Parental Control App - Kidslox Reviews

I downloaded ParentalControlApp a year ago, tried the free version and eventually paid for premium subscription. I was able to successfully restrict access to certain apps, inappropriate content and screentime for my daughters phone very well. I gave for the success of that time. However, we upgraded phones recently and the set up has been so very difficult!! In order to set up premium features it now requires me to download the PC app as well. Well, whatever it tries to download NEVER downloads and stay stuck at 5%. i have tried downloading again, rebooted, deleted and reinstalled and never manage to finish set up because its get stuck at 5% download. PC app is so irritating. Wish I could do everything thru the phone app like I did before in my initial set up. I tried reaching out for help and haven’t heard back in two days. Didn’t get an auto response acknowledging my email so I’m not sure if anyone will eventually get back to me.
*Update* i eventually received a response and they tried getting more info to fix it. Replied back and said that it had been fixed and they released a new ISO version BUT it still doesn’t download past 5%. I really liked this but I can no longer use my paid subscription and only get watered down features that are hardly helpful on their own. It doesn’t seem a fix is coming before my subscription expires, so I definately won’t be renewing to $50 subcription.

I really like ParentalControlApp. I also own the Circle and used that for a few months but then my brother in law introduced me to Kidslox. I tried the 14 day trial period and today is the day it expires. I had to decide if I wanted to keep using Kidslox. And I decided to go for it. I love how I am not limited to the WiFi in my house and I can still control my kids devices outside of the house. For the most part everything works smoothly except the timer. For example I generally allow my kids 2 hours of iPad a day. The devices do lock after 2 hours but the timer keeps running for some reason. There are times it shows my kids were on for 3,4,5 plus hours. Which is confusing and when I want to give them more time I have to extend out to the end of day instead of just 30 min or 1 hour. Are we doing something wrong how come the timer keeps running? Other than that I believe I love ParentalControlApp ... look forward to more features and upgrades. Thanks

Update Comment: Is there a pause button? It would be great if there was the ability to pause my children’s iPad instead of having to put it in lock mode.

At first I thought ParentalControlApp was shady as it asked for some management control which I understand from the contexts of using ParentalControlApp you have to give up some control. Now I did check the reviews before I downloaded ParentalControlApp, and I decided to give it a chance. After downloading, I followed instructions for the files and powering off your phone situation but I’m not sure if it worked properly which might explain why this happens, so I was brushing my teeth some notification popped up and I clicked to open my phone to find all my apps deleted!! This was impossibly frightening, my privacy was exploited and I felt extremely vulnerable like I’ve been hacked.
This was even more freaky as I had deleted ParentalControlApp after following instructions for power off your phone because I didn’t want to indulge in such complex stuff and it was getting increasingly more “shady”. But Thankfully the internet helped me as I searched up how to get rid of ParentalControlApp completely by going to settings and etc.
ALL IN ALL BE AWARE OF WHAT YOUR DOWNLOADING AND DO IT PROPERLY. (I didn't want to rate ParentalControlApp because I know a lot of effort probably was put into producing it but from my traumatic experience I just want to warn some customers I also understand this worked for some other customers perfectly but I didn’t for me)

I’ve been using ParentalControlApp now for the 14 day trial and decided to subscribe. I’ve been a Qustodio user and gave another iOS app a try, Screen Time. They just were not meeting my expectations for iOS management.

What is winning for me is the user interface on my phone. It’s easy to manage the accounts and changes are a breeze. From my review, there are some things missing, like the ability to schedule texting access, but this cannot be an easy feat to overcome with Apple. Qustodio does this, but there are compromises. I can parent around this for now.

Kidslox is in active development which means they are working on and delivering new features. So, if something is missing, suggest it directly to them. I work with development teams, and we LOVE to get nice, thoughtful feedback so we know what to build! Whining and complaining about an app just makes you look like a dunce and motivates no one to work on your features. Keep up the good work and I look forward to new releases!

