For the average person, technology can feel overwhelming: for the average parent, it’s downright frightening. Online privacy, internet safety… and a barrage of apps and services that we’ve got to be ahead of the curve on to make sure we know what our kids are doing online (and with whom).
I know for most parents it’s daunting— not because they lack smarts or good parenting skills, but because it just feels like they need a degree from MIT to figure out their kids’ lives. I love when app developers come up with solutions that aren’t fear-mongering, but provide sane solutions that are easy to use. AppCertain is one of them, and I’m currently testing it and liking the results. It’s a monitoring app that sends you an alert when your child downloads an app on his or her devices (currently works on iDevices only). Parents sign up for an account, then install a “configuration profile” on your child’s device. Now when your kids install an app, you get a notice, along with some notes about whether or not it allows things like content sharing, location capture or in-app purchases.
I can see this perhaps being an invasion of privacy once my kids are solidly into teenhood, but mine aren’t there yet. My 12-year old had no idea why Snapchat wasn’t a good idea, and my 8-year old unknowingly spent hundreds of in-app dollars one afternoon playing Dragonvale (I had all the charges reversed several stressful hours later). So I’d say my kids are ideal candidates for AppCertain— especially my older one who doesn’t enjoy handing over his phone for inspection (text from girls lurk there).
AppCertain has just launched a new “curfew mode” feature that would allow you to remotely shut off your kids phones (so they’re not playing Candy Crush under the covers at night), and while I love that idea, I don’t think it’s quite ready for prime time: Turning the phone back “on” after you turn it “off” remotely will result in all your kid’s folders being erased, and all their apps re-appearing in alphabetical order. I can’t think of a way to make my kids hate me more, so I’m going to wait until they work out the kinks before I try it. Kudos to AppCertain for trying to solve this problem for iPhone users— other companies like Zact have an easier time developing these kinds of features for Android phones becuase the restrictions around the operating system aren’t as tight.
So while AppCertain doesn’t eliminate the need for good old-fashioned eyeballs on your kids while they’re on their devices, or the regular inspection of email, text history and the like, it does help parents keep their thumb on all those taps and swipes.
Download AppCertain
