Aura Parental Controls Review 2025: Unique and Tailored Protection

Aura Parental Controls is a great foundation for keeping your kids safe online, with strong features for screen time limits, content filtering, and monitoring your child's wellbeing. Balance is a standout feature that analyzes your child's online activity and provides tailored recommendations.

At this time, Aura Parental Controls doesn't offer location tracking, so you may need to combine this app with another service. It also lacks blocks to stop your children from deleting the app on Android.  

In our Aura Parental Controls review, we'll go through our experience testing this parental controls app and share its extensive new features.

At a glance

Price	$8.33-$32.00/mo
Number of kids supported	Unlimited
Content filtering	Yes
Conversation monitoring	No
Screen time management	Yes
Location tracking	No
Activity reports	Yes
Supported devices	Android, iOS, iPad
Learn more	Get Aura Parental Controls

We last tested Aura Parental Controls on September 3, 2025.

Our experience

Setting up Aura Parental Controls was easy. It only required a quick login on the device, then adding a child by inputting their name and birthday. 

We added a test child who is 11 years old, so Aura set up recommended content filters for teens. However, you can still adjust these settings for your personal preferences. 

After setting up the app on our phone, we opened the My Family tab on our desktop. The dashboard provides a daily summary showing your child's online activity over the course of the day, screen time left, and the most recently visited apps and sites.

Below this summary, you'll also find settings for content filtering, time limits, bedtime, and more. 

You'll find more detailed insights on the Aura app, including the new Balance tools. Balance analyzes your child's tone 

Screen time management

The main dashboard allows you to immediately deny access to all of your child's apps just by clicking the "Pause" button. All filters, limitations, and tracking are done at the child level, so you can customize them for each of your children's needs.

We found that Aura does a good job of blocking apps. You can choose to filter content by blocking apps, restricting websites, and forcing safe search. Most of the main apps were included in Aura's list, but we're unsure what would happen if there was an app we wanted to block that wasn't on the list.

Blocking works by limiting internet access to the specified app or website. Your child can still open the app and use features that don't require an internet connection, but they won't be able to send messages or load new content.

There are several features to set screen time limits. You can set a bedtime for each child and apply it only for certain days, if you want to give them a bit more freedom on the weekends.

You can also define time limits per app, allowing you to block access to fun apps while keeping important ones, such as those used for communication, fully functional.

Safe Gaming

We also tried the Safe Gaming feature, which is only available on Windows computers with Aura Antivirus installed. This feature, called ProtectMe by Kidas, monitors communication on common games and gaming communication apps, such as Discord.

We installed it and got some of our friends to "harass" on Discord, but received no alerts. It appears that reports are only released every Tuesday, and there's no way to check on progress before then. 

App removal

We were disappointed that we could easily delete the app from our Android and our dashboard didn't notify us that it had been disconnected. If you have an older child or teen who's prone to breaking rules, this will make it a challenging to keep the app on their device. 

But parents could have better luck with the iOS app. At the top of the app dashboard, there was an Aura pop-up on app deletion prevention. We clicked through and found a video from Aura on how to make it harder for your child to delete the app, but only on iOS.  

Overall, we had a positive experience with screen time management and content filtering features. The app is unobtrusive for both the parent and the child, plus it covers all the basics well.

Who is Aura Parental Control best for?

• Recommended for parents who want to monitor online wellbeing

Aura has significantly leveled up its parental control offerings with the Balance features. Over time, Aura will monitor your child's social interactions, daytime activities, and sleep habits, and take note of any changes. Aura will create your child's social persona based on these habits and provide science-backed recommendations, tips, and conversation starters based on the data. 

Beyond the Balance features, Aura also provides screen time management, Safe Gaming alerts (for Windows devices only), content filtering, and more. 

We wouldn't recommend Aura Parental Controls for parents prioritize location tracking at this time, although these features are in the works. For now, you can combine Aura with something like Find My from iOS for comprehensive monitoring. 

Aura Parental Controls prices and subscriptions

Aura Parental Control app costs $8.33-$32.00/mo, depending on if you need a standalone parental controls app or comprehensive Aura services. 

The Aura Parental Controls solo plan costs $8.33/mo (billed annually) and covers an unlimited number of children. You'll also get Aura antivirus included.

If you want the full host of Aura identity theft features, you can go for the Family plan. This will cost you $32.00/mo (billed annually) but also include up to $5 million in identity theft insurance, credit monitoring, and more.

Features	Aura Parental Controls	Aura Ultimate Family
Price	$8.33/mo (billed annually)	$32.00/mo (billed annually)
Who's covered	1 adult, unlimited kids	5 adults, unlimited kids
Content filtering
Screen time management
Cyberbullying and online predator alerts	Yes — only while gaming on Windows device	Yes — only while gaming on Windows device
Online account monitoring
Child SSN monitoring
Child 3-bureau credit freeze
Identity theft insurance
Financial fraud protection
Learn more	View plan	View plan

Aura is slightly more expensive than its competitors if you’re using it exclusively for parental controls. Its starting monthly price is $8.33/mo (billed annually). 

Both Bark and Qustodio are a few dollars cheaper, with Bark starting at $5.00/mo and Qustodio starting at $4.58/mo (billed annually).

If you’re including it as part of an identity theft protection plan, however, it’s comparable to similar parental controls. Other identity theft protection services offer parental control apps, such as Norton Family, which can be bundled with Norton 360 for similar monthly costs. 

