Qustodio1.jpg' alt='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' title='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' />Latest software reviews, specification match up, price comparisons, editor and user ratings from PCMag. Previously known as PC Magazine. The internet can be a dangerous place. Check out our top picks for the best free parental control software. Online Product Registration Thank you for taking the time to register. Your feedback helps us develop products geared to your needs. Qustodio-hidden-install.jpg' alt='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' title='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' />Known Incompatible Software. Causes login and multiplayer connectivity problems. ESET Security has a feature that interferes with Minecrafts ability to connect to Mojangs servers. To fix it, follow these instructions here, and set the mode to Interactive. Then, open the launcher and try to log into Minecraft. ESET will open a window asking what to do, press EXCLUDE. If the above fix does not work, you will need to uninstall ESET Antivirus. Uninstall Tool Windows Mac. The Best and Worst Antivirus Software for Parents Introduction. Spend more than a few minutes on the internet, and youll likely come to the conclusion that it isnt a place for children. Unfortunately, banning your kids from the internet simply isnt a reasonable option in 2. Enter parental control software that can help curate a version of the internet that you can feel safe allowing your child to access. Credit Shutterstock. There are plenty of stand alone parental control solutions out there, such as Qustodio and Net Nanny, but if you are a Windows user, youre likely already keeping yourself safe with an antivirus suite such as Bitdefender Internet Security or Trend Micro Maximum Security. Because many of those antivirus solutions offer parental controls of varying quality, you may not need to invest in any new software. Or, if youre considering a new brand of antivirus software and have children at home, the included parental controls might factor into your selection. Based on thorough testing of parental controls in five well regarded antivirus suites, weve concluded that the best antivirus suite with parental controls is Norton Security Premium. It blows away most of the integrated parental controls found in competing antivirus suites, thanks to a comprehensive feature set, an intuitive user interface and superior efficacy in reliably blocking objectionable content. MORE Best Antivirus Protection for PC, Mac and Android. Another suite, Kaspersky Total Security, is a solid runner up. It has a very good geofencing feature, which Norton lacks entirely, and a strong scheduling component, but it did not block texts or calls as well as Norton did. We also tested the well regarded Qustodio stand alone parental control software to see how the antivirus suites measured up against it. Only Norton and Kaspersky even came close in some ways, they even surpassed Qustodio, especially with regard to web filtering and geofencing. The other three antivirus products we reviewed Bitdefender Internet Security, ESET Internet Security and Mc. Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' title='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' />Why pay extra for parentalcontrol software Here are the best parental controls that come with antivirus software. Parental control software is a musthave if you want to protect your children online. Internet is full of malicious websites and users, and if you want to ensure that. In addition to a raft of topnotch suite features, Symantec Norton Security Premium comes with 25GB of online storage and a toptier parental control system. Read this 2015 review about the best free parental filter software. Find out what our top pick is. You will also find many more freeware reviews in countless. Qustodio-online-dashboard.jpg' alt='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' title='Parental Control Software Qustodio Complete List' />Afee Live. Safe couldnt match what Norton, Kaspersky or Qustodio offered in features and flexibility. We cant recommend them over stand alone parental controls software. Editors Note, Sept. Best Buy has removed Kaspersky Lab products from its shelves, citing concerns regarding Kasperskys alleged but as yet undocumented ties to the Russian government. However, until we see evidence that Kaspersky software is a threat to consumers, we will continue to recommend it. Here is further clarification of our position. Best Overall Norton Security Premium. If we were purely judging based on the number of features each product offered, then Norton Security Premium would win handily. But we went quite a bit deeper than that, and what is particularly impressive is that Norton has not only the most features, but, in nearly every case, also the best implemented and easiest to use version of each feature. Your first step is to log in to the Norton Family web portal and add your kids to the account. You need to add only a name and a birth year to get started. But you can also add sensitive personal information such as a childs phone number, Social Security number and email address. Norton will block the transmission of that information if it is shared with a website that does not use HTTPS encryption, as indicated by a lock symbol in the browser address bar. Nintendo Wii Fit Plus Instructions there. The next step is to assign devices Windows, Android or i. OS to each child. Parents can also install the Android app on their own mobile devices and use the app to track activity and change settings. The web portal and the Android app are well designed, displaying each protected child with a tab for his or her activity and a separate tab that displays the House Rules for that child. Within each tab, you see eight categories, covering web supervision, time supervision, search supervision, social network supervision, video supervision, location supervision, mobile app supervision and text message supervision. House Rules is Nortons clever name for settings, which are divided up into the aforementioned eight categories. A simple toggle turns each category on or off, and a House Rules Settings link customizes the settings. Based on the age you provided for a child, Norton applies default settings, but in less than 1. Its worth the time to get everything locked in exactly as you want it. Reliability across all these categories was another big win for Norton. We consistently saw our settings holding up as expected on our test Android phone and Windows 1. PC, regarding what was blocked and what was allowed. Furthermore, the detailed reports available for review later in the web portal and app seemed to capture everything. Grunge Smoke And Fire Countdown. Notifications were also prompt, with just seconds between a prohibited behavior on the child device and the notification on the parent device. Given that the child also uses these notifications to ask for permission to access a new app or website, or to text a new friend, that rapid speed will lessen the chance that your child can look for and find a work around. There was only one main feature that we found to be a bit lacking with Norton the location supervision. While the feature captures a childs current location and retains 3. Parents with younger children might particularly miss this ability. Norton Security Premium has really set itself apart with a feature set that is above and beyond even those of many stand alone parental control apps. It offers the kind of dependability youd want in a product you rely on to protect your children online. MORE Norton 2. 01. Review Runner Up Kaspersky Total Security. Kaspersky Total Security was a very close second to Norton in our testing and, depending on your needs, could be the better choice. This premium version of the Kaspersky antivirus suite for Windows includes Kaspersky Safe Kids, which Kaspersky also sells as a stand alone product, for 1. It can be installed on Windows, Mac, i. OS and Android. A less expensive antivirus suite, Kaspersky Internet Security, also offers parental controls, but theyre much more limited. One feature that Kaspersky knocked out of the park is geofencing, something that even our top pick, Norton Security Premium, lacks. Particularly for parents with young children, this could be a deciding factor. With this feature, you can carve out specific areas on a map where you expect your child to be, such as a school or playground, and indicate the times, such as school hours, when you expect the child to be in those places. Youll get an alert if the child strays out of those areas during those times. Assuming your child has a regular schedule, this is fantastic, as you can plug in the details only once, instead of having to enter a new geofencing location repeatedly. Kasperskys controls for app and web usage are also well implemented, giving you the options to set time limits each day or on a weekly schedule. These limits can be set both globally and on a device by device basis, or for individual apps. Children will receive warnings when they have only a minute left on the allotted time period. Depending on the setting you have chosen, either the app will be blocked completely or you will be sent a notification that the child has gone over the time limit. However, Kaspersky comes up a bit short with calling and texting.