There's a wide range of behavior among parental control and monitoring programs. Some install in stealth mode and spy on your kids, which is just creepy. Symantec Norton Family Premier, on the other hand, encourages parents to engage with their children and make them aware of exactly what rules are in place. Norton offers supervision across an unlimited number of devices and lets you monitor all of your kids' activity from either its revamped web portal or a standalone companion app. It doesn't work on Macs and has some browser- and encryption-based limitations, but its easy setup and variety of capabilities make it a solid choice. Pricing and Platforms Pricing tiers vary widely in this field, but Norton's plan is pretty simple. Paying $49.99 per year gets you a Norton Family Premier subscription, which includes capabilities such as web filtering, time usage restrictions, and location tracking. It keeps 30 days of activity history and has some extras like instant locking and SMS logging. Norton used to offer a freemium version of the software, albeit with some limitations, but it no longer offers that account tier. You can try out the software for yourself via a free, 30-day trial, however. View All 7 Photos in Gallery There aren't any limitations on the number of children or devices you can add to an account, which is ideal for the always-connected generation and for large families. It's an indisputably good deal when considered alongside its competitors. By comparison, a single license for Net Nanny runs $39.99 per year, while a $79.99 annual subscription gets you a ten-license Family Protection Pass. Qustodio costs $54.95 per year for use on up to five phones, tablets, PCs, or Macs. Norton mainly handles configuration and reporting via an online console, though you can make changes from the Android app. A local agent app enforces the rules and monitors activity. You can install Norton's tracker to monitor and control activity on Windows, but Macs are beyond its power. That said, you can still access the web portal on a Mac to set up parameters, view your child's activity, and manage other child profiles. To set up Norton Family on either an Android or an iPhone, simply head over to the Google Play store or the App Store to download the app. We installed Norton Family on an HP EliteBook 8460 running Windows 10 to evaluate the desktop monitoring. For mobile, we did most of our testing on a Google Pixel and a Nexus 5X running Android 8.0, though we also set it up on an iPhone 8 running iOS 11. Getting Started The first thing you do with this service is to create a Norton Family account and sign in online. To add a child, specify a name, gender, and birth year, and either select an avatar or upload a profile photo. Norton sets up the initial configuration based on the birth year you specify, but you can change it later. When you click on any child, you can manage their settings and customize the type of notifications the app sends. You also need to download the Norton Family agent on each Windows, Android, or iOS device your kids use. Just log in to the console and click the Download Norton Family link—this gives you the correct download. Each time you install the app, Norton asks which child uses it. For PCs, you connect each child profile to a specific Windows account. To prevent your child from uninstalling or circumventing these apps, Norton recommends you rescind any administrative rights and remove all generic guest accounts. Setup on mobile is slightly more involved than on a desktop. For Android, you need to give Norton a few different permissions, including usage and accessibility access, and you need to add it as a device admin app. On iOS, you need to enable location access and install a mobile device management (MDM) profile for all the features to work. As mentioned earlier, Norton emphasizes that parents should communicate with their kids, instead of attempting to secretly monitor and control them. There is no silent install option; if you use Norton Family to monitor your kids, they will be aware of it. The configuration settings you make online get boiled down to a set of house rules the kids will see and can easily understand. The Norton mobile app and notification tray icon explain the rules with such clear messages as, "Web sites that I visit can be monitored" and "My time on the computer can be restricted." Web Interface Norton Family's web interface benefits from a significant recent redesign. All the elements are separated by ample white space and use large tabs and icons. The trademark Norton yellow is used sparingly, while secondary colors appear consistently across other elements. It's a vast improvement over the old, left-rail menu system. One annoying thing, however, is that the dashboard logs you out automatically after only a few minutes of inactivity, and there's no way to change that. In general, automatic logouts are good for security, but you ought to be able to adjust them. The main page has three tabs, Children, Device, and Parents. The default tab (Children) shows a list of all your child profiles. If you click on a profile, Activity and House Rules tabs appear below it. The Activity