AI Parental Control App Development for Monitoring Children's Online Activities

Our client runs an educational institution in USA and shifted to remote and hybrid learning during the pandemic. Since it is flexible and convenient, they continued the remote learning even after the situation returned to normal. Also, the students from different cities and regions took admission there as the learning was remote. But sometimes, they were noticing a lack of attention, and results were getting low from the past few months. As learning is online, students often spend hours online while studying. So management decided to think of a solution that ensures productive learning without compromising students’ security.

Hence the client approached Manektech for a safe and reliable solution for this problem. We suggested to them a parental control app that would give parents more visibility into their child’s digital activities, as well as keep the school’s remote learning experience effective.

A Challenge to Build a Parental Control App Platform:

Moving to remote learning was both a good and a bad thing at a time for our client. Students were opening social media, gaming, and other video apps. Clients often receive queries from Parents like how to block apps on a child’s phone with parental controls, and they often search for what is the best free parental control app. No doubt, there are a lot of free parental control apps in the market, but due to security reasons, we refused to install the other third-party app while an online class was going on. Teachers also noticed that notifications and apps were causing interruptions in online classes.

At the same time, they did not want a solution that felt like spying; they wanted an app for parenting control​ that respected children’s privacy while still giving parents control.

Other than this, there were also multiple challenges during development. Parents wanted real-time reports and alerts when their children open anything wrong, so we had to build a system that could handle thousands of students without hanging. Security was also a top priority because the app collected sensitive information about children’s online activity. We needed strong encryption and compliance with rules like GDPR and COPPA. Another challenge was making the app easy to use. Some parents were good in technology, and some were not, so we had to balance advanced features with a very simple interface.

Best AI Child Monitoring App Solutions Implemented By Our Team

Keeping the above problems in mind, we started by researching common concerns, such as how to set up a parental control app, which parental control app is easiest to use, and what is the most secure parental control app. This research helped us understand the features required and filter out the unnecessary ones. We also discussed the app development cost with the client after finalizing the required features of the app. Our team prepared a list of restrictions to add for students in the parental control app. We chose React Native to build the parental control app to ensure it works fine on iOS, Android, and desktop platforms. Our designers create a minimal UX in such a way that features are easily accessible without a long process.

Our experienced developers implemented strong encryption and privacy compliance to protect sensitive student data. To handle thousands of students simultaneously, we built a scalable backend that gives real-time alerts, activity reports, and content filtering. Being an iOS app development agency, we also developed safe workarounds, like using screen-time APIs, device management features, and notifications, to allow monitoring without violating iOS restrictions.

Key Features of the Top Rated Parental Control Apps:

1. Create account: You first need to install the app and create a profile, then follow the steps: select restrictions → start monitoring. We also have a small guide at the beginning of the app that will guide parents on how to use it.
2. Safe Browsing & Content Filtering: Based on your selected restriction, the app will automatically block adult or harmful websites. 
3. Screen-Time Management: You can also set daily or weekly screen-time limits for non-academic apps, like social media or games.
4. App & Website Blocking: You can block distracting apps or websites by blacklisting particular categories of apps.
5. Real-Time Activity Reports: You can see the detailed reports on your child’s browsing history, app usage, and time spent on learning portals. 
6. Instant Alerts & Notifications: You get instant notifications whenever your child tries to access blocked apps or websites.
7. Remote Lock Mode: You can also temporarily lock non-academic apps during live class hours. After that, you can again activate the social media or game app when their study is finished.
8. Strong Privacy & Security: We implemented AES-256 encryption and secure authentication, hence your data is safe. You can also set up profiles with passwords during installation.

Result of AI Parental Control App:

As a trusted app development company USA, our app got recognized as a top rated parental control app​ within the first 3 months of usage.

• With fewer distractions, there was a 40% increase in student participation in online classes.
• Parents no longer worry about unsafe content.
• Due to ease of usability, there was a 66% engagement of the app.
• Parents could finally monitor and guide their child’s learning journey.
• Test performance and assignment submissions improved up to 37%.
• Overall, our client also saw a noticeable improvement in their reputation.

Technologies and Tools:

• Frontend: React Native
• Backend: Node.js with Express 
• Database: MongoDB 
• Security: AES-256 encryption, OAuth 2.0 authentication
• Integrations: Web filtering APIs, real-time monitoring tools
• Cloud Infrastructure: AWS