Children and teens thrive on routine. Having a clear structure for their day – from getting ready for school to prepping for bedtime – not only makes things run smoothly and avoids arguments, but helps their development too. That’s without even mentioning how beneficial routines are to your family relationships and stress levels. But how do you create a family routine that works for everyone – and why exactly are they so important? Let’s take a look.

Why is it important to have a family routine?

Though your day may naturally tend towards some kind of routine, creating a defined plan may seem like overkill at first. However, there’s a whole lot of research showing that well-defined, daily routines have a huge range of benefits for children. These include:

Improved language and social development

Planning your day enables you to protect time to spend with your kids, away from their devices – even if just to sit down and eat dinner together. This time provides the perfect opportunity for younger children to develop their language skills, whether it’s through telling stories about their day or from observing and learning about polite behavior.

Higher academic success

Simply having a routine in the first place, no matter what it is, goes some way to helping your kids succeed at school. But how? It turns out that having an organized home life eases the transition into the structure of the school day. It also helps kids to feel more in control of their time and therefore improves their independence as they move through the school years.

Increased sense of safety

Imagine you’re constantly going about your day being told to do things with no understanding of why, or what’s coming up next. Stressful, right? That’s how it can feel for kids! Knowing what to expect from the upcoming day helps children of all ages feel calm, secure, and looked after.

Better family bonds

A good routine provides regular opportunities for your family to spend time together. Whether that’s at meal times or family game nights, these moments provide space to build strong relationships and feel like a team.

Healthier online-offline balance

Children spend an average of 4 hours on devices each day – not including time spent while at school. It’s easy for kids and parents alike to pick up a device to fill a quiet moment and then fall into a TikTok-shaped rabbit hole. Having a strong routine can help your child prevent mindless scrolling, and ensure any screen time they do have is positive and productive.

Reduced parent stress

As a parent, you always have a lot to juggle. Home, work, school, your social life, your kids’ social life – it adds up quickly. Having to constantly make decisions throughout the day only makes things more stressful. A lack of structure also opens up opportunities for your kids to constantly make requests, whether it’s for one more TV programme or some time on their tablet. Having clear rules about when things can happen not only makes you feel more organized, but avoids these potential grounds for conflict. 

How to create a family routine

If you haven’t sat down to create a defined routine before, it may feel overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to! You can get started with just a few easy steps – and don’t forget that you can always adapt your plan as you go along to ensure it really works for you.

1. Start with the bigger picture

To get started, make a list of the main parts of your family’s day. This could include activities like getting ready for school, doing homework, having dinner, and prepping for bedtime.

2. Fill in the detail

Then, get more specific. What does your family need (or want) to accomplish in each part of the day? A bedtime routine for example might include brushing teeth, a bath or shower, and time for reading. Make a list and then write down an estimate of how much time each step could take. This is also a good moment to think about whether each activity should involve devices, or if they can be screen-free. Our printable digital agreements will help you here.

3. Schedule the day

Put all of your daily activities and timeframes together. You can now estimate when each one needs to take place to give you enough time to do all of them.

4. Get your family’s input

Finally, make sure that your family is happy with your plan. Check that you haven’t missed anything, and that timings make sense. When you’ve agreed, help everyone to ensure they know their routine – younger children will need more help in this regard. Remember, this is an outline for your daily routine – if plans change at the last minute, that’s ok!

How parental controls can help

For each part of your daily routine, your kids will need different levels of access to devices. Maybe you want dinner time to be completely screen-free, while homework time lets them access educational websites. Parental controls, and Qustodio’s routines feature in particular, make this easy. You can schedule different device rules throughout the day to suit your family’s routine. And, with 4 readymade rule sets available, they’re easy to set up! You can:

Schedule study time

The study preset is set up to enable your child to access educational resources – while blocking distracting apps and websites like online games. While we recommend setting this during school time, you could extend it to cover homework time too! 

Give more flexibility for entertainment

Use the entertainment preset when you want to give your kids some more freedom to play on their devices – perhaps as part of your after school routine. It keeps unsafe content blocked, but allows access to games and entertainment apps.

Help them stay focused

The focus preset blocks their devices’ internet connections so they can focus on offline activities. Try this preset to help your kids really enjoy their offline hobbies.

