Best Parental Control Apps in Australia | Top 13 Reviewed for 2023

The best parental control apps in Australia let you monitor your child’s online activity and set time limits to regulate their screen time. You can block inappropriate online content, restrict access to suspicious websites, monitor their social media activity, and set geofencing alerts.

With hundreds of parental control apps out there, choosing one is certainly a difficult task. We’ve done the hard yards to find the best parental control apps in Australia based on stringent criteria like pricing, the number of devices supported, the range of features offered, and customer support. See why industry leaders like mSpy, EyeZy, and uMobix made it to the top of our list.

The Best Parental Control Apps in Australia | Top 13 Shortlist

mSpy stands tall as the best parental control app, as per our research, banking on features like stealth mode, two-factor authentication, remote control capabilities, a user-friendly interface, and a 14-day money-back guarantee. The competition, however, wasn’t easy. See for yourself:

1. mSpy — Overall, the Best Parental Control App in Australia | Test it Out Now With the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
2. EyeZy — The Best Parental Control App for Call Recording | See for Yourself With the 3-Day Trial and a 14-Day Guarantee.
3. uMobix — The Best Parental Control Software Australia for Location Tracking | Try it Risk-Free With the 2-Week Guarantee.
4. Cocospy — Solid Australian Parental Control App That Doesn’t Require Jailbreak or Root | Has a 14-Day Guarantee.
5. XNSpy — A Quality Keylogger to Monitor Your Kid’s Online Activities | Try it Now With the 10-Day Guarantee.
6. Qustodio — Leading Tracking App for Parents to Set Screen Time Limits.
7. TheOneSpy — One of the Best Parental Control Apps to Crack Any of Your Child’s Account’s Password.
8. NetNanny — A Must-Have Parental Control App to Block Inappropriate Content.
9. KidsGuard — An Easy-to-Use Monitoring App to Check Your Child’s Browsing History.
10. Norton Family — A Popular Parental Tracking App for App Blocking During School Time.
11. FamiSafe — A Fine Child Monitoring App to Remotely Block Harmful Content on Your Child’s Android Device.
12. Intego — A Feature-Packed Combo of Antivirus Software & Parental Control App.
13. Kaspersky — The Best Free Parental Control App in Australia.

Best Parental Control Solutions in Australia | Top 13 Reviewed

Keen on learning more about the best parental control apps in Australia? Read on as we examine in detail each of our top picks, along with their best features, pros, cons, and pricing. Ready?

1. mSpy — The Best Overall Parental Control App in Australia

mSpy enjoys the top position on our list as the best parental control app for Australian parents, as it’s the easiest to set up and it boasts an abundant number of features.

Our favorite mSpy feature is that it lets you handle your kid’s device remotely and send commands.

For example, say you didn’t like the kind of websites your child was frequently visiting. With mSpy, you can block those sites without them knowing that it was you — the same goes for dangerous apps too.

mSpy also gives you complete access to your child’s calls, messages, and social media. Popular social media platforms covered by mSpy include WhatsApp, Snapchat, Viber, Facebook, Kik, Instagram, and more.

The tool focuses not only on popular social apps but also covers the lesser heard ones. Having access to all their social accounts will also allow you to monitor the kind of content they post online and the strangers they come across.

The internet is a scary place, and you should be cautious of unknown faces interacting with your child every day up close.

With that said, if you don’t have the time to constantly monitor their chats or go through a day’s worth of data, mSpy’s keyword alert feature will make your life easier.

All you have to do is enter the words you find inappropriate for your child, such as 18+ terminologies or cuss words. From then on, mSpy will send you a special alert only when your child types in these flagged words.

After all, keeping an eye on your child doesn’t have to come at the cost of your personal time.

Pricing

mSpy is one of the cheapest parental control apps on the market right now, priced at a mere $11.67/month on its yearly plan.

And the best part is that you can test the tool risk-free before putting any money on the line, thanks to its 14-day money-back guarantee. Get started now, and see for yourself why it tops lists like these time and time again.

2. EyeZy — The Best Parental Control App for Call Recording

EyeZy checks almost every box on our list of features every parental control app should have.

What we loved the most about EyeZy during our testing was its well-organized dashboard. It doesn’t dump loads of data on your control panel. Instead, you’ll see graphs and stats that show:

• Which websites your kid visits the most
• Who they call the most, and
• Who texts them most frequently

It saves you the trouble of going through thousands of data entries to find their top interests — whether it’s a person or activity. Next, we checked EyeZy’s keylogger feature, which, too, was well-organized.

