Norton Family provides tools that teach safe, smart, and healthy online habits. It also provides insights that help you foster a healthy online/offline balance for your children and their devices.
At home, attending school, or on the go, Norton Family helps keep children focused on what’s most important.
• Monitor the sites and content your child views
Make the Web safer for your kids to explore—by keeping you informed of which sites your kids are visiting, and letting you block potentially harmful and inappropriate content.‡
• Set limits on your child’s internet access
Help your kids balance time spent online by scheduling screen time limits for their device usage.‡ This can helps you focus your child on schoolwork and avoid online distractions while remote learning or at bedtime.‡
• Stay informed about your child’s physical location
Use geo-location features in the app to track your child’s location. Receive alerts if you’re your child arrives in or goes beyond areas of interest established by you. 4
Here are some of the Norton Family features parents can use to help protect their child’s online activities.
• Instant Lock
Help your kids take a break by locking the device, so they can re-focus, or join the family at dinner. You can still contact your children and children can still contact each other while the device is in lock mode.
• Web Supervision
Let your kids explore the Web freely, with tools that help you block unsuitable websites while keeping you in the know about which sites they’re visiting. 6
• Video Supervision
See a list of the YouTube and Hulu videos your kids watch on their PCs or mobile devices and even view a snippet of each video, so you know when you need to talk. 3, 6
• Mobile App Supervision
See which apps your kids have downloaded on their Android devices. Choose which ones they can use. 5
Time Features:
• School Time
Remote learning requires the internet, so pausing the internet on your child’s device is not an option. Manage content access to relevant categories and websites to help your child maintain focus while school is in session.
Location Features:
• Alert Me
Stay informed about your child’s location automatically. You can set specific dates and times to receive automatic alerts of the location of a child’s device. 2
‡ Norton Family and Norton Parental Control can only be installed and used on a child’s Windows PC, iOS and Android devices but not all features are available on all platforms. Parents can monitor and manage their child’s activities from any device – Windows PC (excluding Windows 10 in S mode), iOS and Android – via our mobile apps, or by signing into their account at my.Norton.com and selecting Parental Control via any browser.
‡‡ Requires your device to have an Internet/data plan and be turned on.
1 Mobile app must be downloaded separately. However, parents can sign in to my.Norton.com or family.Norton.com and select Parental Control to view their child’s activity and manage settings from any supported browser on any device.
2 Location Supervision features are NOT available in all countries. Visit the feature support page here for details. To work, the child’s device must have Norton Family installed and be turned on.
3 Video Supervision monitors videos that your kids view on YouTube.com. It does not monitor or track YouTube videos that have been embedded in other websites or blogs.
4 Location Supervision requires parent activation before use.
5 Mobile app must be downloaded separately.
6 Norton Family uses AccessibilityService API to collect data about websites viewed through browsers on your child’s device. It is also used to prevent the child from removing permissions without a parent’s authentication.
Privacy Statement
NortonLifeLock respects your privacy and is dedicated to safeguarding your personal data. See http://www.nortonlifelock.com/privacy for more information.
No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft.
App works ok. We’ve been using it for a couple years now. The main issues are: the app does not cut off the devices at the specified time. We often still have to manually turn off the devices which defeats the purpose. Also, it would be great if the app allowed shorter time increments versus only 30 min increments.
This app was great 2 years ago. Now it SUCKS! I no longer get any of the notifications I got in the past. My kids download apps even though I have it set to get a notification and I only see it when I go to the app. My kids are on their phone past their time limits all the time. This app is not working correctly. I’ve reached out 2 times for support all you get is someone who does not know the app in some foreign country who works for Norton support. Save your money and don’t get it!
Biggest waste of money I ever spent. All our devices randomly turn off VPN which means none of the controls work when that happens and I’m not even alerted to it! It’s so much aggravation more than anything. It never works right on any of our devices. So this means my 10 year old have free access to everything without me even knowing the VPN was off. Waste waste waste. I used to think that he was turning it off then I kept the phone with me all day and saw it randomly turned it off.