Reduce screen time before bed

A healthy sleep routine aids in many areas of kids’ lives – from mood and school attainment to physical health. Using devices at night has been proven time and again to disrupt sleep. The bedtime preset blocks devices completely, helping your kids to put away their devices and sleep properly.

Activating any of these presets is easy when you have Qustodio: just log in, go to routines, choose add a routine and pick the preset you want. The handy calendar view makes it simple to keep track of what’s happening and when.

All in all, thinking about what you want to achieve in your day-to-day tasks, writing down your routines, and combining this with Qustodio’s tools, you and your children will feel calmer, more connected, and able to enjoy a better base from which to learn and grow.

Whether you need to look up some data or are in the mood for a shopping spree, Google is probably your first port of call. With over 6 million searches carried out on the platform every single minute, you’re not alone – and kids are just as likely to turn to the internet giant, or another search engine, to find what they’re looking for. 

Having so much information readily available can definitely make life easier, but also creates concerns about what your children might stumble upon. Teaching your kids safe internet habits and supporting them with the help of Qustodio’s parental control tools will go a long way to keeping them safe. Read on for our tips.

Switch on Safe Search

Many search engines have built-in tools to improve safety. Google and Bing’s SafeSearch feature removes explicit content, such as adult images and graphic violence, from search results. Meanwhile, YouTube’s Restricted Mode prevents your child from seeing inappropriate videos when they search on the platform, as well as hiding video comments and live streams.

These two features are an easy way to get some peace of mind, and both can be managed with Qustodio. Just log in to your Qustodio account and go to your child’s Web filtering settings. Switch on Enforce Safe Search. This will switch on restrictions for Google, Bing, and YouTube – and also prevent your child from being able to turn them off in their browser settings. 

Be aware of what your child is searching for

Keeping an eye on what your child is searching for has numerous benefits: You’ll be the first to know if your child searches for anything concerning, and you’ll get a good insight of what’s on their mind. 

However, it’s not realistic to sit right next to your child as they browse the web. That’s where Qustodio’s activity timeline comes in handy: it shows their full search history so you can stay in the know even when you’re not in the same room. Qustodio’s dashboard also gives an overview of searches, showing which words they’re most frequently looking for so you can look out for any trends. Prepped with this information, you can strike up a conversation with your child when it’s most relevant, whether it’s regarding something you’re concerned about or simply to jump in and help them with a homework query.

To monitor your child’s searches with Qustodio, you just need to head to their profile and scroll to the Web searches card for an overview, or go to their Timeline to see every search in chronological order.

Receive AI-powered search alerts

For some parents, checking every single search might not be ideal – you’d prefer to just know if there’s something you should be concerned about. Qustodio allows you to do this with its AI-driven search alerts. When switched on, you’ll receive a push notification and an email if your child searches for something potentially worrying, such as content related to:

• Bullying
• Violence
• Drugs
• Pornography
• Illegal activity

You’ll then be able to read the full details in your child’s activity timeline and help them tackle any problems they’re facing immediately. If you’re looking for help in approaching any problems you find, Qustodio’s Learning Center is full of tips to tackle difficult topics like cyberbullying and negative body image.

To activate search alerts, simply head to Web filtering in your child’s rules page, go to Settings, Alerts, and switch on the toggle for Searches.

Help your child use online search mindfully

It’s tempting to turn to Google or YouTube as soon as the thought strikes. However, a search for homework help can quite easily turn into a 10-minute deep dive into a topic only tangentially related. Remind your kids that there are other ways to find information – whether that’s taking some more time to think about the subject, talking to you, or checking their books. That way, there’s less chance of stumbling across unsafe content and of distraction.

Teach them to question what they read

Search engines aim to put the most relevant results as high as possible. However, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to trust everything you see. Teach your kids to check that the websites they’re being presented with are reliable, to question what they read, and to cross reference multiple sources.

Encourage them to talk to you

Children are naturally curious. Ensure they know that if they have questions about anything, from puberty and relationships to mental health, they can come to you. As well as building your relationship, learning about these topics from you will allow you to ensure they receive information appropriate for their age. 

If your child does search online for something you would have preferred for them to ask you about, don’t panic. Creating a space for open dialogue will also help them to feel comfortable in coming to you if they find something they’re concerned about. 