The main function of this feature is to capture everything your kid types on their phone. Whether it’s a message, search query, or note, every time your child strikes a key on their phone, it’s recorded for you.

The best part is that these keystrokes are categorized based on the apps they’re typing them in, making it easier for you to skim through the entries. Plus, as one of the best phone spy apps, EyeZy also does a pretty good job tracking the target’s phone calls.

You get the complete list of who they called, call duration, time, and type (outgoing, incoming, or missed call). It helps you in two ways:

• You can check how much time they’re spending on calls and maybe call them out on phone bills.
• You can identify patterns and see if they’re being bombarded by calls from someone you wish they’d stay away from.

Pricing

Get started with EyeZy for just $9.99/month (1-year plan) and enjoy top-notch child tracking features like call recording and location tracking.

If you’re unsure about committing to the product for a whole year, don’t be — EyeZy will give you a free demo, a 3-day free trial, and a 14-day money-back guarantee and only then ask you for a paid subscription.

3. uMobix — The Best Parental Control Software in Australia for Location Tracking

uMobix gives you remote access to your child’s device like no other parental control app can.

You can manage what apps they use and delete the ones you might find inappropriate for them. You can also block devices, Wi-Fi connections, or websites you don’t want your child to visit.

If you don’t want your kid to spend too much time on their phone, this feature will let you restrict calls and disable messages on their device. Essentially, you can do almost anything you want on their phone without even touching it.

What’s more, your kids won’t even be able to detect the presence of a parental control app on their phones. With that said, another huge benefit of using uMobix is that it lets you access deleted items such as contacts, messages, and calls.

Your kid might not know that they’re being monitored, but that won’t stop them from deleting messages with inappropriate content to hide the evidence. But with uMobix, even the deleted messages will show up in your dashboard. Need we say more?

On top of all this, uMobix will send you an alert every time your kid renames a contact. So if you asked them to stay away from someone and they just renamed their contact name to outsmart you, uMobix will spill their secret immediately.

To add a cherry on top, uMobix is pretty simple to set up. You just need your child’s phone for a couple of minutes, and uMobix will smoothly guide you through the entire installation process.

Check our in-depth uMobix review.

Pricing

uMobix, although not as cheap as mSpy and EyeZy, is still one of the more affordable options on our list, with its annual plan priced at a reasonable $12.49/month.

Regardless of the plan you choose, you’ll have access to uMobix’s entire catalog of features that include text messages and online status tracking, a keylogger and geo-finder, social media activity tracking, browser usage, and loads more.

Try uMobix risk-free with the live demo and 14-day money-back guarantee. Don’t like it? Get a full refund and try the other parental control apps on our list.

4. Cocospy — Solid Australian Parental Control App That Doesn’t Require Jailbreak or Root

Cocospy is one of the few parental control apps that does not require jailbreaking on both Android and iOS. Speaking of its capabilities as a parental control app, its features cover almost everything you need to know about your child.

For instance, besides knowing your child’s live location, you’ll also have full transparency about their conversations (although only on its Android version), then be it on calls, texts, or on any social media platform.

What we liked the most about Cocospy is that it has a stealth mode, because of which your child will have no clue that there’s a monitoring app on their phone — they’ll continue being their original self, which is exactly what you wanted to find out in the first place.

Cocospy will also give you complete access to all the applications, photos, and videos on your child’s device, even if they’re in a hidden folder.

Although Cocospy’s iOS version doesn’t cover popular social media apps like Telegram, Skype, or Hangouts, it’s still a formidable spy app to take a sneak peek into your child’s browser history, calendar, and of course, WhatsApp and FB Messenger.

Pricing

Here are your subscription options with Cocospy:

Although a bit more costly than some, you have a full 2 weeks to try the tool risk-free without losing any money.

5. XNSpy — A Quality Keylogger to Monitor Your Kid’s Online Activities 

XNSpy isn’t just a competent parental control app; it’s also one of the few apps that ensure that tracking your kids doesn’t take up your whole day.

For instance, instead of forcing you to go through all their communications to catch their wrongdoings, XNSpy notifies you only when they actually do something wrong.

Here’s how it works — you compile a list of words that you find inappropriate, and XNSpy will notify you only when a word from the list is typed by your child, whether it’s in a chat box or a search bar.