While I originally gave ParentalControlApp a 5 star rating, I have since changed my mind and would tell you that although ParentalControlApp APPEARS to offer great control over your kids ipads(and it truly does) the power, security and privacy you relinquish is unbelievable!!! At first I was excited that ParentalControlApp appeared to offer an excellent way for me to control and monitor my children’s iPads, I was horribly mistaken. Not only do you release control of each and every iPad to ParentalControlApp and ultimately the people behind ParentalControlApp you relinquish much of your security and privacy also. They can gain access to EVERY system on your iPad including data like your iCloud, FaceTime and messages. I had this actually happen to my parental control iPad and had to take it to a Verizon store where it took us well over an hour to figure out it was this sneaky app that was the culprit and had to delete and restore my iPad as a new iPad so that it couldn’t reload on it!!! Am so angry that I just had renewed for another 6 months also🤬🤬🤬. Now I’m stuck without a good alternative and trying to figure out if sensitive credit and financial info was accessed and trying to reset eversingle password I had. Not to mention if you want to remove it COMPLETELY, you HAVE to message them. Just removing the icon like most apps does NOT work!!!

I downloaded this as a way to make it slightly more difficult to use distracting apps while studying. I was careful to change the settings to allow everything but the two apps I wanted to restrict. It worked initially, but I noticed my gmail in my email app would not stay logged in. I couldn’t log back in until I put ParentalControlApp back into parent mode. This became too annoying so I just left it on parent mode to get some work done. I should have just deleted it right away. Later that day about 90% of the apps on my iPad randomly disappeared. I thought maybe it was ParentalControlApp so I went into settings to remove the blocker and sure enough they reappeared. Only thing is it deleted my organization and dumped all the apps out of my folders so now I’m stuck manually rearranging everything the way I had it. These things might not be a big deal if ParentalControlApp were being used to safeguard a child’s recreational tablet. But I am a professional student and rely heavily on my iPad for school. It is essentially my textbooks, notebooks, folders, etc. ParentalControlApp has some potential if some of these more serious bugs were fixed. But I will not use it again for my purposes for fear of it deleting anything.

After trying my cellular service provider’s parental control app, and finding that I could delete the companion app from my child’s phone, I went looking for another option. Let me tell you, there is a reason this is so well rated!

When lockdown mode is engaged, the gaming and social apps disappear from my child’s phone. The icons are gone and there is no way to access them at all. Kidslox leaves the calling and texting features available for use, which I appreciate, so that she can contact me in the event of an emergency.

I found the parent user interface to be thorough, yet intuitive. It is easy to navigate and itemizes the features and apps that will be locked out during each type of mode. Knowing that even when child mode is engaged, she will still be protected with safe search browsing and content filtering, as well as the requirement to request permission before downloading apps, has actually increased our communication about what is appropriate for her. We can talk about why I declined a particular app so she knows what features to look for before she asks to download.

Overall, I’m very impressed. As a person who has almost never downloaded a paid app, I can tell you that my standards are high. I just signed up for the lifetime premium service and will be downloading the companion app on all of the devices in my home, as well as recommending this to my friends.

ParentalControlApp has been great! It is easy to use and has dramatically reduced the arguments over the electronics in my house, making my home life much happier. Instead of me saying “you have 30 minutes or 1 hour” to play on whatever device, then yelling and fighting ensuing when time is up, I can simply set a time limit in the Kidslox app and when it’s done it’s done. I don’t have to do or say anything else. Yay! It has also made it so that there is no sneaking the device when my child is not supposed to be on it. Also Yay! I like the ability to limit accessibility of certain things, though honestly I don’t use that function as much as limiting and restricting time. Finally I like that the full app is reasonably priced after the trial period. My only issue so far is that ParentalControlApp locks all the programs, other than talk or text. It would be nice to be able to restrict some programs like games while allowing others like music. Then day 5 it would not let me unlock my child’s phone from any location or his tablet. Great idea, but not the best setup.

