe and focused online. The app lets you monitor their activity, schedule their screen time, and prevent them from accessing inappropriate content.

Regarding YouTube monitoring, you can see all the videos your children watch on YouTube.com. This means you won’t be able to monitor the videos they watch through the YouTube app on their phones, which is why Norton Family is at the very bottom of our list.

That said, Norton Family is still a decent option for monitoring your kids’ YouTube activity on their desktop PCs or laptops. Video Supervision is available through a browser extension, which enables Norton Family to remember every visited URL, so you can see exactly what content your children interact with on the platform.

In addition to YouTube parental control, Norton Family lets you schedule their screen time, limit their access to specific websites and applications, and see all the apps they download and install, so you can better understand what they’re using the internet for.

Pricing

You can get started with Norton Family for free for the first 30 days. This should give you enough time to test the app in practice and see if it meets your needs. Paid plans start from $49.99/year, making it one of our list’s most affordable options.

Top Tools for Parental Control on YouTube | Compared

Here’s a quick comparison table of the best apps for parental control on YouTube:

Are YouTube Parental Controls Enough?

If you’ve researched how to put parental control on YouTube before, you’ve probably encountered articles explaining how to do so through the app. While we don’t dispute that content filters can be incredibly useful, the issue with built-in parental control for YouTube is that it’s easy to bypass.

Kids are incredibly tech-savvy these days, and all it takes to bypass the restrictions you set through the YouTube app is opening a new account or visiting YouTube in incognito mode. This makes the restricted mode on YouTube an easy obstacle to avoid.

The only way to ensure they can’t access inappropriate, explicit, or potentially dangerous content on YouTube is through a dedicated parental control app. These apps enforce restrictions on the device level, making it far more difficult for your kids to bypass the restrictions and avoid being monitored.

Additionally, YouTube parental control apps let you control their screen time, set up real-time alerts through keyword filters, get an overview of all the videos they watch, and ensure a truly kid-safe YouTube experience.

How We Ranked the Best YouTube Parental Control App Solutions

While dozens of parental control apps are on the market, not all offer dedicated YouTube parental control features.

Even the ones that do vary greatly in terms of functionality. Some merely provide you with a list of watched videos, while others give you full control over their screen time and let you see everything from time watched to the comments your kids leave on YouTube videos.

Here are all the aspects we took into consideration when ranking the best YouTube parental control apps:

• The level of control — It’s not enough to see the list of watched videos on YouTube. A decent parental control app should let you block them from viewing videos on specific topics or by certain YouTube creators.
• Ability to censor certain words and phrases — Keyword filters allow you to prevent your children from accessing inappropriate content that talks about unsuitable topics, such as gambling, violence, and adult material.
• Remote device controls — You’re not always physically present to look over your kid’s shoulder and stop them from watching specific videos. That’s why it’s important to be able to remotely block their access to YouTube or even disable their Wi-Fi altogether.
• Screen time limitations — If you don’t want your child to be glued to a screen 24/7, limiting the time they can spend on YouTube and social media is critical. The best YouTube parental control apps allow you to do just that.
• Additional monitoring features — Besides YouTube, you want to ensure your children are safe on social media and the web. The best parental control tools offer a myriad of monitoring features, letting you read messages and social chats and monitor your kid’s location in real-time.
• Value for money — When considering all your options, you should compare different solutions and gauge how much value you’re getting versus the monthly subscription price.
• User reviews — The most credible source of information regarding the performance of a specific parental control app are the reviews left by other users. Reading through them will give you a better idea of the app’s functionality and reliability.

How to Put Parental Control on YouTube Android and iOS | Step-By-Step Guide

Here’s a step-by-step guide for enabling YouTube parental control with mSpy on Android and iOS devices:

Step 1 — Get mSpy

Visit the official mSpy website and click/tap the Try Now button to get started.

Enter your email address and select the type of device you want to monitor (Android or iPhone). Choose one of three pricing plans and select Buy Now to proceed to the checkout page. Enter your payment information to proceed.

Step 2 — Install mSpy on the Target Device

After purchasing an mSpy subscription, you will receive a confirmation email sent to the email address you provided.

The email contains login credentials you’ll need to access your mSpy account and the download link. Download mSpy on the device you want to monitor and follow the simple prompts on the screen to complete the installation. Make sure to provide the parental control app with all the necessary permissions.

Use your login credentials to sign into your mSpy account and start monitoring.

Step 3 — Set Up YouTube Parental Controls

Once you log into the mSpy dashboard, navigate to Keyword Tracking under General Features in the left-hand menu.

Enter words and phrases you want mSpy to track, so you can get notified whenever your child searches for a particular topic on YouTube. If you want to block their access to YouTube completely, scroll to the end of the side menu, select Block Applications, and press Block next to YouTube.

That’s all there is to it. You can always play around with the Screen Recorder down the line and occasionally review their Browser History to see the exact URLs of all the videos your kid is watching on YouTube, so you can double-check and ensure the video content is suitable for them.

YouTube Parental Control FAQs