Like other top spy apps on our list, XNSpy will allow you to control your child’s phone remotely. You can:

• Block an app or website
• Record their surroundings
• Reset the device
• Lock it or
• Take screenshots

Such functionalities ensure that you can take timely action to stop an ill-doing right in its tracks.

Also, if there’s a particular website or app that might be troublesome or inappropriate for your child, use XNSpy to not waste time checking on your kids again and again and block it on their phone once and for all.

With all that said, XNSpy’s brief analytics will be your friend. At any given time, you can check your kid’s top 5 callers, top 5 durations, and top 10 most frequently visited websites — XNSpy simplifies finding and breaking disturbing patterns.

Pricing

XNspy starts at an affordable $7.50/month on its annual plan and will give you the ability to listen to your child’s call recordings plus take a look at their contacts, WhatsApp chats, photos and videos they share, and more.

Don’t believe us? Try XNSpy risk-free, thanks to its 10-day money-back guarantee, and see for yourself.

6. Qustodio — Leading Tracking App for Parents to Set Screen Time Limits

Qustodio is a popular all-in-one Australian parental control app that has over 4 million users worldwide, and one of its biggest USPs is that you get to set time limits.

Set a timer on how long your kids are allowed to use a device, and once the time is up, the device will automatically get locked. This way, you can keep a healthy balance of work and leisure in your kid’s life and protect them from phone addiction.

If you want to track their location, Qustodio offers an easy solution. It comes with a detailed map, just like the one you see on Uber or Google Maps, where you can check your kid’s live location at all times.

If you don’t want to be constantly monitoring their location, set alerts for specific locations. For example, say you want to make sure that your kids reach school safely.

To ensure that, you don’t have to keep checking their location every few minutes. Instead, save the school location on Qustodio, and you’ll be alerted as soon as your kid reaches the location — this goes for all saved locations.

Qustodio is also one of the few apps that makes it easier for your child to get in touch with you in times of danger through its SOS feature. All that it takes is a simple tap on the SOS Bubble to alert all your kid’s entrusted contacts.

Pricing

If you want to track multiple devices — 5, 10, or even 15 — Qustodio is your best bet.

Is Qustodio for you? Try it out and find out for yourself. You have a 30-day money-back guarantee on your side, so you don’t stand to lose any money if, in case, Qustodio isn’t your cup of tea.

7. TheOneSpy — One of the Best Parental Control Apps to Crack Any of Your Child’s Account’s Password

TheOneSpy is primarily designed to check on your spouses and catch them red-handed in case they’re cheating on you — it’s undoubtedly one of the best cheating spouse trackers.

But given the monitoring requirements are similar to that of parental control, you can also use it to keep an eye on your kid.

One of our favorite TheOneSpy features is the Password Chaser. A unique feature, with this tool, you can hack or break any password on your child’s phone, whether it’s a code or a pattern. It works on the home screen as well as password-protected apps.

For instance, if your kid has a separate password on their email or messenger app, TheOneSpy app will break it in a jiffy and give you direct access to their device. Plus, TheOneSpy app is incredibly discreet.

Even when it’s secretly recording your child, it makes no sound or beep that might alert them. It’s also practically impossible to unmask its presence on their device, thanks to its temper-proof technology.

In short, track your child for as long as you need — they’ll never discover your little secret. Beyond this, another feature we liked about TheOneSpy app is Surround Recording.

Remotely turn on your child’s phone camera and mic to record everything that’s happening around them. This way, you’ll know if they’re sneaking out to parties or hanging out with their friends while you’re at work.

Pricing

Get all the basic child monitoring features with TheOneSpy’s Premium plan at just $65/year.

The Premium plan gives you all but one functionality — access to your child’s call recordings. To listen to your child’s conversations over the phone, whether via WhatsApp, Skype, Hangout, or Truecaller, get TheOneSpy’s Pro plan.

For iOS users, TheOneSpy has flat pricing of $142/quarter. On the whole, is TheOneSpy your cup of tea? Find out risk-free with a 7-day money-back guarantee.

8. NetNanny — A Must-Have Parental Control App to Block Inappropriate Content

NetNanny’s biggest USP is its advanced AI content detection technology that blocks inappropriate content before your child sees them.

While other apps might require you to manually block inappropriate websites or apps, NetNanny is intuitive and takes timely action automatically to keep your child in a safe and kid-friendly online space.