With so much uncontrolled content available online, it’s normal to feel some worry about what your child might discover. Using a combination of search engine parental controls, Qustodio, and consistent communication with your child, will help to ensure they have a positive experience when browsing online.

The holiday season is the perfect time to create new family traditions and memories. While it may be tempting for your kids to spend more time in front of screens while they’re not at school, getting a good balance of online and offline activities will help you to enjoy the quality family time that you’re looking for. 

To give you some inspiration for screen-free activities that will keep your kids entertained, we’ve asked a few of our team members at Qustodio how they celebrate the holidays with their families – and put together some tips on how Qustodio’s parental control tools can help you too.

Screen-free activities for the whole family

“During the holiday season, we always find ways to help the younger generation connect with the older generation, both in and outside the family. We often volunteer for charity projects or local initiatives so we can give back to the community together. At home, we organize events that involve everyone – we pass down family recipes from the older generation to the younger generation by cooking together, and we host a family talent contest. The more the merrier!”

Dan, Customer Support

“My family really loves competitions and puzzles, so we use our time off in the holidays to make the ultimate scavenger hunt! We either hide holiday-themed objects, or we hide one clue after another, taking us to the final prize. It can be a lot of work, but if we’re short of time we make use of technology, and use online scavenger hunt suggestions and apps to make our life a bit easier. 

 

We like to use the internet to help us learn over the holidays, so we also search for things like science experiments we can perform together, with basic tools and ingredients that we have around the house. This way, we always have something to do, and we bring the online world offline!”

Nils, Education

“I love decorating, and so does my family. We use the holidays as an opportunity to get out together and enjoy nature. We then bring home things we find that we can decorate, such as pine cones, tree bark, and branches. We get really creative with whatever we find – we paint pine cones, make colorful wreaths, or build beautiful centerpieces inspired by the outdoors. We love making things together instead of buying all our decorations. It gives the house a rustic feel!”

Ornella, Customer Success

“My family absolutely loves the festive season. Every year we pick a different theme that helps keep us inspired – so one year we’ll do a sports theme, one year we’ll do a cookery theme, and we decorate the house and base our gifting around that theme. As a family, we also organize and lead tours around our local area, with the best tour receiving a prize. This way we get out and enjoy the lights and the celebrations, but through the eyes of one of our family members…and it helps keep things fresh, as it’s different every year!”

Irene, HR

“At my place, we’re big fans of charades. It’s a classic tradition that dates back to the 16th century and it’s the perfect excuse to ditch screens and spend some time together! Charades is a game of pantomimes: you have to ‘act out’ a phrase without speaking, while the other members of your team try to guess what the phrase is. The objective is for your team to guess the phrase as quickly as possible and you can always give prizes to the team that wins. 

If you’re no novice to charades, there are lots of ways you can switch it up. Have the whole family act out the clue for one person to guess, or ‘pass down’ the charade from one family member to another, like you would in telephone!​​”

Marvin, Customer Success

“One thing which I did when I was little, and which I always do now with my kids, is make a collage wishlist. Instead of writing out a present list, or using the internet to search for what we want, we cut out images from magazines and toy store catalogs and glue them into a collage of the kind of gifts we’d like to receive. It’s fun for little kids, and older teens and family members enjoy helping them out – but everyone makes their own, too!”

Tamara, Marketing

How Qustodio can help during the holiday season

Want a little extra help getting the best online-offline balance so you can try out the activities above? Qustodio’s parental control tools are here to do just that. Check out our top tips below and make the most of Qustodio to get more family time.

1. Schedule device-free moments

Use routines to schedule time away from screens so your kids can fully disconnect from their devices. Whether you want to encourage conversation at the dinner table or simply enjoy some festive, offline activities, routines will help everyone to focus on family time. 

2. Manage game and app use

If your kids are receiving new devices and videogames over the holidays, then set time limits for particular games and apps to help them maintain a healthy balance. They’ll be able to enjoy exploring their new tech without it taking up all of their holiday time.

3. Monitor phone calls and messages

Your kids will probably be excited to keep in touch with their friends from school over the holidays, and may be spending more time calling and texting them. Activate calls & SMS monitoring to keep an eye on who they’re talking to and make sure they’re getting a good balance between online messaging and face-to-face conversation.