This app is almost completely useless. The location service doesn’t work. The app tracking isn’t available on iPhone and it only monitors web activity as long as the Norton Browser is used, which isn’t clearly able to be set as the default. I tried using it because it is included in my Norton subscription, guess I’ll have to pay for another subscription to get something that actually works. None of those issues even get into the nightmare it is to set up and add devices.
I’ve yet to get the parental control app working reliability on my device. It works after it’s first installed, then rarely works after. It gets stuck at a loading screen and never displays status of my child’s device. Setup was confusing and difficult, mostly due to Norton’s web site. Seems like a patchwork of various products that are poorly organized.
Was great for a while, now constantly getting alerts that permissions have been changed and accessibility turned off on my kids’ devices when I have verified that neither is the case on all devices. EDIT: The advice to turn off their access to the Settings app isn’t helpful. First, these aren’t 7-year-olds – I want them to be able to access the phone’s settings when necessary. Second, I have verified, in real-time, that they are not turning off permissions or accessibility on both devices in question.
Works well, especially on Android devices. The Apple version has some pretty big bugs still. Every time I lock my daughter’s iPhone all of her widgets disappear from her home screen. Once the phone is unlocked, they don’t come back. She has to manually reset all of them. The parental controls otherwise work well though. It would be nice if that bug was fixed. I’m not a softie generally, but I do feel bad when I forget and use that lock feature and erase everything on her. Seems excessive.
I absolutely loved this app in the beginning (which is why the 3 stars).. but since updates I’m not very happy with it. one of the biggest features that attracted me to this was the text messaging monitoring…. with that feature being disabled, I feel as if I’ve almost wasted my money. there are several other monitoring apps that are much cheaper and do what this does now. I’m very disappointed that the text messaging feature is gone. unless this is fixed, I wont be renewing my subscription
This app is not great… It’s good, one of the best, actually, but quirky. I always have to double check whether my child’s device applies the settings correctly, especially if I make more than one change at a time (unlock and turn on supervision, for instance). Once, I’ve had to remove the app and reinstall it to get the location service to work again. But it works well when it applies the right settings.
Does not work at all. It only took my 9th grader a few weeks to figure out how completely bypass the whole thing. It doesn’t matter how much we try to restrict his phone usage, he can pretty do whatever he wants. Update 1/28: We tried that. He’s learned that if he keeps clicking on apps they will eventually open. If he leaves certain apps open (like Messager) he can still use them after the his time is up or in the middle of the night.
I love the idea but absolutely HATE how the first click to check text messages doesn’t work. It puts you back at the top of the list and you have to try and find the one you want to read. So very frustrating! Everything else seems to work ok. My husband controls it mostly but I want to check their messages periodically.
Downloaded to try out the location data portion which failed miserably. Luckily we taught my kiddo to be good at communication so we definitively knew where they were. The app failed to update their location not only in real time but even regularly. The app could monitor everything being done on the phone but the physical location was not only blocks off but well over a state away. Had this been something serious, the app would have been completely useless. Glad it had a free trial.
As someone who has this app installed on my phone by my parent, honestly it isnt bad for what it is. The time restraint actually really does help me get back into routine, however the thing about this app is that sometimes it really messes up the phone in some ways. Many things on my phone dont work properly, but they arent restricted in anyway. Despite the bugs it causes in other applications, it’s a good app if you are a child who needs to get back into the swing of things and getting more sleep and concentration
My kids have figured out how to text when the their time limit is up. Any mms text (which is 99% of them) can not be read and the format for reading text is horrible. The GPS tracking works so inconsistent that I’m not sure that it ever works correctly. I got this for free as part of my Norton anti virus service….but this is almost not worst using for free. I’ve used other services and they work well enough….it seems like Norton isn’t even trying to make a decent service here.
