3 Best Antivirus Software with Free Parental Controls 2020
searchitcom August 7, 2020After my son Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 was infected with ransomware, I noticed that the parental control programs I was using did not provide sufficient security. Ultimately, I had to find an antivirus solution that offered powerful anti-malware protection along with powerful parental controls.
Over the past few months, I have downloaded and analyzed 17 different antivirus applications with limited parental controls to make sure that malware and child protection in each application can provide my family with all the attributes that most of us need to protect, offline and online .
Bad thing? Most applications come with controls that provide nothing and are only low-cost extras. However, the fantastic thing is that I discovered 3 antivirus apps with valuable parental controls that help me keep my kids safe from the dangers of the electronic world.
They need different security attributes to use a device that is responsible, but also to protect against hackers as I have a teenager and an apprentice. All the programs on my list provide browsing restrictions, usage tracking, program controllers, place sharing, and remote access so I can have peace of mind when my loved ones are online.
You have little time? Here are my favorite antivirus with parental controls in 2020:
- Norton 360 Deluxe – # 1 antivirus suite with parental controls to control device usage, filter material and site monitoring.
- Kaspersky Total Security – Strong anti-malware protection including geo-fencing and powerful YouTube control.
- Total Bitdefender security – active cloud scanning, geo-fencing and innovative surveillance.
The best antivirus with parental control answers.
How I picked the best antivirus apps with parental controls.
The best brands that have failed.
Frequently asked questions about antivirus and parental controls. - Norton 360 Deluxe – The best antivirus software with parental controls in 2020
Norton 360 Deluxe is my favorite piece of software for securing my kids and their devices. It offers 100% malware protection along with an excellent parental control feature that I prefer to the rest of the standalone parental control programs I have tried.
Download Free norton product key activation 2020
Norton’s parental controls feature does:
Time supervision. Set a daily time limit on device or program use so that children don’t text while studying or surf the web while sleeping.
Video surveillance. Record YouTube usage and thumbnails to make sure your child does not see inappropriate content.
Supervision of the program, hunting and place. Choose the content your little one can receive and receive notifications when they search for certain keywords.
Location. Track the location of your child’s camera for 30 days.
Social. Keep an eye on your child’s Facebook page (Windows only).
All of these attributes are contained in one intuitive dashboard – I checked the customization and notification settings for my kids’ devices with no problem. Built-in era 4 templates will be appreciated by many parents. They adjust your preferences and all permissions, which means you don’t have to dig.
However, I wanted to know exactly what this app could do, so I decided to create a custom template. I believe that trusting my children to be independent is an ideal method of educating them to be a fantastic digital citizen. I put Norton on to inform me about other online activities while I block articles about offensive, hateful and content.
For me personally, restricting the use of devices is just one of the most important parental controls. I have a 1-hour usage limit on weekdays, 3 hours on Saturdays, and a corporate no-devices policy on Sundays. The setup of this program was simple and quick.
Norton’s place tracker can be pretty great. I had no difficulty watching my usual student’s place through her tablet computer, which gave me peace of mind knowing that in an emergency I could judge the place of the pill for 30 days.
One of my favorite Norton attributes is Smart Chat – it is a comprehensive template for setting parental controls with your kids. After going through Smart Chat, my kids knew better why parental controls were important, and we all created a comprehensive plan for using their devices. Smart Talk worked wonders – my kids started working with me to become responsible technicians instead of fighting all my principles!
Summary:
Norton 360 Deluxe is my favorite antivirus and internet security antivirus suite (Norton 360 full control is here) – and the parental controls included in the suite are the best on the market. The intuitive dashboard makes it easy to manage notifications and settings for many children on up to 5 cameras. If you need to protect your system from malware as well as keep your kids safe online, Norton 360 Deluxe is the best there is.
TRY NORTON 360 DELUXE NOW
- Kaspersky Total Security – Finest for YouTube Tracking + Geo-Fencing
I was very pleased with the thickness of Kaspersky Lab’s Safe Kids attribute, but I am surprised because Kaspersky Total Security is a powerful antivirus that has countless clients around the world. Kaspersky’s anti-malware security measures are among the best on the market, so it makes sense that Safe Kids is truly perfect.
