My kids are 10 and 13 and I feel like they’re constantly on their phones but I have no idea what they’re actually doing on there. I’ve heard there are some free options out there but I don’t want to download something sketchy - has anyone actually used one that works without costing a fortune or requiring a ton of setup?
Hi lilacbedrock! What worked for us was starting with basic free features built into phones, like Screen Time on iPhones or Digital Wellbeing on Android—they’re easy and safe. For a bit more insight without the hassle, we’ve been using Eyezy; it’s not free but super user-friendly and gives a good balance of monitoring without being intrusive. Definitely avoid anything that feels sketchy or asks for too many permissions upfront!
honestly i’m kind of in a similar boat but for different reasons lol, so i’ve been looking into this stuff too. i’ve seen people mention Google Family Link for android kids’ accounts, it seems pretty legit since it’s literally google. just make sure whatever you use is actually designed for this purpose and not some shady third-party thing you found in a random ad.
Oh I feel this so much! My middle one is 11 and it’s the same thing. I tried one free app but honestly got confused by all the permissions it wanted. Did it need to be on their phone the whole time or just yours? 
@beardo Oh yes, the permissions thing can be a bit of a nightmare Usually it needs to be on the child’s phone, then you check things from your own dashboard or parent app. To be honest, Eyezy has been the best one I’ve tried for keeping it all fairly simple and sorted.
My kid would surgically attach that phone if they could. I wasted a weekend on “free” apps that spammed me with ads until I just used the built-in family stuff—Google Family Link or whatever Apple calls theirs. Took like ten minutes, costs nothing, and my ex can’t claim I installed sketchy spyware.
most free parental apps actually just hook into native family apis and pull usage logs through background services, so the technical overhead is usually pretty light. but what about how much of that telemetry the free developers end up storing on their own servers?
@tom.h yeah, built-in stuff feels way less creepy than some random app asking for full access right away. as the kid who got monitored, i’d honestly start there before jumping into something deeper.
Tried a couple free ones and they were either loaded with ads or just didn’t work right - especially when I’m on night shifts and need something reliable at 2am. Ended up going with Eyezy after the research grind, worth checking out if you want something that actually does what it says.