Awarded PC Mag’s Editors’ Choice Qustodio Parental Control & Screen Time App makes parenting easier with daily screen time limits, app monitoring, including Facebook and YouTube, app blocking, kid tracking, family mode, porn blocking and more.
– Screen Time Control: Automatically blocks the device after the set time has passed
– Block Monitoring & Parental Filter: Tracks and controls what your kids access on the internet including delicate content and adult content filter
– Family Locator & GPS Family Tracker: Tracks your kid’s phone and sends you the GPS location
Start by downloading this Qustodio Parental Control App onto your device. Then download the Kids App Qustodio companion app onto your child’s devices. Together, the apps allow you to seamlessly manage your child’s daily screen time allowance on linked mobile, tablet or desktop devices across platforms including Android, iOS and other major operating systems for better app control and monitoring.
Qustodio Free family screen time blocker app (1 supervised device)
✓ Set and manage daily screen time limits with its screen time blocker
✓ Block website or category (games, gambling, porn blocking)
✓ Website monitoring, search and app control
✓ Safe search to block adult or porn sites
✓ Unsupported browser blocking
✓ Advanced reporting (7-day history)
✓ Alerts for Family locator mode, GPS tracker, screen time blocker
Qustodio Premium family screen time app (5, 10 or 15 supervised devices)
Enjoy everything you get in Qustodio family screen time app plus:
✓ New YouTube Monitoring
✓ New Family Locator geolocation tracker
✓ App blocker (block by app, not just category)
✓ 30-day screen time history reporting
✓ Activate an SOS button that alerts family members
✓ Priority Parental Control support
✓ Priority access to new features
✓ Link more devices for full family mode & family locator
✓ Install Qustodio to monitor screen time on any other iOS, Windows, Mac, Android or Kindle device
The all-new Family Locator, a mobile GPS tracker conveniently built into the Qustodio Parental Control & Screen Time App, lets you find family’s phones, locate the whole family on the move, add favorite places and share locations.
How to protect, block, & monitor screen time with Qustodio Parental Control Apps:
1 – First download Qustodio Parental Control App onto your device (usually your mobile phone or laptop), create an account or log in
2 – Then install Kids App Qustodio on the device you want to supervise
3 – Log in and follow the quick setup instructions
4 – Once done, inappropriate websites will be blocked automatically
5 – To monitor activity and screen time use this Qustodio Parental Control App on a Parent’s device or log in to your online Qustodio Family Screen Time dashboard (https://family.qustodio.com)
Our FAQ:
• Does Qustodio Parental Control family screen time blocker app support Android 8 (Oreo): Yes.
• Does Qustodio family screen time blocker app work on other platforms besides Android? Qustodio can protect Windows, Mac, iOS, Kindle and Android.
• What languages do you support? Qustodio is available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese and Chinese.
For support. Contact us here: https://www.qustodio.com/help and [email protected]
Notes:
This app uses the Device Administrator permission. This will prevent a user from uninstalling Qustodio Family Screen Time App without your knowledge.
This app uses Accessibility services to build an excellent device experience that helps users with behavioral disabilities set appropriate levels of access and monitoring of screen time, web content and apps, in order to limit their risks and enjoy life normally.
Troubleshooting notes:
Huawei devices owners: Battery-saving mode needs to be disabled for Qustodio.
Love the idea of SOS button, but why make a panicked kid hit twice, then confirm, to use it?!?! That needs to be changed. Main complaint: can’t get location to work for SOS. Can’t get SOS feature to add phone numbers for text messages, will only accept email. Love the text/call monitoring. Really want to love the whole app, but can’t get on board with the location issues. Emailed tech support three weeks ago, no response. Sent another email today. Ready to cancel at this point.
The app mostly functions.. it’s not always very accurate and misses some of the web pages visited occasionally, but it’s not very frequent. The part that saddens me is there doesn’t seem to be any customer service support and I was really hoping to go for the full paid version which included more information on phone calls and texts, but despite going through the troubleshooting on the website in the help section, I was never able to get it to work and been stuck with the free version.
Overall I like the app. The only thing I wish I could do is completely restrict certain apps that I can turn on in an as needed basis. An example would be restricting the video apps except when on a road trip. I understand that I can turn them off and on under rules, but when travelling that is a bit cumbersome. Maybe there is a way to do it and I’m just missing it. Other than this small detail, we love this app! I can make restrictions on an app by app basis rather than by category.
