What Is the Best iPhone Parental Monitoring Software?

The online world can be hazardous for kids, as there’s an abundance of inappropriate content they can access.

You may also be worried about their suspicious behavior, such as hiding their phone screens when you’re around. That’s where iPhone parental monitoring comes into play.

With a reliable parental control app, you can track your kids’ online activity, social media communications, location, and more, and even block dangerous websites.

Here are the top iPhone parental monitoring software solutions all parents should try.

iPhone Parental Monitoring: Free Options

If you’re looking for a free iPhone parental monitoring app, you’ll be happy to know there are several you can genuinely rely on.

Keep in mind that free versions come with limited features, so you might want to consider a full-featured paid plan. Regardless, the free options are still great for monitoring your kids’ mobile devices.

Built-In iPhone Parental Controls by Apple

With comprehensive Parental Control by Apple, you can easily control and keep track of everything your children do on their smartphones. All you need to do is go to Settings, tap Screen Time, and harness the power of all parental controls right there on your child’s iPhone.

Pros:

✔︎ Sharing phone’s location
✔︎ Restricting built-in apps
✔︎ Blocking explicit content
✔︎ Filtering inappropriate websites
✔︎ Restricting Siri web search
✔︎ Restricting Game Center features
✔︎ Preventing App Store and iTunes purchases

Cons:

❌ No monitoring of text messages and calls
❌ No social media monitoring
❌ No time limit settings
❌ No geo-fencing

Kaspersky Safe Kids – Free Parental Monitoring App for iPhone

Kaspersky Safe Kids has both a free and premium version. The free version lets you manage apps on your child’s iPhone, manage their screen time, and filter inappropriate online content.

The app’s paid plan, which costs only $15 per year, comes with more features, such as GPS tracking, real-time alerts, battery tracker, and social media monitoring.

Pros:

✔︎ Tracking your child’s real-time location
✔︎ Managing and controlling their app usage
✔︎ Blocking access to inappropriate sites
✔︎ Setting time limits
✔︎ Geo-fencing
✔︎ Getting real-time reports

Cons:

❌ No monitoring text messages and calls on iOS devices (this works only on Android)
❌ The web portal can be slow
❌ Social media monitoring of Facebook only
❌ Not very user-friendly

Best iPhone Parental Monitoring Software Without Jailbreak

You don’t need to jailbreak your kid’s phone to use a parental control app, as there are plenty of solutions that don’t require jailbreaking.

These are undoubtedly the best solutions currently available for iPhone parental monitoring with no jailbreak requirements.

mSpy – Absolute Best Parental Monitoring App for iPhone

mSpy lets you remotely monitor all your kid’s smartphone activities. This feature-rich iPhone parental monitoring app might just be the best software you can use, as it comes with more than 30 features.

Pros:

✔︎ Monitoring Kik and other messaging apps, calls, notes, events, and browser history
✔︎ GPS tracking
✔︎ Geo-fencing
✔︎ Controlling and blocking access to apps and websites
✔︎ Keylogger for monitoring communications
✔︎ Access to photos and videos
✔︎ No jailbreak required
✔︎ User-friendly interface
✔︎ 24/7 multi-language support
✔︎ 7-day free trial

Cons:

❌ Some premium features do require jailbreak

Download mSpy

Qustodio – Parental Controls and Monitoring for iPhone in One

Qustodio is yet another very easy-to-use parental monitoring software. It’s designed for Mac, Windows, Android, and iPhone, but its capabilities are limited for iOS devices. Still, the features available for the iPhone are quite favorable and reliable.

Pros:

✔︎ Protecting your children from harmful content
✔︎ Locating them in real-time
✔︎ Balancing their screen time
✔︎ Controlling apps and games
✔︎ Monitoring activity on WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube
✔︎ No jailbreak needed
✔︎ 3-day free trial

Cons:

❌ Geo-fencing and YouTube monitoring are available only for Android
❌ No monitoring texts and calls (only for Android, Windows, and Mac)

Download Qustodio

Highster Mobile – iPhone Parental Monitoring App with Free Updates

Highster Mobile is one of the most affordable parental monitoring apps for iPhone. It also offers some excellent features for keeping track of any account your child has on their iPhone and all their app usage.

Pros:

✔︎ Monitoring calls, text messages, iMessages, email, and calendar
✔︎ Real-time location tracking
✔︎ Monitoring Instagram, Facebook & Snapchat messages
✔︎ Viewing photos and videos
✔︎ Stealth camera
✔︎ Tracking browser history
✔︎ Live Control Panel for dynamically accessing all phone data
✔︎ No jailbreak required
✔︎ One-time payment with free lifetime upgrades

Cons:

❌ No intercepting phone calls
❌ No free trial

Download Highster Mobile

Bark – iPhone Parental Monitoring Software Developed by Psychologists

Bark is designed to prevent potential issues kids face (e.g., cyberbullying, sexting, harmful topics) both off- and online. The app alerts parents when their child uses specific inappropriate terms that indicate danger.

As such, it helps parents learn more about their children’s behavior and talk to them both about good behavior and possible online dangers.

This app uses machine learning and complex algorithms to monitor a child’s activity and detect flagged keywords. It also analyzes context so that there’s no over-flagging of keywords or unnecessary invasion of a child’s privacy.

Pros:

✔︎ Social media monitoring (30+ apps)
✔︎ SMS and email tracking
✔︎ Automatic email and text alerts
✔︎ 24/7 monitoring of all apps and phone activity
✔︎ No jailbreak required
✔︎ User-friendly dashboard
✔︎ 7-day free trial

Cons:

❌ No GPS tracking unless the child checks in via the app

Download Bark

FamiSafe iPhone App – Parental Monitoring for Multiple Devices

FamiSafe is an iPhone monitoring app that lets you track your child’s location, monitor their activity, block inappropriate apps and websites, manage their screen time, and more. It’s suitable for large families and schools due to the multi-device subscription option.

Pros:

✔︎ Monitoring text messages and getting suspicious text alerts
✔︎ Monitoring phone activity on up to 30 devices
✔︎ Real-time location tracking
✔︎ Setting geofences
✔︎ Blocking harmful apps with the app blocker
✔︎ Blocking dangerous websites with web filtering
✔︎ Setting screen time limits

Cons:

❌ Inconsistencies with geo-fencing

Download FamiSafe

How to Use Apps for iPhone Parental Monitoring?

Using any iPhone parental monitoring software is incredibly simple. All you need to do is take the following steps:

1. Purchase an app’s subscription on the provider’s website.
   
2. Remotely install the app on your child’s phone, using their iCloud credentials.
   
3. Log into your account and start using the Control Panel to monitor all activities.
   

You can’t go wrong with any of these iPhone parental monitoring apps. Each of them has excellent features for keeping track of everything your children do on their mobile devices.

However, since free apps come with limited capabilities, it might be wiser to utilize a parental control app with a paid plan, such as mSpy.

These are all great solutions, but mSpy takes the cake with its abundance of outstanding features. It’s also good that it offers a 7-day free trial so that you can see how it suits your needs.

It may be a bit more expensive than most of these other solutions, but you can’t really put a price on your kids’ safety, can you?