Managing screen time is a breeze with NetNanny. All that you have to do is set the hours during which your child is allowed to be online. Outside these hours, NetNanny will automatically disable their internet activities.

This way, you won’t have to constantly hover over your child or repeatedly ask them to put their phone away. With that said, if your child is addicted to YouTube, NetNanny is the perfect tool to manage the content they see online.

For starters, you can check how often they watch YouTube and for how long. On top of that, you also get a direct link to every video they watch on YouTube so that you can watch it in your free time and review the content quality.

Other social media apps managed by NetNanny include Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Tumblr. You can manage the content your child sees on these apps, check their messages and posts, and people who they frequently contact.

As a parent, you’ll surely want to know if your child is talking to shady strangers. Plus, if you find any app on your child’s device to be inappropriate, you can block them without even touching their phone.

Pricing

You can monitor one desktop at $39.99/year with NetNanny. However, to monitor your child’s mobile, plus 4 more devices, we recommend getting the $54.99/year plan.

Try NetNanny without the fear of losing any money, thanks to its 14-day money-back guarantee.

9. KidsGuard — An Easy-to-Use Monitoring App to Check Your Child’s Browsing History

KidsGuard is one of the easiest parental control apps to use. It comes with a demo interface that helps you understand what you’re signing up for and how exactly the app works.

The actual signing up only takes three steps, and the platform provides a full guide for that as well. As the cherry on top, you can use KidsGuard’s features on your child’s phone without rooting or jailbreaking.

Speaking of KidsGuard’s monitoring features, they’re slightly basic but nonetheless effective and all-inclusive. For instance, you can check their browsing history with the website name, link, last visit date, and frequency of visits.

This makes it easier for you to find out what kind of content your child is most influenced by at the moment. These numbers will also tell you if they’re actively viewing adult content and whether it’s teenage curiosity or active addiction.

Speaking of addiction, you can also check if your child is addicted to a certain app under the App Activity tab. Just like browsing history, this tab will show you how frequently each app is visited and the total duration of the visit.

Pick on patterns and break them before they turn into an obsession. With that said, you can also get access to all the media files on your child’s devices.

Kids today take thousands of photos, but KidsGuard segregates them into separate folders based on type. For instance, selfies, group photos with friends, and simple photos of nature will all be stored in separate files.

Pricing

Monitor your child’s Android for just $8.32/month by signing up for KidsGuard’s annual plan. If your child is an iOS user, it’ll cost you a little more — $9.16/month.

If you need a shorter commitment, go for the monthly or quarterly plans, both of which are very affordably priced, especially when compared to the other parental control apps on the list.

Try KidsGuard risk-free for a full month, thanks to its 30-day money-back guarantee.

10. Norton Family — A Popular Parental Tracking App for App Blocking During School Time

Norton Family likes to keep it simple. It might not have as many features as its competitors, but it’ll supply you with all the information you need to protect your child.

For instance, if you’re homeschooling your child, you can use the School Time feature to block all websites other than educational ones.

This way, your child can use the internet only for the things needed for school instead of wasting their time on games and other unnecessary sites.

You can also check when your child is online and what they’re doing with Norton’s activity reports. Sometimes, just telling your child to get off the device isn’t enough. You might need to set limits on their screen time.

Pick times during the day or week when your child is allowed to use the internet limit-free, and build a healthy balance between school and leisure time.

Norton also makes it easy to track your child’s live location. For example, if your child travels alone to school and you’re worried about their safety, you can simply mark their school as a favorite location.

This way, you’ll be notified every time they enter or leave the premises of their school. If your child wants to send you their live location for security reasons, Norton makes it easy for them to do so as well — a few taps are all it’ll take.

Pricing

Norton Family offers a single plan for parental control:

That said, both the Norton 360 Deluxe and Norton 360 Premium antivirus plans come with Norton Family, and given that Norton is by far one of the best antiviruses, it might just be a great combo to get for your child’s safety.

What’s more, Norton Family comes with a staggering 60-day money-back guarantee — a risk-free two months to find out if the tool is fit for your needs.

11. FamiSafe — A Fine Child Monitoring App to Remotely Block Harmful Content on Your Child’s Android Device

FamiSafe stands out for its Safe Search feature. Once you turn it on, it’ll automatically filter out all the content and websites inappropriate for kids.

Since parents don’t have the time to always check what their kids are up to or block inappropriate websites manually, this feature is a godsend. The best part — it pairs with Google, Bing, and even Yandex.