4. Set up alerts

If you want to let your kids explore online this holiday season while staying safe, Qustodio alerts are here to help. You’ll be notified straight away if they search for something concerning, including anything related to bullying, violence, or mature content. You can also activate Safe Search for an extra layer of protection. 

By combining Qustodio’s parental control tools with some of our festive screen-free activity ideas, you’ll be sure to get in some quality time as a family this season!

For all the excitement that comes with a new school year – reunions with friends, a brand new timetable – it can be tricky to get back into the school routine after the summer vacation. Starting the year on the right foot however is a great way to set your kids up for academic success (and to reduce your own stress too). Qustodio is here to help: read on for our tips on how to make the transition to the classroom as seamless as possible. 

Switch focus from video games to school

There are benefits to playing the occasional video game, including bonding with friends and improving spatial awareness skills. However, playing for too long can make it difficult for kids to focus in the classroom – the sustained attention needed there is very different to the task-switching the average video game needs. Multiple studies have shown that playing for more than an hour a day can lead to issues maintaining attention at school.

Qustodio’s games and apps feature is here to help. You can see a list of apps that your child has used and either set daily time limits for each one or block them completely to make sure your kids can get focused for school. You can also choose to receive an email when your child uses an app for the first time, so it’s easier to set rules for new games and apps straight away.

Want to know more about setting up rules for games & apps? Follow these simple instructions in time for the new semester.

Take advantage of all learning opportunities

Spending a lot of time in front of screens at an early age can cause problems and delays in developing language and literacy skills. When it comes to older children, there are links between high screen time and lower academic performance. This can be put down both to high screen time causing attention issues, and also to the likelihood that they’re missing out on learning opportunities away from their screens.

With Qustodio, you can set your kids up for success by limiting their screen time and ensuring that when they do have screen time, it’s safe and educational. Set an allowance for each day of the week with the daily time limits feature and choose what happens when they reach their limit (either prevent internet access or lock the device). Don’t worry, you can always add extra time if they need it. 

Then, choose the kind of content that your kids can access when they are online with the web filtering feature. Allow them to visit websites that Qustodio has categorized as educational, and block any that contain harmful content or that could distract your kids from their schoolwork.

Learn more about daily time limits and web filtering in our guides.

Get a good night’s sleep

Now that term’s starting up again, it’s extra-important that your kids get a good night’s sleep. Lack of quality sleep, whether it be from scrolling on TikTok late into the night or from melatonin-disrupting blue light, can lead to poor moods and memory problems. A good night’s sleep will leave your kids energized and ready to take on the school day fully. 

It’s easy to improve both the quality and the quantity of your kids’ sleep with Qustodio’s routines feature. This enables you to schedule custom rules and screen-free times for specific moments of the day. It comes with a readymade bedtime ruleset which, when activated, blocks devices from 9pm until 7am every school night. All you have to do is add it to your list of routines, check that the times and days work for you, and then save! 

Want some more info on setting up routines? Have a look at our guide.

Ensure your kids are safe when they’re out of the house

Going back to school means your kids are likely to be out of the house more than they have been for a while. They might be making their own way to school and, once there, you can’t be sure what they’re up to on their phones – so it’s understandable if you’re worried about keeping them safe both on and offline. 

Use the family locator to check where they are and that they’ve arrived safely. We recommend saving school and home to your places so that you’ll get notifications when they leave and arrive at each one – no more reminding them to let you know themselves. You can also download Qustodio on all your kids’ devices and make sure they’re accessing positive content when they’re out of the house. Set content rules and block apps on their smartphones as well as their laptops and other devices for true peace of mind. 

Head to our how-to guides to learn more about the family locator or visit our downloads page to install Qustodio on all your devices.

All in all, the back to school period is a busy one and we’re here to ease your concerns. From protecting your kids’ online activity when they’re out of the house, to creating more learning opportunities, Qustodio can help you and your kids to have a great academic year.

The best kind of screen time is educational, fun, and always balanced with offline activities. Make sure your kids’ screen time ticks all of those boxes by using Qustodio to schedule regular breaks and limits for each day of the week. Watch the video below to see how to set healthy time limits with Qustodio, and keep reading for more detailed information.