Here are some of my favorite attributes:
Monitor, program and block usage. Safe Children helps you monitor and restrict the use of all devices in addition to specific programs. The computer, so that she could not use it, in addition to monitoring my child’s tablet, I set a time limit in my son’s network programs. I’ve blocked programs on my daughter’s tablet like TikTok and Snapchat – there’s no way.
Location monitoring. The Child locator attribute offers real-time GPS location updates as well as a very helpful geo-fencing attribute – I use it to make sure my son is not pulling the classroom as well as to put a perimeter around my child’s elementary school. I will find an alert Have they left their regions.
YouTube controls. Safe Children prohibits specific searches using a pre-made age-appropriate template or using a custom template that you can make to meet the needs of your children. Safe Kids monitors the background – Since Kaspersky runs on YouTube and YouTube for Android, this attribute is slightly better than Norton’s controllers.
Even though these 3 features are all I want, I’ve also found that the battery life alerts are incredibly useful – I love to understand that when my teen’s cell phone is low, I can contact him and create plans before his phone expires.
And while there is a Facebook follow-up attribute, it only allows me to get my teenager’s public articles on Facebook (and he hardly touches his Facebook). He didn’t give me access to personal groups or messages. And since most of the misbehavior takes place in programs like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, Kaspersky can’t offer much help in tracking articles on social media.
Summary:
Kaspersky Total Safety is a powerful antivirus suite with the best geo-fencing features and YouTube control on the market. Safe Children Premium comes free bundled with Kaspersky Total Security, plus it has everything I need to keep my kids safe. The Place Controls are some of the best not only can I see where my kids were when they moved out of a certain area, but also that I can post notifications. Limiting tracking and blocking programs was easy, just like YouTube controls worked within the program for Android devices. Kaspersky provides a 30-day free trial in its own Complete Security (antivirus review here), which means you can give it a try and see if it works for you.
TRY KASPERSKY TOTAL SECURITY NOW
- Bitdefender Total Security – Powerful antivirus engine with excellent parental controls
Bitdefender’s Parental Controls feature comes bundled with Bitdefender’s Total Security suite – which includes some of the best and most powerful antivirus scanners in the market today, scoring an excellent score in my malware ratings. This package includes 5 devices on all operating systems, while the Internet Security package (which also includes parental controls) only works on Windows.
It is intuitive to use, while Bitdefender is slightly less expensive than Norton and Kaspersky. Nevertheless, it has all the control which is the basic attributes:
Safe surfing. Limit sites from your ad list or put your own customized template.
Program tracking. Block specific programs from downloading and track their usage time.
Display time limits. Lock the camera when the specified time limit is reached.
Location monitoring and geo-fencing. Track the place and get an alert when the geo fence is broken.
There is also a connection management attribute that prevents specific numbers or anonymous calls, but is only available for iOS.
If you’re unfamiliar with technology, this most likely isn’t the program for you. I spent a lot of time just simply setting up content filters. Thanks to many trial and error, I ran it on my son’s cell phone and my child’s tablet. I am a tech specialist so it wasn’t very hard for me to find out, but I saw a lot of reports on the internet from customers who were stuck on their phones and unable to change settings.
Summary:
Bitdefender Total Safety is just one of the best antivirus suites available in the current market, and it comes with fairly strong parental controls (full Bitdefender controls here). That is all that matters most – restricting usage, blocking sites and programs, setting display time limits, as well as monitoring and geo-fencing. However, preferences are a bit tricky to set up, so I recommend them to experienced computer users.
TRY BITDEFENDER IN COMPLETE SAFETY NOW
Compare antivirus with controls
Antivirus Screen Time / App Usage Limits Location Tracking Geo-fence YouTube Content Filtering Controls Facebook Tracking
- Norton Yes Yes No Yes Yes (site only) Yes (Windows only)
- Kaspersky Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (site and program) Yes
- Bitdefender Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Top brands that have not been successful:
Panda Dome. Panda’s cloud-based malware is an effective antivirus scanner and their cheap apps have many attributes. The checks are minimal, it was easy to block sites from being accessed when my kids tried to get hold of them, and get notifications. But there are program controllers, usage restrictions, or no space monitoring.
