Net Nanny (for Android) - Review 2022

Parental control solutions are only effective if they comprehend all of a child'southward devices and activities. Thankfully, Net Nanny has expanded beyond its internet-filter roots and offers new tools for blocking apps and restricting a kid's screen time. These capabilities piece of work fine, but the web filters are subject to easy workarounds and the service is missing geofencing tools, likewise. Furthermore, competitors offer a improve value in terms of the number of devices they cover.

Pricing and Platforms

Net Nanny'southward starting tier costs $39.99 per twelvemonth, but it but lets you monitor 1 desktop device (macOS or Windows). Net Nanny also offers two family unit protection passes: the v-device program costs $54.99 per year and the twenty-device plan costs $89.99 per year. Net Nanny does not offer a free trial of whatever kind or a feature-express free version.

For comparison, Qustodio costs $54.99 for a v-device plan, the aforementioned as Net Nanny, and Mobicip costs $49.99. Boomerang is cheaper at $30.99 per year for ten devices. Norton Family Premier ($49.99 per year) and Kaspersky Prophylactic Kids ($14.99 per year) offer the best value, since they tin monitor an unlimited number of devices. If you are looking for a hardware-based solution for managing all the devices on your home network, Circle Dwelling Plus is 1 option, albeit a pricey one. The Circle Domicile device costs $129 on its ain and you need to pay $x per calendar month thereafter to maintain all its monitoring capabilities.

Cyberspace Nanny is available on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Burn down Bone (Kindle) devices, which is standard for the category. Note that Net Nanny offers two apps on mobile platforms. One is used to install a monitoring profile on your kid's device and the other is for parents to make changes to restrictions and monitor activities. You can also make changes to configurations via Cyberspace Nanny'south spider web interface. Qustodio and Kaspersky Safe Kids match its platform support. Mobicip goes one step further by offering Chromebook support, but Norton Family Premier notably cannot manage macOS computers.

Installing Net Nanny

To get started with Net Nanny, you first need to sign upward for an business relationship, a process that requires an e-mail address and payment information. The side by side stride is to download the monitoring app on every device that you intend to track. I tested Net Nanny on a Lenovo IdeaPad 320 running Windows 10, a Google Pixel running Android 10, and an iPhone XR running iOS xiii.

Net Nanny

The Windows installation is simple. But download the installer, launch the app, and sign in. Side by side, you need to follow the prompts for assigning each user account to a child profile. The app lives every bit an icon in the notification tray surface area. Correct-clicking on the icon gives you the option to view basic stats on screen fourth dimension, manually sync with the Net Nanny servers, or launch the parent'southward dashboard on the web.

To monitor an Android device, download the Net Nanny Kid App on your child's phone, sign in to your account, and select the appropriate child profile. Then, you need to tap through and give Cyberspace Nanny all the permissions it requests, including app usage, location, device admin, and content tracking using VPN permissions (this is not a truthful VPN that encrypts traffic), equally well as approve a certificate install. Net Nanny also tells y'all to manually enable SafeSearch in the Google App, but this is non an optimal implementation since that setting is not locked behind any passcode. If you lot are because installing Net Nanny on a non-admin profile, consider that yous tin't configure an Android device to boot into that specific profile. In other words, a parent would demand to sign in and and so manually switch to the child profile later each restart. Internet Nanny does support a multi-user setup though, so a parent can maintain an unrestricted account for themselves while monitoring their child'southward account on the same device. Qustodio and Kaspersky Rubber Kids do not support this feature.

To install the kid app on an iPhone or iPad, download the Internet Nanny Child app from the App Store and log in to your account. Adjacent, assign the device to a kid. Then, enable push notifications, location permissions, and follow the steps to install the MDM profile. That's it.

Annotation that Net Nanny includes an Uninstall Protection pick you can enable from the parental dashboard. On Windows, macOS, Android, and Kindle devices, this pick prevents your kid from uninstalling the app without entering the account password. On iOS, yous tin can apply the congenital-in settings to forestall your child from uninstalling the app. If your child removes or otherwise disables the monitoring app, parents will get a notification.

Web Interface

Internet Nanny'due south Parent Dashboard is where you manage parental control settings, but it is surprisingly difficult to find on Net Nanny'southward home folio. The interface itself is visually overwhelming with cramped elements and there's no clear guidance or flow for setting up initial rules. Annoyingly, all the configuration rules pop out in windows, instead of bringing you lot to a full-screen page. I didn't experience whatsoever characteristic-breaking problems, merely it looks less sophisticated and is less intuitive than Norton Family Premiere's portal, for instance.

You lot navigate Internet Nanny's interface via icons in the top menu bar: Overview and ones for individual child profiles. On the right-hand side of the card, y'all tin access Cyberspace Nanny's App Advisor to discover popular apps your kids may be using, also every bit add together child profiles and manage your installations. Unfortunately, you have to go back to the main Internet Nanny site to manage your subscription. In that location is non an option to enable two-gene authentication on your account either, which I would like to see.