Set daily time limits

To start, log in to your parent dashboard and select the child you want to set limits for. Click on Set rules and then on Daily time limits. There, you can select each day of the week and use the corresponding dial to choose the total screen time allowance for that day. You might want to set higher limits for days when your kids need their devices to study, and lower limits when you want them to spend more time outside – whatever works for your family.

Define screen-free moments

As well as setting total allowances per day, you can also set the times when your kids can – and can’t – have screen time. To do so, head to your child’s Rules screen and then to Routines. There you can create a schedule that works for your family.

First, select Add routine. You’ll then see a range of readymade rule sets to choose from so you can get set up quickly and easily. We recommend blocking devices at night so that your kids can enjoy a healthy sleep schedule – to do this, choose Bedtime, check the times and days work for you, and save. If you’d also like to set aside some internet-free time in the evenings to help remove distractions, then select Focus and do the same!

As well as using these readymade rule sets, you can also define your own screen-free times from scratch. Select Add routine, then Custom, and then Device blocks. Choose the type of block you want to use – either disconnect the internet, or lock devices completely. Then, give your routine a name, decide when you want it to run, and click Save routine. Any routines you create will now run each week at the time you set.

Note that if you are on an older Qustodio plan, you’ll see Restricted times instead of Routines. If so, turn on the Apply restricted times toggle and decide when you’d like to block device use. Highlight the corresponding time slots in red and they’ll be reserved for screen-free moments. 

Choose what happens when time is up

There are a couple of options for what happens when your kids reach their daily time limits. Choose the option that works for you in the Settings tab when you’re applying the rules: either lock navigation to block apps and the internet, or lock the device to allow only essential functions like emergency calls. We always recommend chatting with your kids first about the limits you’re setting so that any blocks don’t come as a surprise!

Turn on alerts

You can also switch on the Alert me option to be notified when your children reach their limit. This will help you to effortlessly keep an eye on how long they’re spending on their devices – if your kids are often reaching their limits early in the day, you can decide if it’s time to talk to them about their screen time again.

While texting offers kids an easy way to stay connected with friends and family, it also opens them up to risks like cyberbullying, predators, and phishing scams. With Qustodio’s calls & messages monitoring feature, you can keep an eye on your kids’ communications to detect suspicious contacts immediately and nip any problems in the bud. Read on to see how to set up monitoring for both Android and iOS devices!

Activate monitoring

If your child has an iPhone or iPad, then you need a few things to get started with monitoring: your own Windows or Mac computer, your child’s device, and a cable to connect the two. Once you have these to hand, download the Calls & Messages app onto your computer: head here for the Windows version and here for the Mac version. Then follow the instructions on screen to set up monitoring. 

Monitoring an Android device instead? Then first, download the Kids App from the Qustodio help center onto your child’s device – even if you’ve already downloaded the Kids Apps from the Google Play Store. That version isn’t compatible with calls & messages monitoring.

Once you’ve installed the app you need, log into your parent dashboard and go to the Rules section. Select Calls & messages and just switch on the toggle next to Monitor calls & messages. You’ve now activated monitoring!

Show message content

Keeping an eye on your child’s SMS messages (and iMessages if they have an iPhone) will help you make sure that they’re staying safe in all their interactions. You can therefore choose to see the full content of both incoming and outgoing messages in their timeline. To do so, open the Messages tab on the Calls & messages rules screen and switch the toggle to the right.

Check calls & messages activity

Head to your child’s activity timeline for a complete overview of their calls and messages. There, you can check who they’re calling (and who’s calling them), when they called, plus how long they’ve been speaking for. It’s easy to tell whether their call was incoming or outgoing by checking the arrow next to it – upwards pointing indicates outgoing activity, while downwards indicates incoming. Depending on whether you’ve switched on Show message content, you’ll also see full information about their messages.

Want a quick overview instead? Check the calls & messages card on your child’s activity Dashboard for the highlights. You can also switch on daily or weekly email summaries from your Account page to get a summary sent directly to your inbox.