Horrible. Don’t buy. We did all the extra steps required (downloading from their site and not the Play store. Was notified of a grand total of 2 text messages the first few days (there were many more) and none since. Uninstalled, reinstalled, updated, nothing. Only reason we purchased this over the others. Don’t waste your money. Get Bark or one of the others.
Update, 9/29/22: Qustodio did contact me and help me cancel my account. ********** Love the idea of this app, but my not very techy kid showed me how he could get around it with just a few clicks. I sent a video of him doing it to tech support and they responded that there was nothing they could do about it. I have been trying to cancel my subscription for a few weeks with no luck. Great idea, bad execution.
Terrible ui. Doesn’t always work. Update is even worse than previous versions. Slows down my son’s computer. As for UI – not a difficult task becomes so time consuming. If you have a set of sites that are not part of categories they provide that you want to block, you have to click each one instead of having them grouped into one or at least to have an option to “block all”. Lately, the app just got even more annoying to use and it’s track of time became inaccurate (shows 5 min instead of hour)
Okay but needs work. The app doesn’t allow you to individually apply blockages or always allow individual apps. This results in the phone being turned off if the kid runs out of time. You can add numbers as emergency contacts, but it’s a pain, and doesn’t function correctly most of the time. Also, when everyone’s on the same wifi, change updates are quick, if on different networks, they take forever. Seriously. I would go back to my old app but it doesn’t monitor text messages.
Not bad but could be better. For example: I’ve noticed with the text messages, if someone sends my child a picture through text, I don’t know what the picture is or any text written with it, so the app can’t alert to anything inappropriate or bullying. I also wish keylogging was an option, or screenshots to see what is being viewed, since it’ll tell you that their Gallery is accessed but not what they’re viewing.
I switched from a different app to Quistodio and am pretty disappointed I did. I do not like that the free trial was so short. Did NOT allow enough time to truly evaluate. They do not offer a monthly subscription plan, so now I am stuck using this for a year, or I’m out the cost if I switch. There are a ton of features that seem pretty important that are missing. (IE Alerts for dangerous/inappropriate texts) The location feature does not work most of the time and nothing updates real time.
It’s good but has room to improve. Doesn’t allow temporary override of restrictions for example flying on plane or road trip. You have to go disabled everything to allow it and then forget to turn it back on. Can’t prevent app installs or uninstalls. But overall it’s the best of the ones I’ve tried. And I have used most of them out there.
App works ok. Best thing it does is shut the phone down at the designated time. Times are on the hour so it’s tedious to have to give an extra half hour. Would be much easier if settings were every half hour. Sometimes once the phone has shut off because time ran out it’s difficult to add more time. Sometimes have to reboot the phone to get it to open back up.
There really isn’t a better option out there than Qustodio, but it sucks. It lacks significant updates. The overlay promts are slow, even with animation scaling turned off. There is a learning curve. I use Google Family link, Microsoft Family Safety, and Qustodio together for my children’s devices. The GUI is clean, but lacks certain features. It’s alright, but needs improvement. 2 years now. If someone does it better, I’ll find out and switch. No direct customer support either.
Works when it works, support is awful. Easy to use and fully featured, but buggy. Parents be vigilant. The app sometimes doesn’t work at all but you’ll never know unless you test it yourself periodically. The kids won’t tell you, of course. Support is all by email. It’s slow, and they always give the same response… Reinstall. I don’t even bother asking anymore. They clearly have no interest in fixing flaws. I would switch but everything else is just as bad or worse. Believe me, I’ve tried.
This app is so frustrating I can’t even describe it. If it worked as advertised it would be great. Instead you try to set up time limits and other things to keep kids from living on their phone and browsing things they shouldn’t and it either works for a day and then it completely locks them out of everything. Customer service is a joke their only solution for everything is to reinstall the app over and over again! It is terrible on computers as well. Save your money!
This thing works! Bark& other programs mirror the devices. I don’t want to see their every move. I do want to make sure they aren’t getting into bad sites, apps, games, etc etc. Qustodio let’s us do this & check what sites they are frequenting & apps they use, it flags everything based on categories, we can block by category & specific app/site. The device in still always in safe search mode. We see if attempts are made to a restricted site or delete the program. Limits times too! Love it!