I am displeased to say the least. I am trying to track the phone for location and it shows that it’s not anywhere close to where it is. This is causing quite a disturbance when trying to locate my child. Also, not showing actual activity when using apps nor search terms which is what some of the functions of this particular app. If changes are not made to improve these issues, I will discontinue my subscription. $50 is alot to spend on an app that doesn’t live up to what it advertises it does.
App has rendered itself useless at this point. Started with server errors, then my account basically reset with no family members listed and no devices. Now I have to reconnect all devices. I’m not convinced the monitoring has much value anyway. With Google, you have the ability to set time limits much easier. Save the hassle and go with a different product.
Works more reliably than Kaspersky, but lacks some functionality on child’s iPad device. For example, there’s no geofencing, no ability to measure usage (have to rely on Screentime), and when my child asks for permission to access a website, the notification (on parent’s Android device) doesn’t show me what site it is, or take me anywhere that I can view that request. On the other hand, I like that it tracks web searches and has customizable email notifications. So far, no real issues!
Disappointing … after switching from Kaspersky. Lacks the “fine-tuning” that Kaspersky allowed. For insurance, the latter allowed to exclude some apps from the time allowance. Norton doesn’t have this flexibility. Once your time is up, the device is locked, you can’t call anyone on FB messenger. Not sure why Norton developers can’t copy their competitors. Then again, I am no softie … so maybe there’s a good reason. But, as I said, after spending 40 bucks, I am pissed.
I like this app overall but it would be helpful if I could set a time for this app to be on. I will turn off supervision at night, once all work has been done, but forget to turn it back on in the morning. It seems like an easy fix to add and automatic turn on function to the app. Otherwise, it does the job.
Haven’t been able to login to my account for months. When Norton merged the LifeLock and Norton accounts, if you had a LifeLock account that is no longer active, it means you can no longer access your Norton account. After many hours on the phone with tech support and them remoting into my systems multiple times (for an issue that is on their end), it is still not fixed. Stay away from Norton. They don’t care and will not help.
App gets stuck “loading” when I am trying to get in on both my phone and my kids phone. Cannot get back into it. uninstalled and reinstalled. turned phones off and on. Nothing working. Also, I’ve frequently had trouble with the GPS tracking saying “Location services is off” even though both my kids’ phones are registered to the account and GPS location is turned on on their phones. It happens so often that I wonder if it will not be working if there is ever an emergency.
This app is pretty much garbage, I turned on all of the features (device admin, accessibility, etc.) that should enable things like time tracking, and video tracking, but nothing works. All it does is notify me when my kid installs a new app. Apparently there’s not much else that you can do with this app 🤷 Save your money.
Basically abandonware as only “minor bugs” are ever fixed. Use the website, which is not much better. Just a poor product offering overall. Nothing done to address: false system time change alerts; lack of SMS tracking; lack of fingerprint login; alerts are NOT synced with website; saving is slow; no 2-way sync between website and app; generally unintuitive. Complete waste of money and time. Find another option. (Nothing ever came from the offer to discuss issues from August 2019.)
Safe & awesome! We used to have TrendMicro, only to find out my son was easily able to check off Google Chrome to turn off monitoring. Who knows how long it had been like that, I was so disappointed, & their customer service SUCKS! Ever since I purchased Norton, I’m so happy with it. It was easy to set up and very organized. It works perfectly and send me notifications whenever a site or app is blocked. From there I can easily approve it, if needed. Even my kids said it’s more professional!
What the heck! Stopped working on my son’s phone without any notification and continued to tell me everything was just fine. Even tried to reinstall and set up again without success. This used to be a solid app and now I consider it junk ware and will definitely not be renewing my license. Sorry to write such a negative review but you definitely earned this one.
I thought this app would be great, however most of the time the dumb thing wont even open correctly. The only reason it has a second star is because when it does open it does what I want. I am glad it starts with a free trial because I don’t think I’ll pay to continue after the 30 days are up unless something drastic happens….like maybe work all the time.
It works well enough, but despite the website saying that it doesn’t block calls or texts during “blocked” times, it does. My kid can neither send or receive calls or texts. This is troubling. There should be a way to make exceptions for calls. Even though my number is listed as being ok to call/be called, IT IS NOT exempted at all.