Block phone calls*

If you want to stop your kids from making or receiving phone calls on their Android devices, it’s easy to do. From the Calls & messages screen, simply slide the toggles next to Incoming calls and Outgoing calls to the left. Now, your child won’t see any notifications if someone tries to call them. If they try to phone someone else, they’ll see a blocking screen. Don’t worry – emergency service numbers will never be blocked by Qustodio. 

Set rules for specific phone numbers*

Have you given your child a smartphone mainly so they can stay in contact with you? Or, are there just a couple of phone numbers you’ve noticed are suspicious and want to block? We’ve got these situations covered. Set customized rules for specific phone numbers by selecting Add a number and filling out the details. Then, select Allow all calls or Block all calls and click save! Now these phone numbers won’t be affected by the general rules you’ve set above, so you can, for example, block all calls apart from those with you, or allow all apart from those with suspicious activity.

*Blocking phone calls and specific numbers is available for Android only

Between schoolwork and socializing, screens become an increasingly unavoidable part of children’s lives as they get older. At the same time, teens and tweens want more privacy and autonomy. It can become a true juggling act to keep them safe online while nurturing their path to independence. 

Many families therefore call on parental controls to support them in this journey. But with so many tools – and so much information – out there, where do you start? Combining recommendations from experts and our own research, this guide will help you get set up quickly and start promoting positive device use for your teens. Got younger kids? Check out our guide for under 8s too. 

Have open discussions about the pros and cons of technology

Before installing parental controls on your kids’ devices, it’s a good idea to have an open conversation with them first. Teens in particular will be much more likely to stick to the boundaries you set, and much less resentful of them, if they feel involved along the way. Qustodio’s digital agreement, especially created for teens and tweens, is here to help you involve your kids in those decisions. With talking points to guide reflection on your family’s technology use, it leads you through how to set healthy boundaries together that everyone’s happy with. 

Manage social media use

As kids reach their teens, social media plays an increasingly large part in their lives – whether it’s to chat to friends or stay up to date with the latest trends. Most social media platforms state that their users must be over the age of 13, though it’s up to you to decide if you feel your teen is ready to start using social media. If they are, then it’s important to take measures to make sure they stay safe and develop a healthy relationship with it. Qustodio offers a number of ways to do this.

All the social apps that your child uses will appear in a list in the games & apps section of their profile. From there, you can choose whether you want to block them or set a time limit. Reducing social media use to less than 30 minutes a day is linked to improved mental health – for this reason we recommend setting this as an absolute maximum, and ideally less. If you notice particular platforms having negative effects on your teens, then we recommend you block them completely.

Qustodio quick setup: Social media apps

1. From the Rules page, go to Games & apps and switch on the toggle
2. Use the dropdown next to each app to block apps or set time limits. For tweens, we recommend blocking all social media apps. For teens, we recommend setting daily time limits totalling up to 30 minutes a day.

Protect screen-free moments

Experts recommend a maximum of 2 hours of screen time each day for tweens – with a little more flexibility for teens. This means that the type of screen time your kids have, and when they have it, becomes more important as they grow.

Qustodio comes with preset routines that enable you to schedule device blocks throughout the day. We recommend adding Bedtime to your child’s schedule – this will block your kids’ devices between 9 pm and 7 am Sunday-Thursday, helping them to get quality sleep without distractions. Customize your routines as much as you want to suit your family’s schedule and protect other moments that should be screen-free too, such as dinner time.

If you have older teens and want to encourage them to manage their own time without setting hard limits yourself, you can activate alerts instead. This means that you’ll receive an email letting you know when they’ve used a certain amount of screen time. You can then decide if your teen is using it positively or in need of a break.

Qustodio quick setup: Routines and Daily time limit alerts

1. From the Rules page, select Routines
2. Click Add routine and select Bedtime
3. Check you’re happy with the time and days set, and click Save routine. Note that teens and tweens should get between 8-12 hours of sleep every night, with devices blocked at least one hour before bed – so you may need to block extra time in the evening. 

If you prefer to set alerts for daily time limits instead, then follow the instructions below:

1. From the Rules page, select Daily time limits 
2. Use the dial to set a screen time limit of about 2 hours each day
3. Underneath settings, switch off Lock navigation and Lock device. Switch on Alert me. You’ll now receive an alert when your child reaches their 2-hour limit.