I really like ParentalControlApp even though im a kid, it tells me when to get off my phone at the right moment. My dad usually puts it for 12:30 PM And that is cool because before i even got ParentalControlApp I was so addicted to my phone that i would use it for the whole day Even night! But with ParentalControlApp it has saved my life. I can play with my toys again! But there is a few bugs that you must fix. 1. The VPN just goes off sometimes but i dont know why! I tell my dad and when he tries switching it back on it wont work! 2. When ever i go to school (im in middle) i text my dad to put child mode on so i can search up answers and or stuff to help me while im in class, the internet is SO slow that by the time it gets on my phone, the class is over! You really need to fix these bugs to make parents or kids experiences better, either than that thanks for making ParentalControlApp!

ParentalControlApp has hurt my self esteem and every time that I ask to take it off my phone it won’t allow me to. And even when I want to delete apps off of my phone it won’t allow me. And it takes up my storage and I don’t have enough storage and I can’t even take any pictures and I am afraid to use my phone because if I get lost or something like that I cannot text anyone or even get on my GPS. It is apps like these that make kids not want to go to school or hang out with friends or even have any fun. Without feeling watched and insecure. ParentalControlApp makes kids feel DEPRESSED and UNLOVED!!!!!! You should really take down ParentalControlApp because it takes away the fun of having a phone and makes me feel sad everyday. But the worst part is when I customize my Home Screen and when I did didn’t even touch my phone it says that I have used all of my time limit😭😭😭😭😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬!!!!!!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND ParentalControlApp IT MAKES YOUR CHILD BOT LOVE THEIR PARENT WHO INSTALLED IT ON THEIR PHONE!!!!!!! Please get rid of ParentalControlApp it is the worst app ever!!!!!!!!!! I don’t ever want to see another app that destroys family bonds and induces child depression!!!!!!!

My son and I sat down and discussed rules and terms for phone use. He loves video games and would play all day if I allowed that. I was able to customize the controls for his phone to create reasonable amounts of game time. He HATES it! Haha. It shuts off access if your child goes beyond their set time or if you don’t want them on at a certain time they won’t have access to apps then too. It filters out adult content when online. We haven’t gotten to social media yet, but you can have some control with that too. My child cannot delete ParentalControlApp not matter how hard he tries. Trust me he tries, often. I can control all of this from my phone. Being able to regulate phone usage and not having to be right next to him is so convenient. I also feel that he’s safer going online bc I know it’s been filtered.
Btw, the one star reviews are often kids bc they can leave a review. My son has left several one star reviews!

It worked ok for about two days. I had two children with devices on it. Loved the idea but it really is glitchy. Twice my kids should have had their time restarted the next day and they were stuck in lockdown mode. I would get notifications all day about zone entered and exited when my kids were just sitting In different parts of my house. One other time I couldn’t even manually get it fixed and had to remove the apps and still was having problems. A real jerk of a guy called me to tell me how stupid I was because “it’s supposed to work that way” um no she had not been able to get into her device for two days when it should have reset and I couldn’t do anything to unlock her device. Then he told me I wasn’t getting a refund. Yeah no. I got that refund btw. Even if this was glitchy that fellow sealed the deal for me of not even trying to fix it. Horrible service. All in less than a week. Then I received up to twelve messages by email after that notifying me they were glad to “resolve my issue”. Is ParentalControlApp created by teenagers? I’ll try another app. Steer clear of having to call these rude people.

My son got used to it just shutting off his Iphone X; like we get used to stopping at red lights. The daily use limits were discussed and agreed upon. I created a morning "ready for school" and "study hall" plus other lock out times. He'll ask if he needs access while in locked mode. The problem is that the system server is EXTREMELY slow to change from locked to child mode or back. It is so slow it's a problem. As more people buy and use ParentalControlApp it will get slower. Example: He texted me to unlock the phone so he could use it for after-school Spanish and by the time it unlocked the class was over. Unacceptable. He was supposed to be getting ready to leave and I selected lock but it took several minutes. I pay extra for super fast internet access and have extensively upgraded wifi so I'm 100% it's not my internet access and it is on the Kidslox side.