Aura Parental Controls features

If you’re looking for a way to monitor the amount of time your child spends online and to restrict what they can view, Aura definitely has you covered. There aren’t many standard parental control features, like email monitoring or geo-fencing, but Aura can help you teach your child about healthy internet usage.

It also allows you to filter the internet with age-appropriate restrictions so your kid isn’t accidentally stumbling into something you don’t want them to see.

Content monitoring

Aura Parental Controls provides an extensive list of apps you can block or allow your child to view. You can block apps by category, like dating, explicit content, and mature, or find a specific app to block. 

When you enter your child’s birthday into the service, it applies an age-appropriate template that filters out content that doesn’t meet that age. You can make adjustments from the content filtering tab. 

Message monitoring 

With the launch of the Balance features, Aura can now monitor your children's social interactions but this monitoring is unconventional compared to other parental controls apps. 

Aura let us know how many messages our child sent on social media apps like Instagram, Messenger, and Snapchat. When you click through on one of these apps, you'll find more details like your child's tone in these messages and compare it to other children. 

You'll also find interactions trends, showing how many messages were sent over the past week, and activity by the hour, showing when the messages were sent. 

Aura Parental Controls collects this data to develop a social persona and provide recommendations based on this. We'll elaborate on this in the Balance section. 

Web monitoring

This is really where the bulk of Aura’s content filtering services shine. Aura curates an idea of what is age-appropriate for your child based on their birthday and its own filtering system.

When we tested it out, we tried the most adult sites we could find, and it blocked us without hesitation. According to the safe search parental control settings, these are focused on sexually explicit content. 

We tried to visit onlyfans.com, which could be considered sexually explicit, but that's not the only use of the site. Aura proceeded to block us from loading the page without explanation. 

We were able to access the majority of the general, everyday web, although we didn’t attempt to access anything unusual.

Screen time management

Screen time management is the most comprehensive feature you’re going to get with Aura. It allows you to set time limits, track how much time your child is spending online, and even award bonus time as a reward for completing chores or other activities. Aura even allows you to set app and category time limits.

We set a 15-minute screen time limit to test out the feature. In our parent dashboard, we were notified that the screen time limit was reached. 

From our child's device (the test phone), we also received push notifications that we reached our screen time limit.  

The screen time management feature allows you to have a little more control over how your kids access applications. As long as you know what apps your child has on their mobile device, you can set individual limits to help you moderate app usage.

Location tracking and geo-fencing

Unfortunately, Aura does not include tracking or geo-fencing features. The majority of what Aura offers includes monitoring online activity, filtering content, setting time limits, and protecting against child identity theft.

Activity reports

The Aura Parental Controls dashboard provides a daily summary of your child's screen time usage, online activity, and online history. If you click through on any of these sections, you'll find more information on your child's daily usage. 

We also received a week in review report, which listed how long our child was online and their top apps. Aura also shares trends on app usage, like how our child had increased their YouTube usage by 15.38%. 

The activity tab will alert you to newly used apps, screen time limits reached, social media usage trends, and more. 

NEW: Balance

Aura has newly launched Balance, which is an innovative way to review your children's online activity. Balance will record your kid's online routines and will start pointing out trends, like changes in their social interactions or sleeping habits. 

Balance collects messages, posts, comments, and direct messages to cultivate your child's online persona. Aura will also provide personalized recommendations, tips, and conversation starters based on their persona. 

For the Balance Overview to analyze our child and populate insights, we needed to test Aura Parental Controls for at least one week. At the end of this period, Aura determined that our child's social persona is a Focused Texter.

There's a brief description on the Social tab but we selected the circled i button in the top-right corner for a meatier explanation. Aura explained that these personas are determined based on the following:

• Total screen time and sessions
• Number of apps and platforms used
• Messages sent
• Variety of apps
• How much they use the keyboard

For example, our child was deemed a Focused Texter because they mostly spend time messaging on apps rather than scrolling through content. Aura noted that Focused Texters spend 76% of time messaging, while the average child only spends 27% of time messaging. 

On top of the persona explanation, Aura Parental Control also shares parenting tips catered to your child's social persona. We were thoroughly impressed by this new suite of features and believe it could be insightful for parents. 

Aura Parental Controls customer support

Support type	Aura Parental Controls
Email or live chat
Phone
Online guides or forums

Aura’s customer support options are fine. If you require assistance with identity theft, there’s a phone number and remediation specialists available.

If you need support, the chat is available 24/7 with the automated assistant. If you need to speak with a live support specialist, you’ll first need to use the live chat options and then call the support team. Live specialist chat support is available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST.

Top alternatives

Aura has great identity theft protection, but if the parental controls aren’t robust enough for you or don’t include the features you need, then it’s time to try one of these other products. Aura is among the best parental controls, but here's how it compares to other top monitoring apps:

Aura Parental Controls FAQs

Bottom line: Are Aura Parental Controls good?

Aura Parental Controls may lack location tracking, but it provides high-quality content monitoring, screen time management, online wellbeing tracking. We were truly impressed by the Balance features, which includes personalized recommendations based on your child's online habits.  

You can even combine Aura Parental Controls with the Aura identity theft protection suite, which bundles family and child identity protection, identity theft protection, credit monitoring, and more with your parental controls. 

The biggest downside is that the app can be deleted from Android without your dashboard noticing, so you can only really use it with younger or very mature kids.

If you’re wondering how Aura stacks up against other top parental control apps on the market, check out our in-depth comparisons:

• Aura vs. Bark
• Aura vs. Norton Family
• Aura vs. Net Nanny
• Aura vs. mSpy
• Aura vs. Qustodio