section shows an overview of each of the eight supervision categories: Location, Mobile App, Search Social Network, Text Message, Time, Video, and Web. Clicking on individual tabs lets you drill down for more detail. With the other tab, House Rules, you customize restrictions across the categories. The next tab across the top, Devices, lets you manage your children's existing phones or tablets or add new ones. You can filter the list to show everything or just those PCs, phones and tablets assigned to particular children, but there's no filter for age range, which could be useful for large families. Each has an appropriate icon and an editable name so it's easy to distinguish them, which helps. For PCs, you can specify which login accounts apply to which children from this section. The rightmost tab, Parents, is where you can edit your own profile and add other administrative accounts. To invite a parent, just click the Plus sign at the upper left. Keep in mind that anyone you add will have full access to your account settings and all of each child's activities, so be sure to only invite people you trust completely. Web Filtering The central feature of most parental control systems is the content filter, the component that keeps kids from accidentally (or deliberately) visiting inappropriate websites. Norton's content filter offers great customization options but sometimes falters in its implementation. To get started, click Web Supervision from the House Rules tab. First, you need to select what level of supervision to enable, ranging from High (block the website completely) to Moderate (give a warning, but allow access) to Low (monitor, but don't block anything). Net Nanny also lets you choose to warn instead of blocking, but it lets you configure that option separately for each of its categories, whereas with Norton this setting applies across the board. Below that, you can manage access to Norton's 48 content categories. You can block categories manually, or use preset collections based on the child's age group. Hovering with the mouse over any category displays an explanatory tooltip, which is helpful if you decide to select a custom set of sites to block. If those 48 categories don't offer enough customization for you, there are also dedicated sections for blocking or allowing specific sites. When Norton blocks access to a site, it explains why. The child can optionally send parents a message requesting access or click a link to report that the site was incorrectly categorized. By default, you get an email notification when your child ignores a warning or tries to visit a blocked site. You can also view a log of web visits on the Activity page online. The list can be massive, so Norton lets you limit the display to questionable activity, select a specific category, or specify a time range. Clicking an item in the list opens up a highly detailed display that includes a thumbnail of the page, categories assigned to the site, and the number of visits. From the detailed display, you can also choose to dispute the categorization, whitelist the site for the child's access, or allow access to the entire category. It's much more than a static report. Advanced web tracking features on Windows, such as social networking, video, and web and search supervision for HTTPS sites requires an extension that is currently only available for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. One serious issue is that a child can simply disable this plugin at will and browse to their heart's content. They could then access any HTTPS-encrypted sites, including anonymizing proxies, so all bets are off. Norton seriously needs to improve how this works. We tested Norton out in various browsers by trying to access Twitter, a site with HTTPS encryption. We did this after blocking the social media category in the House Rules and setting supervision to the highest level. On Chrome, with the extension enabled, Norton blocked the site, reported the activity and threw up a red flag. On Opera and Microsoft Edge, it allowed us to access the site without any warning. We even tried explicitly blocking Twitter but got the same results. However, Norton did block access to unencrypted sites, such as CNN, on both Edge and Opera, when we blocked the relevant category or added it to the exception list. We confirmed multiple times that even if the broad content category is blocked or you add a site to the Restricted Website list, your child can still use a not-supported browser to access any HTTPS-encrypted sites. These are serious shortcomings and a child can easily take advantage of these workarounds. Restrictions are applied locally on the device, so a child cannot get around these blocks by using a VPN, and it will also alert you if your kid attempts to use an anonymizing web proxy unless your child uses an unsupported browser. If you want broader control, use OpenDNS Home VIP or SafeDNS for whole-network filtering. On Android and iOS, Norton recommends that kids use the integrated Norton Browser. On Android, parents can just block every other browser app to ensure that a child uses a monitored browser. On iOS, the MDM disables Safari and you just need