After recently changing the settings to allow Google Maps after 2 hours of usage and double and triple checking to make sure it saved, my 16yo child went out somewhere using Google Maps and got lost, calling me back saying that Norton shut off Maps about halfway out. This is more of a warning to everyone reading this rather than a complaint, because all I’ll get back from them is a canned response.
Always been a bit clunky, now mostly unusable. Every 30 days, when I go into the Family app, it gets stuck saying it “can’t connect to the Norton Family servers”. When you click try again, it just says it over and over again. If I reinstall both Family and Security, it will work for another 30 days. It sucks reinstalling both apps every 30 days.
This app is has some good features, like the gps and being able to block content. However, the app blocker is extremely frustrating. If our child loses the privilege of his game apps, we can turn them off easily enough. Turning them back on, however, is a monumental task that could take upwards of 15 tries of turning them off and on to get the Norton app on his phone to actually register that his apps are unlocked. It definitely has me considering other parental control apps.
System is not always working. They send out emails to the parent indicating a child has done something to deactivate a specific feature and that is untrue. Causes a lot of unnecessary drama between the parents and the innocent children. Location services update once a day on average and that’s unhelpful on an emergency. I would recommend Screen Time Labs app instead.
App does not operate as intended. The only feature that is functional is the GPS tracker. That is all. Will not show history of all other enabled features. I’d like to update this to zero stars. NortonMobile support is an unmonitored email group that cannot be replied to. How can anyone reply to describe detailed issues if your mail group when it doesn’t receive emails? Fix your support mail group.
This app is total trash! It will not work properly no matter how many times I uninstall or restart. Location is a joke – it will not update most of the time, even if I hit Locate Now over and over. Wrong day, wrong place. When it finally does update, hours later, it is at least 2 blocks or more off of the actual location. This app cannot be trusted. No, I will not message you on Facebook or Twitter – no social media. This review is quite sufficient, as are all the other one stars. Figure it out.
Poor, doesn’t work when you want it to. And is very buggy, when location is requested it does not always work normally requires an uninstall re install and re allow all permissions to get it working again, also from the parent end it often doesn’t show my children it needs a log out and re log in to get that working. There also doesn’t seem to have an option to stop internet and game usage i.e. app by app accessibility. I.e I would like my children’s phone to stop many apps but still allow calls
Been having issues with the app not opening. I just get a white screen. Even tried to reinstall. I can’t add time unless my kid requests more time. I wish I could grant bonus time before the device becomes locked. It has potential but has issues.
My children’s devices can’t be seen in my app. Sometimes they appear, and I have parental controls and sometimes no device or 1 device… We asked helpdesk, but they can’t solve the problem I’ve tried to uninstall and reinstall the app many times, logging in and out of my account.. sometimes the devices appear aft logging in.. but subsequently, they disappear again
I’ve been using Norton 360 on my computer for the last few years, and it’s perfect. The problem here is the UI. Surely with the PC UI looking fine, they can build a proper UI that is not trash or just Android style. Another thing is that it doesn’t monitor properly. These two things should be fixed, because it’s really hard to use and navigate throughout the app, it looks like it was built in under a day.
Overall a good experience. Wish it had more granular controls – particularly time restrictions on specific apps or sites (like YouTube). Otherwise it works great.
I really wanted this Android App and paid-for Windows client to be polished. Norton have been around for all the time I’ve been using computers, and with a decent enough reputation… surely they can build UI’s? Apparently not, despite all the inspiration out there. Getting this up and running has not been pleasent or intuitive. Rage inducing at times. Shame I wasn’t able to 30-day try 🙁
I am a tech and this app truly is a great idea but is COMPLETELY unreliable.. It rarely works, freezes constantly, won’t allow me to login and view my childs activity, I’ve had to uninstall a few times in one day to clear a “cannot reach to server” error. Please make some serious updates to it, great idea, execution is severely lacking as of current.