Kidslox Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

Kidslox has a nice collection of features that both monitor and limit how your child can use their phone. While it doesn’t have as many advanced features as a premium app like Bark, it’s good enough if you’re using it on children under 12.

The parental dashboard has a modern design, and I found it easy to navigate. I had to enter a 4-digit passcode every time I opened a different tab or if I didn’t clickany buttons on the page for a few minutes. It’s an annoying but necessary security feature.

Once you log in, you can click on the Statistics tab to see the daily screen time use, how many times your child picks up their phone (which is a stat I’ve never seen before), web searches, browser history, YouTube views, app usage, live location, and if any apps have been installed or deleted.

In addition to viewing real time data, I used the dashboard to set and adjust screen time limits, manage app use, and set up geofences. One confusing option available on the dashboard is to change the app mode on the phone from the Child app to the Parent app. I’m not sure I understand the value of this, and I just see it as a potential problem. If my son figures out my passcode, he can change to Parent mode, and none of the rules or limitations will be enforced.

Comprehensive Screen Time Tools

I like the control that Kidslox gives me over how much screen time my son can have every day. Not only can I set an overall time limit, but I can create rules that will take affect at different times during the day.

Open the Time tab to create or manage the screen time limits for your child’s phone.

1. Create Daily Limits: Set an overall daily screen time limit in blocks of five minutes. When the child reaches the limit, it blocks the apps and internet but still allows phone calls.
2. Create a Daily Calendar: Create segments throughout the day when you want the phone locked. For example, you can create segments for bedtime, school, homework, and dinner.

I was impressed with the screen time rules. I challenged my son to bypass the rules and see if he could use the phone when it should be locked, but he wasn’t able to come up with any viable hacks. The only complaint I have about the calendar is that all the segments have the same rules. I prefer an app like Bark, which lets me customize rules for each segment. This way, I could give access to educational apps during homework time or lock streaming apps or social media for a period.

Kidslox does have a Lock mode, which gives me the ability to lock any device at any time regardless of the schedule or how much time the kids have spent on the phone. If my son needs more time, he can make a request through the dashboard, and I’ll receive an alert in the dashboard.

The final screen time feature might be my favorite. You can create a rewards system for extra screen time. I have Dishes, Homework, and Clean Room, each of which gives my child an extra half hour.

My son can view the rewards through the child app on his phone. When he’s completed a task, he can push a button, and I’ll get a notification, which I can approve or deny.

The one issue we had was that, at times, when I extended the time or added rewards, the phone was still locked. I checked the dashboard and app and saw that it added the time, but that it wasn’t registering on the child’s device. This is an issue I never had with Bark, which always synced the rules immediately and didn’t lock the phone when it should be unlocked.

Default Web Filter Doesn’t Have Customization Options

When setting up the child profile, I had to enter my son’s age. The reason for this is the web filter is based solely on their age. I was surprised I couldn’t find the categories or make adjustments, like I could do with Bark. The only information I have is that it is updated weekly and blocks over 5 million websites.

The only customization option available is the ability to add a URL to a block list. The first few times I tried adding a website URL, I received an error message saying I needed to add a real URL. I tried a few different websites, but nothing helped. However, when I tried adding a  URL through the parent mobile app, I had no issues. One upgrade I would like to see is adding URLs that are not blocked, especially since I can’t manage the filter categories. For example, I don’t mind if my son plays fantasy football for fun, (which is a game for sports fans that can have a gambling element to it), but many of the fantasy sports websites are blocked as part of the gambling category, even though there are free, non-gambling leagues on the site.

Their filter option also has the option to block all internet access. This is supposed to include the browser, online games, and social media apps. I had mixed results when this was active. At first, it was blocking the websites I tried to open. But when I opened an online game, it worked even though the Statistics alert said my son tried to access the game, and it was blocked. As far as blocking social media apps, my son had no trouble opening his Facebook app.

The final four options are to enforce YouTube Restricted Mode, and turn on SafeSearch for Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. These all worked without any issues.

Only Some of the App Management Features Work

For the most part, I like the controls Kidslox gives me over the apps on my son’s phone. It divides all the apps into different categories and lets me block an entire category or specific apps. It also gives me the option to select specific apps or entire categories that can be used even when the phone is blocked.

Kidslox has a feature to block new app installations from the App Store and Google Play. Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t work. I turned it on, and my son went ahead and downloaded an app. He didn’t need to find any hacks or tricks, just opened the Play app and downloaded an app.

There is also a feature that prevents the child from deleting any apps. I’m not sure what the point of this feature is since the Kidslox app is protected anyways. But we tested it, and it worked – a lock screen covered the screen and said Kidslox blocks the app uninstallation.

The one feature that I feel is missing is the ability to set screen time limits for specific apps. I don’t mind if my child is on the phone for 3 hours a day, but I don’t want him watching TikTok videos for three hours. I can see which apps my kids are using in the Statistics section of the dashboard, but instead of displaying how much time per day they use the app, it just says if there is a high or low usage rate.

If you want better app management, you should try Qustodio. You can set app time limits, see how long each app is being used, and block individual apps. Get the free trial and test Qustodio for yourself for 30 days – no credit card is required.

Good Location Tracking and Geofence

The live location tracking feature works well. Kidslox connects to the phone’s GPS, so I was able to see where my son was 24/7. I like that Kidslox gave me the option to lock the device settings. This way, my son couldn’t turn off location tracking on his phone, which is a common way to bypass location tracking on other parental control apps I’ve tested.

The geofence feature is not very user friendly. I had a hard time setting the address because the address box was grayed out. Instead, I had to drag a pin on the map. This wouldn’t be so terrible if the map was bigger, but for some reason, the map is really small, and I had a hard time finding the exact location.

Once I found the address, I turned on notifications for entering and leaving. Both worked fine, and I got the notifications in real-time.

No Social Media, Phone Call, or SMS Monitoring – but It Does Take Screenshots

When it comes to monitoring for dangerous behavior, Kidslox comes up a bit short. It doesn’t track incoming or outgoing phone calls, who is texting with your child, and what happens on social media.

However, it does take screenshots of the child’s phone each time a new action occurs. I could also press the Snapshot button on the dashboard to take a screenshot right away. While this can be helpful, I noticed that at the end of the day, I had close to 100 screenshots to look through. It can be very time-consuming, and there are no categories to help filter the images, just a timestamp when the screenshot was taken.

The one exception is YouTube monitoring. Kidslox can enforce Restricted Mode, and it shows a thumbnail of each video that was watched.

If you want to know what your child is doing on social media, Bark is your best option. It connects with over 35 social media, email, and SMS apps, and has powerful filters to detect a wide range of dangerous keywords. Bark is considered as the top app for monitoring social media, and you can try it yourself for free to test its full functionality.

Kidslox has one of the better installation processes I’ve seen with parental control apps. Upon establishing a child profile, I acquired the application from the Play Store. Upon logging in to the app, I needed to choose whether the device was intended for parental or child use. I chose the Child app and then had to pair it with the parent account, by entering a 6-digit code that was displayed on my computer.

As with every parental control app, I had to go into the settings, change the permissions, give it access to the GPS, display over apps, battery optimization, device admin rights, and more. This is where Kidslox does better than other apps. It has a short GIF for each step that shows exactly what to do, and if you missed something, you could watch the GIF again. My only complaint is that you have to wait for the video to end before clicking the button to change the settings.

Kidslox has a web based parental dashboard or an app, so you can manage the child’s device at your convenience. The app is the same one you download on the child’s device, but you don’t need to change any of your phone’s settings or permissions.