If you want more control over what your kids see online, you can also turn on FamiSafe’s web filter. It’ll not just block toxic content but also send you warnings if your child tries to use them.

After all, simply blocking websites isn’t enough; you might have to talk to your kid and make them understand the seriousness of the matter as well.

The best thing about FamiSafe is that it makes it easy for you to track your child’s activity by putting together all their activities in a chronological timeline. Everything your child does gets added to this timeline immediately with the corresponding timestamp.

If you’re worried that your child is spending too much time online, especially on content platforms like TikTok and YouTube, FamiSafe has the perfect solution for you.

It’ll create a detailed report on how much time your child spends on these apps, how frequently they visit them, or what kind of content they watch. If you decide it’s time to set an automated screen time limit, FamiSafe will take care of that as well.

Pricing

With one of the cheapest monthly plans, FamiSafe’s $10.99/month plan makes for a compelling package for parents looking for a parental control app for a short period.

Plus, the monthly plan will protect as many as 5 devices — the quarterly and annual plans cover 10.

Is FamiSafe for you? Sign up now to find out. With a 7-day money-back guarantee, you won’t stand to lose any money if you don’t like the product.

12. Intego — A Feature-Packed Combo of Antivirus Software & Parental Control App

Intego is one of the best Mac antiviruses paired with a parental control app — not that it doesn’t work for Windows.

After all, the security of macOS is far higher than Android, and it’ll take a special app to be able to penetrate the operating system and track your child remotely.

Being an antivirus solution, Intego protects your child from both online strangers as well as viruses and malware.

Under parental control, you can restrict certain websites that you deem unsuitable for your child or limit when your child can have access to the internet.

This way, you can let your kids use the internet just as any other kid and still protect them from the dark side of the digital world, like cyberbullying, data theft, and whatnot.

Intego’s most unique parental control feature is blocking peer-to-peer activity. Kids aren’t old enough to understand which groups are safe for them to collaborate with, so they might accidentally involve themselves in inappropriate peer-to-peer activities.

To give you a sense of control over your account, Intego provides you with enough custom configuration features so that you tailor the reports and dashboard to your own needs.

After all, every parent has a different approach, and Intego doesn’t want them all to follow a set template.

Pricing

Protect 1 computer (Windows or Mac) for an entire year at just $69.99. Note that this includes the cost of Intego’s antivirus solution too.

If you need protection for 3 devices, the same 1-year plan will cost you $129.99. Unsure? Enjoy all that Intego has to offer risk-free with the generous 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don’t like it, get a full refund.

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

Kaspersky helps you protect your kids both online and offline. In addition to that, it also provides you with behavior-monitoring features that help you cultivate self-control in your child.

For instance, by blocking inappropriate websites and apps during study time, you can encourage your child to complete their homework or focus on their studies without being distracted.

Such content filters also help your child have a positive experience on the internet; save them from predators, hackers, and adult content that could harm their young minds.

If your kids try to voluntarily access these sites, Kaspersky will instantly send you an alert. You can either block them yourself or talk to your kid directly. Whatever curiosities they have, Kaspersky will inform you right away.

Kaspersky’s parental control features are comparable to any other parental control app. But what makes it special is that along with parental control, it also offers an intuitive antivirus solution.

This will keep your child’s device safe from hackers, malware, and any other digital threats.

Another significant USP of Kaspersky is the battery tracker. These tools will notify you any time your kid’s battery is low so that you can remind them to charge it on time. After all, losing touch with your kids over a dead battery is no fun for a parent.

Pricing

Kaspersky’s parental control software has a free forever version that offers features like an online content filter, app usage control, and screen time management.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, its paid version, with GPS child locator, battery tracker, and real-time alerts, will cost you a mere $14.99 for the entire year.

Plus, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on your side, you can try the software without putting any money on the line. Try it out now.

Top 13 Parental Control Tools in Australia | Compared

Need help comparing each tool? We’ve got your back. Here’s a quick table highlighting the crucial differences between our top picks:

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 are 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 cannot 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 children’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’re 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. After purchasing the plan, you must disable Play Protect on the target device to install mSpy.
4. Download the mSpy installer from the link – https://getmspy.net/  and install the app on the device.
5. Click “Allow” on mSpy’s prompts to give the app access to various data and features on the device.
6. Enter the registration code you received when you created the mSpy account and complete the setup process.
7. Access your mSpy account and control panel to monitor the target device’s activities.

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

Parental Control App FAQs