The apps features are nice for the most part. But there are many issues. If a schedule is was previously made (day and time to change control like locking device down) ParentalControlApp forces you to rename the schedule to a different name each time, even if the only desire is the change the scheduled time. Frustrating and dumb. After the free trial ended, and I hadn’t had time to actually upgrade to the paid “advanced features” yet, ParentalControlApp locked down the iPad completely making the device unusable, instead of just not applying the schedules. This is when I decided to not purchase ParentalControlApp . To add more problem, finding the instructions to remove ParentalControlApp ’s controlling profile from the iPad was difficult! Have to go to website, perform Q & A search, log in, enter pin, to get instructions, which will timeout after what seems like 30 sec. After that, you have to repeat that process. I ended up taking screenshots to have them longer. While paid features do provide nice control, there are many frustrating issues.

We’ve been using Kidslox for about 5 years. They’re the only parental app that understands what parents need control over and it’s everything we always wanted. They’re affordable and very helpful whenever we’ve had a technical issue. Which you’ll need because it’s quite a mission to get Kidslox Premium up and running anytime your child changes over to a new phone. But it’s always been worth the mission. This last time that we had to change our child’s phone again, I did the entire process of installing Kidslox Premium onto the new device, it just wouldn’t work. I connected the new device to 3 different computers, tried multiple cables to be sure it was connecting properly- nothing. I’ve been at this for months already- meanwhile I’m still paying for premium without the access to it. I reached out to tech support and for the first time ever I haven’t heard back. I hope someone reaches back out to me and we get this resolved. If we can get this fixed I’d definitely rate them a 10/10. Until then, I have to give it a 1 star.

First- easy setup for us. Took me all of 2 minutes. Have to have child’s phone in hand.
Secondly- I thought I would have to get the paid version, just assumed because that’s how it usually goes right? No. We were able to set time limits, set bedtime, lock when we needed to, and see location. I’m sure there may be more but that’s what I got to, and I’m happy with it. I really just needed it for time limits because as you know, kids want to be on the phone ALL. THE. TIME. Oh one more thing, I can see the apps she has. So instead of having to approve every one, I just go check to make sure she didn’t get anything she wasn’t supposed to- at any time.
Overall extremely happy with ParentalControlApp and may upgrade as she gets older to be able to access other features. Thank you Kidslox for making this easy for us!

I downloaded ParentalControlApp because I wanted to restrict use of certain apps. At first it seemed good, but after it goes into lock down mode the apps disappear, once out of lockdown mode they reappear. The only problem is that if you don’t download the other thing all the apps reappear in a random order. The other thing would not download on my phone so I didn’t think it would be an issue. Until later I found myself reordering my apps. I then deleted ParentalControlApp because I didn’t want it anymore, 30min later my phone shut off and I opened my phone to find that ParentalControlApp somehow re downloaded itself and went into lockdown mode again reordering my apps randomly. I finally figured out how to delete it by looking it up and going into the settings. If you download ParentalControlApp and ParentalControlApp icon thing won’t download, don’t get it. Other than the apps problem, ParentalControlApp seemed ok there are definitely some other minor bugs that need to be fixed though, so I would not pay until they are fixed.

I’ve had ParentalControlApp for about six months. It’s very handy to be able to see just how much screen time my teenager has on a daily basis. And it’s nice to be able to automate the duly schedule to whatever we need it to be...
There are some areas I wish it could be better in...
Firstly, I wish I could monitor and disable/enable texting. There are just some nights where I forget to collect her phone, and even though she can’t use it for Instagram, she can still spend her night texting friends without us knowing about it.

