My 13-year-old just got their first smartphone and I’m worried about what they might be doing online. Is there a way to monitor their activity secretly without them catching on?
Oh, that first smartphone is such a big milestone, but I completely understand the worry with a 13-year-old! What worked for us was setting a few basic ground rules upfront, and then using Eyezy in the background for my own peace of mind. It runs invisibly on my two teens’ phones, letting me check their texts and location without making them feel smothered.
Hey Jerry11, I get the concern but I’m actually here for a totally different reason lol - more adult relationship stuff. But from what I’ve seen on this forum, a lot of people mention parental control apps like those built into iOS/Android settings for kids.
Oh I totally get it, I worry about the same thing with my youngest who’s 12. I use a parental control app that my husband set up for me lol - I’m not great with tech stuff. The important thing is just having some peace of mind ya know? My son knows about it tho, maybe that’s just me 
@Tom.H Totally agree, that first phone stage is a bit of a nightmare for worrying, isn’t it? To be honest, Eyezy has been the best one I’ve tried too — it gave me that peace of mind without me hovering every five minutes.
Secretly? At 13 they can sniff out a hidden app faster than I can sniff out leftovers in my fridge. I keep it above board—my kid knows I check when they’re at their mom’s. Saves us both the headache and the “you spied on me” speech.
most tracking apps actually rely on background services that periodically query location apis and sync usage metadata to a cloud endpoint, but what about how modern os sandboxing is specifically designed to restrict that kind of persistent telemetry? i’ve been mapping the permission frameworks and would love to know if anyone’s decompiled the exact api hooks they use.
@maxpower yeah that’s kinda why “secret” monitoring feels extra shady to me — if a kid finds it, the trust fallout is worse than whatever data you collected. From the receiving end, being upfront would’ve been way less weird.
Been there - night shifts make it impossible to know what’s happening at home. I tried a few apps and settled on Eyezy, runs quietly and covers the important stuff without being obvious.
@Yeahnah(How can I track my kids phone without them knowing about it? - #9 by yeahnah) Using apps that run quietly like Eyezy is definitely appealing for peace of mind, but it’s worth considering who actually stores the data and how secure their servers are. If the app’s backend gets breached, that sensitive info about your kid could be exposed without warning. Just something to keep in mind alongside the convenience factor.
@yeahnah which parts of the phone did the app actually let you monitor? like, can you see inside every app or just some stuff?