Net Nanny

The Overview section shows the Family Feed on the left-hand side, which is an ongoing list of notifications about a child's activities, including search terms, blocked sites, app installations, and screen time schedules. In the center of the page, there's a map with pinpoints marking the current location of each monitored kid. You lot can't view location history from this screen, but you tin can browse around the map and perform quick monitoring actions like pausing device or internet time or enabling a time schedule. For the full range of settings, click into the child profile icon in the top carte du jour.

In the child contour department, you yet run into the Family Feed in the left-mitt corner, but the middle sections modify. At the tiptop, you can see how much time a child has used their device and how much they have left. Additionally, you lot can cull which time schedule is in effect. The menu option on the correct-hand side with the iii bars is where you configure the rules. Amongst those are daily screen fourth dimension allocation, internet filters, website blocking, app blocking, a profanity filter, a force Safe Search option, and app removal protection. In the center of the child profile page, you can also run into an overview of searches, current and historical location, screen fourth dimension usage, YouTube activity, and a running list of blocks and alerts. Cyberspace Nanny does not offer any geofencing tools, something that Locategy does. Geofencing tools allow you to monitor when your child leaves or enters a geographic region you ascertain on a map, such equally your business firm or a school.

Web Filter

Net Nanny separates web filtering capabilities into iii different areas: Net Nanny Content Filters, Custom Content Filters, and Block or Allow Specific Websites.

Starting with Internet Nanny'due south filters, you tin set each of the pre-created categories to Allow, Alert, or Block. Permit lets a child admission the site and does not tape the example. Alert also lets the child browse to the site, but it records the case. The Block setting prevents a child from accessing the site and creates a record of the activity. Amongst the 14 pre-configured categories are Anime, Death/Gore, Drugs, Gambling, Mature Content, Porn, Suicide, and Weapons. Other parental control services offer a far greater number of preconfigured options, including Proxies, VPNs, File Sharing, and Social Media categories. While it's true that parents can set up custom Content Filters (as I discuss below), I would prefer if Net Nanny preconfigured more than options. Besides, some parents may not even know what additional categories they need to block manually.

Setting up a custom Content Filter is a flake confusing. When you hitting the Create a New Filter Push, the top field is for the proper name of the custom filter, not the term yous desire to filter. To add terms to the filter, hit the plus button below it, enter the phrase, and then hit Add together. Initially, I thought that the Filter name was the word that I wanted to filter. The good news is that filter words are not restricted by Mobicip'south ridiculous five-graphic symbol minimum requirement. You go the same monitoring options: Permit, Alert, and Cake for each of your custom categories. Blocking or allowing individual websites is elementary. Merely add a website to the E'er Block or Ever Permit categories via the plus button.

Net Nanny

I tested Net Nanny's spider web-blocking capabilities primarily on a Windows 10 desktop using Chrome, Brave, and Edge. Net Nanny says its filtering is browser-independent and in my testing, I confirmed that it blocks categories and individual sites in each of those browsers. I did run into some pretty piece of cake workarounds though. For instance, installing a free VPN extension in Chrome allowed me to browse without restrictions, every bit did the Private Tab with Tor selection in the Brave browser. Notation that Internet Nanny's filtering technology recognizes context. For example, if you block the Gambling category, your child can still admission the Wikipedia entry about gambling, just won't exist able to access any actual gambling sites. Internet Nanny also successfully blocked offending sites on Android and iOS using the Chrome and Firefox Focus browsers.

Yous may notice that Net Nanny flags some strange URLs, such as a Google API site and others related to the Amazon Deject Front content delivery network (CDN). Internet Nanny does a skilful job explaining why this may occur. Essentially, some URLs it picks up are non true web pages and may just conduct advertising information or be used for tracking.

I set up upwards a custom web filter called VPN, and added the terms VPN and Proxy to the list to test this feature. This worked as intended for the nigh part, with Net Nanny blocking access to all those sites that involved those terms. Yet, the Firefox Focus app on mobile and Chrome on the desktop with the aforementioned VPN extension allowed me to go effectually these filters.

Net Nanny saves searches from Google, Yahoo, Bing, and YouTube. That means privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo is across its command. You tin block the DuckDuckGo site if this is an effect. In testing, Net Nanny successfully saved searches on each site. You can lock Safety Search on those same services. The Internet Nanny profanity filter successfully filtered our explicit words from a vocal lyrics site in Chrome. Expletives but appear every bit strings of pound signs (#). Again, the mobile Firefox Focus web browser broke all of these features. Cyberspace Nanny did not record my searches, it did non lock Safety Search, and profanity yet appeared on the same page I used on Chrome. If you lot discover an app that breaks Net Nanny, you can always only block information technology.