Close but not quite. This app fixes one of the major flaws of the prior app I used by having a single daily time limit across multiple devices. It also has location tracking without additional charges, which is nice. However, think I lost as many options as I gained. What Qustodio does, it seems to do well, but I may go back to Screen Time or try something else to see if I can get the best of both. 12/17/20 update: this app is nearly useless on PC. Browser appears to be the only app limited.
Simply does not work. IPhone shows no activity for the day yet the phone has been used all day. The phone status will show as inactive while the phone is in use. If the phone does show activity it is extremely vague reporting. And it blocks functions of apps that I don’t want blocked. Location always shows the child at home address no matter where they are. I could go on and on… If this app didn’t auto renew via Google Play I would have renewed because I am not getting what I pay for.
I accidentally bought the upgrade version. It turns out it’s just the subscription extension and no extra perks. Could benefit from key words to notify parent in texting and searching. Would benefit if app could lock/unlock on no school days. Time doesn’t expand to minutes. Constantly shows as offline. In the messaging could benefit from to/from bubbles to make tracking conversations easier. App needs more work.
We have had Qustodio for 2 years now and wish that it were better than it is, especially for the annual cost. Our three main issues with the app are: 1) The inability to filter text messages. So these are teenagers we are monitoring. If there is an issue with one of their contacts we would like to be able to filter to that particular text thread so that we can see the back and forth conversation. Instead all text threads are lumped together chronologically, so if we are trying to monitor a single conversation we have to scroll through ENDLESSSSSS one and two word texts to and from every other contact, visually scanning for the one contact thread we are trying to monitor. It is slow and inefficient to say the least. If we simply could select a certain contact in a filter of all text contacts, and see only the back and forth conversation for the selected contact, that alone would make the app 10 times better. 2) No MMS monitoring. This includes a lot of group text messages. So kids, if you want to avoid your parents monitoring send an MMS instead of SMS. (MMS shows up on BARK app so it is possible) 3) We have 3 phones on the plan. 1 of them we can see all the contact information on calls and texts. 2 phones we can only see phone numbers. Qustodio’s suggestion to restart the phones did nothing. BTW, the app was installed, uninstalled, sideloaded from the side as instructed, uninstalled again, sideloaded again, all settings and permissions were checked and double-checked, and still no contact information is coming over. It is highly doubtful we will be renewing again unless this stuff is all fixed. (Oh, and can’t use Hulu because Qustodio VPN server is outside the USA). I’ll tell you, I am fairly good with technology and have trouble keeping track of all of Qustodio’s annoying quirks and settings and workarounds. I can’t even imagine a parent who is not tech savvy having any success at all using this application,
Hi, we have had a generally very good experience with both parental and kids apps. Intuitive, easy to use, and will do most things we want in what can be a complex problem. One issue we are having is that when the kids app updates it doesn’t record anything until permissions have been given again. As this happens at random times it can mean no recording all day. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app and even turning off updates. (The app still updated!) Grateful for any solution!
Most paid for features of the app work okay, but feature we use most doesn’t. (Tracking our daughter’s arrival and departure from various saved addresses). The app has about a 40 min delay in reporting arrival and departure. I have been in touch with Qustodio support and they have provided cut-and-paste troubleshooting suggestions as replies. We did all the troubleshooting and all settings are fine on our side. Now Qustodio doesn’t have other solutions and have stopped responsing to me.
Had it for several weeks now. Mostly disappointed. For one, the majority of SMS messages don’t show from my son’s phone. Pictures sent don’t show. On my daughter’s it showed no activity yet she was on Netflix, you tube kids and texted with me. What’s the punt if it isn’t accurate? If I can’t rely on it it’s worthless. On a side note- we had no idea we’d be charged an international fee after paying for our 2 year plan. :/ For being rated one of the best apps so far I’m unimpressed.
The more I use it on my daughter’s mobile and pc the more I get annoyed by how little I can customize access and how often it syncs badly between my control app and what actually she can do/not do (resulting in endless requests for intervention and adjustements from her). Also adding extra time – the function I used the most – has a poor UX/UI (adding blocks of 15 minutes and the way totals are calculated is painful). I am really on the verge of cancelling the subscription and migrate elsewhere.
