Do You Know Where Your Children are Online? Keep Track with New Apps

At any given time, there's a lot happening on the Internet. With news and information coming in from all corners of the globe, a panoply of entertainment options, and some even less savory options being made available to anyone with a device capable of accessing the Internet, there's plenty out there, and plenty for parents to be concerned about. But with new apps coming available, parents have a way to better keep track of their kids' trail online and keep it in line with their own expectations.

Kytephone, an app developer from Toronto, earlier today released a version of its eponymous app that was geared toward the 13 to 17 year old market. With the Kytephone app, parents can regulate just which sites their children can go to, the apps they can use, and even control--in some cases--who can call and send text messages to the device the kids are using. Some breeds of Kytephone even offer GPS tracking to let parents know where the phone--and from there, the children--are. There are even game limits so that the kids can't spend hours playing Candy Crush Saga or the like.

Kytephone isn't alone in the market, either, as earlier in March, Net Nanny brought out its own browser app for iOS and Android devices. The iOS version offers content filters as well as profanity blocking tools, and the Android version offers the ability to even control which apps a child can access in the first place. The iOS version sells for $4.99, and the Android version runs $12.99, with a future version specifically geared toward social networking to follow on a subscription basis for $19.99 a year.

Another company, Playrific, is geared toward children ages two to eight, and offers up a series of educational videos, games, and books from the confines of a locked browser. Playrific is free, and has versions for iOS, Android, and the Web.

Given that the number of measures to get online is rising, thanks to the growing proliferation of tablets and smartphones, that's providing one reason for parents to keep a closer eye on the kids. But given that kids are getting into the act in increasing numbers themselves--a recent Pew Research Center study says that more than one in three children own a smartphone, up from one in five in 2011--and for these kids, the smartphone is their primary method of getting online in nearly half of all cases, that's a reason for parents to start looking at the smartphone, and by extension the tablet, for what the kids are doing online.

Smartphones have improved the ability to get connected, regardless of location, for all users. But this enhanced connection capability doesn't come without a price in the form of a need for increased vigilance on the part of parents. Keeping track of what content kids access is an important part of shaping their growth and development, and a job that may not be just a bit easier for the parents involved.