McAfee Total Protection family. McAfee brings this update to its Total Security suite at an affordable price, and has many of the most effective parental management features – space monitoring, network and program usage restrictions, and geo-fencing. It is not supported on Mac and my son’s Android tablet has slowed down.
Avast Family Space. We no longer recommend any Avast products on this site due to allegations of selling consumer information. To learn more about the allegations, as well as our selection, go here.
How I tested these antivirus programs and their parental controls:
Protection against malware. Parental controls are nothing without a search engine that can prevent hackers from damaging devices in my home. I analyzed the anti-malware engine of each program to make sure they can catch 100% of security threats.
Parental control. Content blockers are known and picky, possibly tagging innocent material or allowing children to access dangerous areas on the Internet. Attributes that are geo-fencing and locations are excellent in concept, but it’s important to be responsive and precise. All parental controls will give you the confidence not to drive you crazy with notifications.
Simplicity of use. I’m a technologist, but many parents aren’t computer scientists. My list includes products that have user interfaces that are useful for providing easy access to the most complex controllers.
Value. Many companies provide standalone parental control programs, but they lack the simplest cybersecurity protections offered by antivirus packages. The apps on my list have antivirus attributes at a price that is competitive with either parental controls. It is better to choose either of these packages than to purchase a parental management program and both antivirus programs as well.
Frequently asked questions about antivirus and parental controls
Do I really have to use parental controls?
What’s the best parental control for loved ones?
Can my children deactivate parental controls?
What are the benefits of using an antivirus with parental controls?
Can I really use parental controls?
Yes really. There are so many dangers on the Internet.
Online predators can mislead children and receive personal information and graphics.
Fraudsters can trick children into revealing confidential information regarding social and fiscal security.
Media sites can embed malware files that target young people.
In addition, there are numerous reports of children being victims of violence, hatred and online content injured.
Various studies have found that teens and children are susceptible to the effects of display addiction. From mood disorders to vices, there’s tons of information that kids need to limit their display time.
All the apps on this list help protect your kids from these dangers.
Whether you are trying to protect your child and your devices from alerting users, or just hoping to protect your child’s mental health from the effects of using the monitor, parental controls are essential.
What’s the best parental control for loved ones?
You are definitely the best tool to protect your loved ones online. The simple fact is that no parental control program can completely protect our children. If you block every inappropriate app, view every text message of your child, then ban every sensitive word in your kid’s search engine and block every website, kids will find a way.
A lot of research suggests that honest, age-appropriate conversations would be an ideal method of protecting children and equipment online. Hence, Norton parental controls include a smart chat template to help kids and parents get together to impose wise restrictions on their children’s device use.
Regardless of our best efforts, our children will experience disturbing and harmful areas of the web every day. Tools with this list can help you track your child’s browsing and search history, restrict access to unsecured programs, and limit screen usage. But ultimately it’s up to us to help our children navigate the electronic world.
Can my children deactivate parental controls?
Sometimes yes. There are different degrees of control with different parental control programs – some cannot be changed without a password, while others will send a message to the parent’s device if any modifications have been made.
Some programs, such as Norton Parental Controls, can also prevent your kids from browsing illegal websites when Chrome is in Incognito mode.
Unfortunately, many programs such as Signal and WhatsApp provide messaging, therefore there is no way. That said, all the apps on this list contain program blocking attributes, so you don’t have to worry about your kids stealthily downloading encrypted messaging programs.
What is the advantage of working with an antivirus with parental controls?
Standalone parental control programs are excellent, but they don’t protect against malware.
I thought about keeping my kids safe and making sure they weren’t using their devices when I first started out with the parental control program. But after infecting my son’s device, I noticed that malware and malware are also attacking our kids. Children are at a really great risk of inadvertently compromising their device’s security, and if they do, the entire network could be infected with malware.
Grouping controls makes sense because it sets all the security.
When there are several specific and effective control programs available in the current market, you will need an antivirus program if you want to protect your children and children’s devices. The goods on this list are some of the best antivirus apps, and their parental controls are much better than many standalone programs.