Secondly, being able to set time restrictions to entertainment apps specifically... there have been many times my daughter has complained to me that her apps shut off simply because she had music playing without actually using her phone for anything else. It would be nice to have some sort of control over that, but I’m not sure how you would practically implement that.

Lastly, I’d love to have the weekly reports reflect exactly how much time was spent within specific apps. Which kind of ties into my previous point... my daughter complains that her apps shut off because she only used the music app, but I don’t actually know if she’s being truthful, I have no evidence of that...

All-in-all, great app! Hopefully it continues to improve!

I’ve used Kidslox as a paid service for nearly a year now and wanted to share my experience and why I’ve chosen to stop using it.

The sole reason is that the Kidslox app blocks location tracking on my kid’s phones when they are on cell network only. It works fine when they are on WiFi. I’ve contacted the company several times and reported these issues yet no resolution has been made.

I’ve used Kidslox on 4 different devices since both my kids upgraded phones mid year. They had iPhone 6s, 8s and more recently Xr. We’ve tried it in multiple locations. Sometimes it works but most times it only show “offline” or “no location available” when both kids are in “child mode” on their devices.

Anyways I was hoping Kidslox could have fixed it. In fact they even reported they couldn’t recreate this bug? My wife (iPhone 8plus) couldn’t track them either.

So I uninstalled ParentalControlApp on all family devices and straight away I was able to see location of my kids again whenever they’re away using the iOS native ‘find my phone” or “find my friends” apps.

Everything else with Kidslox worked fine but the location glitch is our reason for cancelling this service as it is a serious flaw for parents who want to keep track of kids outside the house.

Hope this feedback helps. I’d sign up again if this bug is actually fixed this time.

Thank you

I waited some time to submit a review because it took me awhile to fully use its features and kidslox improved and fixed bugs over time. I admit there has been some frustrating moments when ParentalControlApp glitched but compared to other tools I tried, it’s still the most effective and easy to use. The ability to lockdown individual apps as well as whitelist others is nice. The schedules and time limit functions are good. I love the new reward feature, haven’t used yet but I could see it being very attractive. I just wished I could see usage for each app or do limits for types of apps but for that I have to use screen time. When paired with iOS screentime, it’s pretty powerful. Just make sure the two are in sync or iOS will cancel out kidslox. If I could rate a 4.5 I would.

Overall, I’m finding Kidslox to be a useful, easy way to have limits on my daughter’s screen usage. The weekly reports are informative and give me assurance that she is not abusing her screen time. Controlling it all from my phone is great and so convenient. I also like the ability to add or remove time on the set daily limits. I use that a lot for when she earns more time by doing chores. One improvement that could be made would be to have the ability to shut down text and phone calls during certain hours, except for emergencies. Because while I can set a daily limit and control app usage so that even if she has more time before she reaches the limit she can’t use it after a certain time at night, she can still text freely for hours on end and I have no able to track or limit that. So I still have to confiscate her phone every evening so she isn’t up all night texting her friends. I wish there was a way to set limits on texting too other than taking away her phone. But overall, it is a good app and I’m happy I bought the lifetime subscription so I can also use it when my younger children get phones when they are older.

I wrote a review the other day but it seems to have disappeared. I’ve been using ParentalControlApp for at least a year and a half and it’s been fabulous. With this new update and the requirement to connect to a desktop to get the premium content working again, it’s been a complete disaster. I spent over two hours the other night trying to get this re-installed and working on my child’s iPad. I kept getting messages from the desktop version that it wasn’t working. Eventually I got it in installed only to realize this morning that whenever I click on an icon to block some thing it doesn’t “take.” I’ve read other reviews in which people said the customer service is horrible so I’m not about to waste God knows how much time trying to email back-and-forth with somebody who’s likely going to just tell me to turn my device back on and off and uninstall and reinstall ParentalControlApp . I’m done and now looking for a new app. What a waste. They should’ve just left well enough alone.