Why Most Parental Monitoring Apps Don’t Work on Apple (and What You Can Use Instead)

By now, you’ve probably aware that experts advise taking an active role in monitoring your child online. But did you also know that most parental monitoring apps don’t work effectively on Apple devices? 

With 87% of teens using iPhones, that’s a problem for parents trying to keep their children safe online. It’s also why traditional monitoring apps like Bark fall short. Fortunately, BrightCanary makes it easy to track your child across every app they use. 

Let’s get into why most parental monitoring apps are ineffective on Apple devices and how BrightCanary can help you easily monitor your child online. 

Why most parental monitoring apps don’t work on iPhones

Apple’s strong privacy and security restrictions create limitations for most third-party monitoring apps, including: 

• Preventing the app from accessing detailed content such as messages, photos, and videos. 
• Requiring extra steps, like entering login information for each platform and periodically syncing your child’s device to a home computer. 

How do social media platforms limit parental monitoring apps?

Individual platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat can change their permissions or block third-party apps at any time. So if you use a monitoring app that requires you to log into your child’s account, you could suddenly find it doesn’t work on the social media site your child uses the most. 

How do kids get around parental monitoring apps?

Here are some ways your tech-savvy kids could thwart your monitoring efforts:

• Deleting or bypassing monitoring apps
• Communicating on secret messaging apps
• Using a VPN
• Browsing in incognito mode
• Using private browsers

How can I monitor my child’s iPhone? 

Because most monitoring apps don’t work well on Apple devices, we knew it was time for a better solution. BrightCanary offers comprehensive protection across all the apps your child uses.

How does BrightCanary monitoring work? 

BrightCanary uses a safe and secure keyboard installed on your child’s device. The BrightCanary Keyboard monitors everything your child types, so you can easily keep track of their activity across all apps and messaging platforms. 

For most apps, you won’t need to log into your child’s account to monitor their activity. The exceptions are Google and YouTube monitoring — when you log into your child’s Google account, you can use BrightCanary to view what your child has searched for and watched.

And if you upgrade to Text Message Plus, you’ll need to add your child’s iCloud credentials. Once you do, you can monitor the text messages they receive, including images and photos.

How can AI-powered safety features keep my child safer online? 

The BrightCanary Keyboard is powered by AI. Here are some of the benefits:  

• Easy-to-read summaries of their activity, saving you the hassle of going through each message and post. 
• Real-time alerts for concerning content like drugs, self-harm, and explicit messages.
• Emotional insights that help you stay attuned to your child’s vibe online.
• Descriptions of your child’s current interests.
• Supervision even when they use private browsers or incognito mode. 

Does the BrightCanary Keyboard work across platforms? 

Because the BrightCanary Keyboard monitors everything your child types, it’s easy to keep track of their activity across every app and messaging platform they use — even apps you weren’t aware they use!

What additional monitoring does BrightCanary offer? 

If you’d like to go beyond the BrightCanary Keyboard, you can take your monitoring a step further with these additional features:

BrightCanary Google and YouTube monitoring 

With Google and YouTube monitoring, you get: 

• Access to your child’s Google searches and YouTube views 
• Alerts when they encounter something concerning on these platforms

BrightCanary Text Message Plus

Text Message Plus offers even more comprehensive monitoring of your child’s texts, including access to: 

• Messages they receive (in addition to the ones they send)
• Images
• Videos 
• Deleted texts
• Group chats

In short

Most parental monitoring apps don’t work well on Apple devices, are easy for kids to bypass, and often require you to periodically sync with your child’s device or enter login information for every platform they use. Compared to other apps, BrightCanary offers the most comprehensive protection for Apple devices. 

BrightCanary monitors everything your child types, so you can easily keep track of their activity across all apps and messaging platforms, and it doesn’t require you to sync with a home computer.

One tool. Every app that matters. Built for parents who care. Download today and get started for free.