to toggle the Installing Apps option in the Restrictions section of the main settings app to prevent them from getting around the rules. The Norton Browser is fine; it blocks both HTTPS and non-encrypted sites reliably and is reasonably quick. Time Supervision Norton also helps parents manage when children use their hardware—if the time allowance is up or the schedule doesn't allow it, they can't use it. Net Nanny limits the amount of time a child can spend on the internet but does not lock down their hardware. With Qustodio , parents can schedule hardware use and internet use, or even limit the time spent on specific programs. Norton's time supervision works on Android and Windows, but it isn't available for iOS. As with content filtering, time supervision is automatically configured based on the child's age. The preset age ranges don't affect how many hours a child can use their smartphone, but they do change the hours in which it is operable. If you want to change the schedule or daily limit, you need to do so separately for each day of the week, in ether hour or half-hour increments. We prefer the grid-style schedule used by many competing products, as it's easy to block out a time range on every day of the week with a single mouse-drag. You set time limits and supervision levels individually. The High supervision option completely blocks the child once time is up, while Low just continues to monitor the activity after the time limit is reached. You can set up a PIN as well, for access in case of emergency. The time allowance in Net Nanny covers all devices; a child who runs out of internet time on the iPad can't just switch to the PC and keep surfing. Qustodio swings both ways, letting you choose between an overall time allowance or individual settings. On the Time tab of the Activity page, parents can view a calendar that shows how much time the child used on a given day. Each phone, tablet, and PC is tracked separately. The page also lists occasions when the child ran out of time or disregarded a timeout warning. Facebook Monitoring On Windows and with supported browsers, Norton can monitor Facebook activity. If your child creates an account using a false age, you get a notification. You also get notified any time the child posts personal data (more about personal data protection shortly). You can opt to block access to other social media sites entirely, or disable the mobile apps in question. It's common for products that monitor social media to require the installation of an app. That means the parent needs the child's login credentials; it also means the child can uninstall the app at any time. Qustodio takes a novel approach—if the app isn't enabled, it blocks access to the site. Qustodio tracks all social activity, including posts, pictures, and comments, regardless of the hardware used. Norton simply watches the browser and notes when the child is using Facebook. One problem with this approach is that Facebook's frequent changes can disable it until Symantec's engineers push out a fix. Extra Features Turning on Search Supervision tells Norton to force Safe Search on Google, Ask, YouTube, and Yahoo. If the kids try to turn it off, Norton turns it right back on. You can also see a list of what kids are searching for in the Search tab on the Activity page. The site also claims to force-enable it on Bing, but in testing, it did not lock down Safe Search. Here's an uncommon feature—Norton can monitor what videos your child watches on YouTube and Hulu. On the Activity page's Video tab you can see a list of all the videos your child has watched. Each item includes the date and time of viewing along with the video's category. Opening an item gets you the full description, a thumbnail image, and a link so you can view the clip yourself. We wish that this functionality applied to video streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as well. Kids can be too forthcoming when it comes to sharing personal information. You can record your child's SSN, phone number, and email address, along with one free-form field for other personal data. A child who tries to share this information gets a warning that it's not allowed, and you receive an email notification. However, this feature can't track data sent on secure (HTTPS) pages, so its usefulness is somewhat limited. Norton recently added an Instant Lock feature. On Windows and Android, this renders the device temporarily unusable and locks down any activity. On Android, your child can still make calls to approved contacts, but apps won't launch. This feature is usable on iOS, but it is controlled by the MDM. This profile can be uninstalled without triggering any notification, however, so long as your child first enables airplane mode. Apps and Messaging Kids these days are just as likely to use a smartphone or tablet as a clunky old computer. Norton recognizes that fact with a number of features that are specific to mobile platforms. Keep in mind that many features are not available on iOS at all, as we've mentioned. On the App tab of the House Rules page, you can see a complete list of all the installed apps. Simply check the box for any app you want to block. The