Screen Time and Schedules

Internet Nanny'due south screen time feature allows you to either set an overall cap on device usage for the current 24-hour interval or for multiple days of the week. When a child's screen time expires, you can cull to either pause net access on the device or lock them out of the device entirely. Note that screen time applies beyond all of a child'south monitored devices. This is a useful implementation since it ensures that a child tin can't only switch devices to go effectually restrictions.

On Windows, I tried both the pause and block internet settings. If you try to launch an app, while your device is paused, a large Cyberspace Nanny Window pops upwards and prevents you from using it. This worked both for regular Windows apps and those installed from the Microsoft Shop. For the suspension net setting, I found a workaround. If I enabled a VPN extension in Chrome prior to the Cyberspace Nanny pausing internet access, I was able to browse the web and without any of the filters in place. From a monitored Android device, I was as well able to download and install a new app from the Google Play Shop with simply a Wi-Fi connectedness.

For iOS devices, both the Pause Device and Block Internet settings do the same affair. You can all the same launch apps, merely they won't be able to connect to the internet. Net Nanny sends a clear notification on Windows when the monitoring condition changes. Once you run out of time on Android, Net Nanny prevents you lot from launching any apps except for the telephone and default messaging app.

Net Nanny

Unfortunately, to restrict the hours in which a child can utilise their devices, you demand to head to a split up area (the top bar on the folio with the calendar icon). When you hit the edit schedule button, you encounter a schedule with blocks of time. By default, these are all prepare to the standard permission. If you click on a slot, you can select to either block internet access or pause the device during that time. You can drag the option box up or down to expand the applicative setting for that day, merely you can't re-create the same settings across days. Internet Nanny needs to consolidate its time limit and fourth dimension scheduling tools in one place.

On Windows, the schedule took issue chop-chop and switching the time zone was not enough to brim Internet Nanny'southward restrictions. Internet Nanny successfully enforced the chosen brake settings for those times outside the allowed schedule on test mobile devices too.

App Blocking

Net Nanny supports app blocking on Android and iOS devices. A pop-up window gives you the option to cake both Android and iOS apps from a listing, but there are some caveats. For one, you can only block iOS apps that announced in the predefined list. Qustodio also has a preconfigured list of iOS apps that can be blocked. Also, blocking an app on iOS simply prevents it from connecting to the internet, so children tin can still launch and utilize offline apps. A parent might desire to consider using iOS' built-in screen settings to better restrict app use. On Android and Kindle devices, you tin add any app yous desire to the listing. One other limitation is that there is not an like shooting fish in a barrel way to run into which apps you've blocked. Internet Nanny requires you to curlicue down the list or manually search for app names.

Net Nanny's app blocking worked as advertised during testing. On Android, if your kid tries to open a blocked app, Net Nanny prevents it from fully launching and returns to the lock screen. Kids tin can tap the resume device usage now notification to become back to the abode screen. However, this implementation is problematic if you lot don't have a lock screen password. I got caught in an endless loop of not being able to press the resume browsing notification or shut the offending app earlier getting sent dorsum to the lock screen (I had to launch the photographic camera app first and close the blocked app to go effectually this). I would prefer if Net Nanny simply displayed a notification over the screen. I would as well like to run across a feature similar to Mobicip's whitelist-just app selection, in which y'all restrict a child to just launching those apps you lot cull.

Internet Nanny on Mobile

Equally noted, Net Nanny offers separate kid and parent apps. All the apps look and part similarly regardless of the platform yous cull. To assistance parents avoid any defoliation as to which app they should download, I would prefer Internet Nanny to offer a unmarried app with a child or parent mode you lot select during setup. Qustodio and Kaspersky Safe Kids handle device setup in a single app.

Net Nanny

Net Nanny's Parental Dashboard interface actually looks better on the smaller screen size. The primary screen of the parental app shows the Cyberspace Nanny Family Feed, with an icon for the App Advisor on the left and other business relationship settings on the correct. To configure restrictions, click on a child's contour icon higher up the Family Feed. You lot get withal customization options every bit on the desktop hither.

The child app on iOS just shows the current rules (Regular, Paused, No Internet) along with the screen time remaining (the Android version also has an Enable Unrestricted Mode button for parents). In the upper right-mitt corner, parents tin manually sync the app with the servers or disable the Cyberspace Nanny protection. There'due south no panic button here, which would be a good safe feature to add. A panic button lets a child rapidly send their location (potentially along with a message) to a grouping of contacts that the parent chooses. Every bit mentioned, kids tin can still access the telephone and messaging apps, even during paused mode, which is a necessary safe precaution. Norton Family unit and other apps exercise a better chore of explaining what rules are in effect.

Internet Nanny's Next Step

Net Nanny has expanded beyond cyberspace filtering capabilities, with app-blocking and time-direction features, which work fine in testing. Nosotros also appreciate the ease of its setup. However, some web filtering tools need to be locked down further and the spider web interface needs an overhaul. You can likewise find other services that back up an unlimited number of devices for a far cheaper annual price. Qustodio is our Editors' Selection pick for parental command software, thanks to its excellent apps and customizable features.