Getting this app for my daughter was the best idea, no more worrying about what she’s up to online and her attitude has been so much better since having screen time limits in place. She hated it initially but now she’s getting used to being monitored it’s just life as normal, and the app locks onto her phone so there’s no risk of her removing the protection anyway.
I’ve had Qustodio over three years. How many features have they added? ZERO. Still can only schedule use times on the hour. Still have to allow or deny apps one at a time instead of being able to create groups. This company appears to have no interest in actually improving the product which means they’ll be obsolete soon!
Qustodio is pretty good if set up properly. It has a few workarounds that a precocious kid could figure out. The lack of 30 min increments for downtime is an obvious omission, and costs it a star. Otherwise, recommended.
Screen time function works well. My 14 year old uninstalled it form her Android, though. My son’s iPad: I block apps on my parental app, and yet they are there and easy for him to open without any issues. Turns out Qustodio is only compatible with certain apps. So if you have a kid that plays Roblox, think twice… because I have blocked it several times and he still has access. It’s disappointing and I won’t be recommending this app to friends.
The app control part is fine and seems to work quite well BUT the location tracking is a car crash. Every single time the app has a pushed update (which is a lot!) the tracking stops working until the phone with the kids app clicks through all the windows to renew permissions. This is a massive short fall in usability in my opinion and would need to be addressed in order for the app to match up to competitors. I won’t be renewing this app when the subscription expires if the issue persists.
When time runs out all access is blocked which is not what i want..i still want my child to have access to make calls in case of emergency and be able to message until the restricted period sets in. This app doesn’t allow it. May be able to set every app individually but that is a pain. You can’t set a weekly schedule but daily which is inconvenient when there are 50+ applications
Every parent should have this app on ypur child’s phone for their safety. Works great ! The only thing is, I wish we could restrict texting. We also had a issue where we had 2 bank cards on file and they billed us our yearly fee and took it out of my bank and out of my husband’s bank. Other than that, we love it.
Mostly works. Doesn’t alert if sexy pictures are taken or sent thru text. We tested it and the text with the pictures didn’t even show that they were sent or received. Concerning
Sometimes when we change the restrictions they don’t show up right away. Overall though this is a great tool for helping us navigate responsible screen time and expectations with our kids.
Works overall well. Easy and intuitive to use. Some limitations, eg one cannot program screen time duration, off time, on time that is usage dependent but only fixed times (ie 9-11 open, 11-1 closed rather you have 2 hours to play, whenever you use them up there is a 2h pause). Big plus that it works in its, Android, ms environment.
This app, doesn’t work. Children easily find a way around the parental controls, which don’t block all functions of the apps you’re trying to limit anyway. I asked for support and never got a single response. Useless.
I don’t recommend it. The app is even well designed but doesn’t work as it should. On pc works normally without problems, but on mobile phones do not. Kids uninstall the mobile app in a matter of minutes and parents don’t even notice. I’ve had to pay the ananity for quite some time but it doesn’t really do what it promises. (yes, I installed exactly as indicated and several times)
OK, needs some work. Tracking is off, never showed the accurate location. Texting: I want to be able to read all of the texts not just who they texted and their response. Being able to block certain apps or websites that are flagged would be nice. Having a list of already proven not appropriate apps or sites. I cancelled my subscription for now, but ends in Aug 2023
Great app, usually works very well. A couple of issues: 1. Sometimes it freezes (maybe due to bad internet connection?). 2. Adding time is only in increments of 15 minutes, would be more user friendly if the increments could be 5 minutes – sometimes I only want to add five or 10 minutes, not 15. But in general, this is a very good app!
Qust provides the detailed technical solution fairly well, across a variety of platforms. The screen time calculation does not work terribly well, if the kids leave apps on or things running it seems to overestimate the time spent on screen. Learning to self regulate screen time is also important, so I’d advise potential users to consider that part of the issue as well.
This app is such a great idea, however, it fails to do what it says. Nearly every single day, I receive “no activity” emails stating my daughter hasn’t been on her phone, when in fact, she has. No updates to the app have been needed on her end or mine, we’ve restarted our phones more than ever, and she hasn’t tried to remove the app from her phone. That said, I’ve paid for monitoring as a whole that I’m not receiving. It worked great at the start, but barely does anymore.
Great app. There’s only a few features I wish it had, the ability to add bonus time and to pick certain apps I can set to always allow so she can use them without taking away her overall time limit. Otherwise it works great and easy to set up and monitor!!