page does point out that new apps will always be allowed until you block them. But a quick look at the App tab on the Activity page reveals any new installations. Norton can also monitor your child's SMS messages and contacts on Android. Parents can view the child's mobile friends and assign either a monitored (messaging is allowed, but conversations are logged) or unmonitored (messaging is allowed and conversation logs are not recorded) status. On the latest versions of Android, you can no longer outright block a contact. In testing, it recorded incoming and outgoing messages without an issue and notified us that Norton logged the activity. Keep in mind that for MMS messages, it does not save the content, but rather just the instance of the activity. This function is limited to SMS message types and doesn't apply to services like WhatsApp, Signal, or Line, but you could just block these other apps entirely. Like app supervision, this feature is Android-only. Location In addition to keeping your kids safe online, Norton can help you make sure that your kids are at a safe location in the real world. On both Android and iOS, Norton uses all the standard methods of determining location, including monitoring GPS and Wi-Fi use, as well as by tracking the SIM card. On the Activity page's location tab, you can view a map with pins for recent locations, and a timeline that identifies when each pin was dropped. Clicking a pin gets an address and an accuracy estimate. Keep in mind that the app does not include geo-fencing functionality, so you can't set it up to alert you when your child leaves certain geographical boundaries. It also can't even automatically notify you when a child's location changes, though it will refresh every 15 minutes. Both Boomerang and Locategy offer excellent geofencing capabilities. Norton Family for Android Kids aren't the only ones going mobile. The Parent Mode on Android lets you set rules and view activity and alerts for the devices you monitor. All of the functionality of the web console is here, but unfortunately, its excellent interface did not make the jump to mobile. The app uses the same mix of white and grey elements, with the occasional splash of color, but the layout is not nearly as clean and a lot of the text looks a bit small. Further, the app's look suffers from poorly aligned checkboxes, artificial shadows, and inconsistently spaced elements. It displays tabs for Alerts, Activity, and Rules across the top with individual options organized under each section. All the rules and activity tracking work as reported above, regardless of whether you configure them on the desktop or on via the parent app on Android. In Child Mode, the app simply opens the Norton Browser. It does let the child access the House Rules from a left-hand menu, but that's pretty much it. If a device is set up in Child mode, parents can sign in from this menu as well to make changes as needed. Just be sure to switch back to Child Mode before handing it back to your kid! Norton Family for iPhone Norton used to offer a Parental Control app for iOS that let parents control and monitor activity, but now, the app can only be used to set up a phone or tablet for monitoring. The child app on iOS is just the Norton Browser. There are no options for parents to sign in and make changes to House Rules. This lack of a presence on iOS is frustrating, given that nearly every other competitor lets you make such changes from an iOS app. To reiterate, the following features do not work on iOS: time supervision, social network supervision, mobile app supervision, and text message supervision. It is worth noting that iOS comes with a built-in set of app blocking tools in the Restrictions section in the Settings app. From here you can block apps, such as Safari, Camera, FaceTime, and Siri. You can also use this tool to block access to the iTunes and iBooks store, as well as prevent children from installing/deleting apps and making in-app purchases. Rounding out the built-in features are content filtering by age and maturity ratings for pretty much any content types, such as music, movies, TV Shows, Books, and Apps. You can also customize any number of privacy settings and prevent features in the Game Center. Basically, this Restrictions section does a better job at protecting your child's safety and privacy than Norton Family. A Good Choice Symantec Norton Family Premier offers an impressive range of parental control and monitoring features for parents of today's hyper-connected kids. It can track an unlimited number of devices, has an intuitive web interface, and logs lots of usage data. On the other hand, however, its web filtering is weakly enforced, a lot of mobile features are platform dependent, and it does not support Macs at all. If you need more flexibility, consider using Qustodio, our Editors' Choice pick, for your parental control needs. Symantec Norton Family Premier Bottom Line: Norton Family's top-notch web interface and wealth of features make it easy for parents to track and manage their children's activity across their many devices, though it doesn't work on Macs.

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