Focus on awareness and habit-forming

A great way to help your teens develop self-awareness when it comes to the digital world is to open up conversations about their technology use at the right time. Qustodio gives you direct insight into their online habits so you can do this with ease.

Once you’ve set up protection on your kids’ devices, head to your dashboard to see a summary of their daily, weekly, and monthly activity, or go to your child’s timeline to see everything in chronological order. You can also receive a quick overview straight to your email inbox. When you install Qustodio, this will be on by default – so you’ll receive both a daily and a weekly activity summary. You can edit your preferences for how often you receive these in your account page. We recommend using these reports as a springboard for discussion with your teen.

Qustodio quick setup: Email summaries

1. Log in to Qustodio and go to your Account page
2. Scroll to Notifications
3. Ensure that both Daily email reports and Weekly email summary are switched on

Keep your teens focused on positive, productive content

Whether your kids are researching an essay or trying to solve a tricky math problem, they’re most likely turning to the internet for help. However, with so much information available, it’s easy to get side-tracked and go down a rabbit-hole of unrelated content. Use Qustodio to help your kids stay focused when they are using their devices.

When you set up protection, Qustodio’s baseline web filters will automatically apply. These prevent access to sites with concerning content like:

• Gambling
• Violence
• Pornography
• Drugs
• Alcohol
• Profanity

You can customize your settings as much as you want to protect or supervise your teen further. As well as blocking categories and websites, you can also switch on alerts for those you’re happy for your child to have access to, but want to know about. 

Qustodio quick setup: Web filtering

1. From the Rules page, go to Web filtering
2. Check the list of content categories that are allowed (marked with a green tick) and blocked (marked with a red circle) by default
3. If you want to block any other categories, click the 3 dots next to each of them and choose Block.
4. If you want to switch on alerts for any categories, click the 3 dots and choose Alert me. We recommend switching on alerts for sites that are largely safe for teens but require balance – such as gaming and social media.

Keep an eye on where they are

Starting to give your teens more freedom to go out by themselves? Whether they’re meeting friends or making their own way to school, Qustodio can help give you the peace of mind that they’re staying safe.

Switch on location monitoring to see exactly where your child has been, and check on the map to see where they are now. We recommend you also turn on location alerts. These will let you know whenever your child leaves or arrives at any of the places you’ve saved

Qustodio quick setup: Location monitoring

1. From the Rules page, go to Location monitoring. 
2. Switch on the toggle next to Enable location tracking. You’ll now be able to see your child’s location history.
3. Then, from your Parents App, go to the Family locator
4. Tap the pin on the bottom right corner of the map and then Add a new place
5. Enter the address you want, give the location a name, and click save. We recommend adding home, school, and any other places your teen frequently visits.

Helping your teens gain better awareness of how to safely use technology will set them up well for the years to come. Staying aware of how they’re using technology is the best way to guide them towards healthy decisions and strong self-awareness – and with just a few simple steps, Qustodio will help you keep an eye on what your kids are doing and set limits when you need to.

An upset toddler becoming instantly calm when handed a device is a scene familiar to many parents. With their bright colors and satisfying sounds, devices quickly attract young kids’ attention and put them, temporarily at least, in a good mood. When it comes to developing language, social, and motor skills though, there’s nothing quite like hands-on, real-life interaction – away from the instant gratification of screens. 

For that reason, many families are turning to parental controls to help balance their child’s screen time. But what’s the best way to get started? Pulling together recommendations from experts and our own research, this guide will help you get set up quickly and begin building the healthy habits you want for your family’s youngest members.

Have open discussions about the pros and cons of technology

Before installing parental controls on your kids’ devices, it’s a good idea to talk to your children about them first. Involving them in the process will help them to understand why their device use is being regulated, causing fewer arguments in the future. Qustodio’s digital agreement, especially created for under 8s, is a useful tool that you can use as a springboard for discussion. With conversation starters that encourage your kids to reflect on how they use technology and how it makes them feel, it smoothly leads to agreeing on how devices can be used in your household, while explaining to them why boundaries are important. 

Protect screen-free moments and set screen time limits

Experts recommend a maximum of 2 hours of screen time each day for under 8s – including any time used for educational purposes. For kids under the age of 5, no more than one hour is recommended, with the less the better. Parental control tools like Qustodio offer a number of ways to ensure your kids don’t surpass this maximum.

