随着科技发展，家长们面临着如何管理孩子屏幕使用时间的挑战。文章探讨了家长控制软件作为一种解决方案，它允许家长远程监控孩子的设备，包括互联网搜索、应用使用、屏幕时间限制等。文章还提到了苹果等公司内置的家长控制功能，以及TikTok和YouTube等应用提供的内置控制工具。通过这些工具，家长可以在不让孩子感到被过度监控的情况下，创造一个更安全的上网环境。文章分析了家长控制软件的优缺点，并介绍了2025年最受欢迎的四款家长控制应用。

📱 屏幕时间管理已成为当下热门的育儿话题，家长们需要面对孩子过度使用电子设备的问题。家长控制软件提供了一种解决方案，允许远程监控孩子的设备。

🌐 家长控制软件具有多种功能，包括监控互联网搜索和浏览历史、阻止问题应用、限制屏幕使用时间以及追踪位置等。家长可以根据孩子的年龄和责任心，自定义控制的严格程度。

🍎 苹果设备提供了内置的家长控制功能，例如屏幕使用时间控制和定位服务。TikTok和YouTube等应用也提供了内置的家长控制工具，使家长能够在不使用额外应用的情况下，为孩子创造更安全的上网环境。

Screen time is arguably one of the hottest parenting topics of the past 20 years. For some, screen time literally just refers to the amount of time a kid spends looking at a tablet or phone each day. For others, screen time is a catchall term for the beast of an issue that asks what's behind the screen that kids can't seem to stop tapping and swiping on.

Confiscating the phone may have been the only option for parents a couple of decades ago, but caregivers these days have the option to use parental control software instead.

Fortnite may be distracting them from their school work, or maybe you'd just feel more comfortable about this increase in screen time if you knew that your child wasn't landing on any inappropriate sites or scrolling through Instagram at 3 a.m. Maybe you want them to engage more in family time together, sans screens. Whatever your reason, parental control software offers a solution to managing your child’s screen time.

How does parental control software work?

Parental control software lets you monitor your child's device — phone, tablet, or computer — remotely. The corresponding apps let parents monitor the big worries like internet searches and browsing history, block problem apps (or block distracting apps during homework hours), limit screen time altogether, track location, and more.

The nice thing about parental control apps is that they can be as invasive or as chill as they need to be, based on the kid's age, proven level of responsibility, and more — including the ability to customize strictness across different devices in the same household.

If you're an iPhone family, downloading external software for this might not even be necessary. Apple's parental controls that are built into the settings of any iOS device are actually pretty exhaustive, from screen time controls to location services. With apps like TikTok and YouTube also offering their own in-app versions of parental control tools, you may be able to create a safer internet surfing environment without your kid feeling like they're being "watched" on a whole separate app.

Below, we're diving into the pros, cons, and overall strictness levels of the top four best parental control apps in 2025.