To begin with, Qustodio comes with restricted times already set up – you just need to activate them. When you do, your kids’ devices will be blocked between 8 pm and 7 am every day, helping them to get quality sleep without distractions. Customize these restricted times as much as you want to suit your family’s schedule: it’s best to also protect other moments that should be screen-free too, such as dinner time. 

In addition, we recommend you set daily time limits of 2 hours or less each day. If your kids need extra time for educational purposes, you can easily adjust the limits. Creating this regular routine, and blocking devices automatically without having to ask your kids to turn them off, is a great way to build good habits and prevent arguments.

Qustodio quick setup: Restricted times and Daily time limits

1. From the Rules page, select Restricted times
2. Switch on the toggle. Your child’s device will now be blocked from 8 pm to 7 am every day
3. Block other time slots by highlighting them in red. Studies from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine conclude that under 8s should get between 9-13 hours of sleep every night, and that devices should be blocked at least one hour before bed. It’s therefore best to extend the default restricted time to start by at least 6 pm or 7 pm.
4. Now, go back to Rules
5. Select Daily time limits
6. Use the dial to set a screen time limit of 2 hours or less each day

Create a safe space to explore online

It’s easy for very young kids to stumble upon inappropriate content without meaning to, making it particularly important to shield them from more mature parts of the internet. That’s why Qustodio comes with baseline web filters, automatically preventing access to sites with content that includes things like:

• Gambling
• Violence
• Pornography
• Drugs
• Alcohol
• Profanity

You can customize your settings as much as you want to limit access to any other content categories or specific websites.

Qustodio quick setup: Web filtering

1. From the Rules page, go to Web filtering
2. Check the list of content categories that are allowed (marked with a green tick) and blocked (marked with a red circle) by default
3. If you want to block any other categories, click the 3 dots next to each of them and choose Block. We recommend blocking any sites that make it easy to have interactions with strangers or to spend money, like social media, chat sites, forums, and shopping sites.

Manage games and apps together

Picking out games and playing them together is a win-win scenario – your kids can continue to develop their social skills and you have full oversight of what they’re looking at. If your child wants to download an app that you don’t know much about, then reading their age ratings and descriptions on the app store is a good place to start – and Qustodio’s app safety guides will give you a more detailed insight to figure out if it’s appropriate for your child.

Having said that, we know that physically keeping an eye on all your kids’ games can be tricky. Qustodio lets you see a list of all the apps your child has accessed on their devices and set the usage rules you want. We recommend you set blocks and time limits to make sure they spend plenty of time offline – playing tactile games is a surer way to good motor skills development than screen-only games. 

We also recommend you use Qustodio to activate app alerts – you’ll receive a notification whenever your child uses a new app for the first time. That way, if they download an app that you haven’t approved, you can immediately check its safety rating and set the rules you want. 

Qustodio quick setup: Games & apps

1. From the Rules page, go to Games & apps and switch on the toggle
2. Use the dropdown next to each app to block them or set time limits. We recommend blocking all social media apps plus others which allow talking to strangers like Omegle, and any games with mature or violent content like Bitlife and Fortnite.
3. Return to the Rules page and go to YouTube. Experts recommend blocking access to both youtube.com and the YouTube app for under 8s due to its wide range of user-generated content.

Keep an eye on your kids’ activity

Using devices together is the best way to ensure your kids stay safe and balanced – but we know this is not always possible. Parental controls enable you to see what your kids are doing even when you’re not physically there – and helpfully give you a great overview of their long-term habits that you wouldn’t get otherwise. With Qustodio, you can do this both through your parent dashboard and through daily and weekly activity summaries sent straight to your inbox.

Qustodio quick setup: Activity summaries

1. Log in to Qustodio and head to your Account page
2. Go to Notifications
3. For under 8s, switch on the toggles next to Daily email reports and Weekly email summary

Laying the foundations of a healthy approach to technology at this young age will benefit your kids for the years to come. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. With just a few simple steps, parental controls let you start building healthy habits and prevent your kids from spending too long on screens – allowing them to spend their time learning, playing, and growing in the way that’s best for them.