The Best Parental Controls for Teenagers 2025

Teenagers live on social media, texts, and streaming, and parents need tools that set healthy boundaries without turning every phone into a surveillance device. For this, Aura Parental Controls is our overall pick for teens thanks to its privacy-respecting well-being insights and strong screen time management.

Coming in close are Bark — which stands out for its message and social media monitoring capabilities with real-world alerts — and Norton Family, offering dependable web filtering and location tracking, particularly for families with a mix of Android and Windows devices.

Finding the best parental control app for teenagers means striking the right balance between independence and oversight. Teens need space to learn and connect, but parents still need to be aware of explicit content, cyberbullying, and excessive screen time.

Learn more about our experience testing the best monitoring apps for teens.

The best parental control apps for teens compared

Learn more	Get Aura Parental Controls Read Aura Parental Controls Review	Get Bark Read Bark Review	Get Norton Family Read Norton Family Review
Best for	Best for unintrusive monitoring	Best for message monitoring	Best for location tracking
Star rating	4.9 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.7 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.8 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Starting price	$8.33/mo	$5.00/mo	$4.17/mo
Free trial	Yes, 14 days	Yes, 7 days	Yes, 30 days
Number of devices	Up to 10 devices	Unlimited devices	Up to 15 devices
Website filtering
Behavior insights
Screen time management
Cyberbullying and online predator alerts
Remote lock
Activity reports
Routines
Internet search monitoring
Social media monitoring
Text message monitoring
Location tracking

Aura Parental Controls: Best for unintrusive monitoring

Who it’s best for

Aura Parental Controls works well for families with teens who already understand digital limits but still need some guidance. Thanks to Aura’s Balance feature, parents can feel supported as Aura tracks behavioral trends (like late-night scrolling, changes in gaming patterns, or sudden jumps in social app usage) without revealing private conversations and messages.

Aura is especially useful for parents who want a lighter touch or are guiding older teens toward digital responsibility. Families already using Aura’s identity protection plans will also appreciate how seamlessly these parental controls fit into the broader dashboard.

What we liked

Healthy social monitoring: Aura Balance is the standout feature. Instead of exposing every post or DM, Aura builds a persona-level view of your teen’s online activity and offers psychologist-backed tips and conversation starters. Parents receive activity reports and trend lines — for example, YouTube time increasing week over week, making it easier to talk about time online and app usage without tension.

Unintrusive message monitoring: Some spyware apps masquerade as parental control software, hinging on providing full access to another device. What we like about Aura is that it doesn’t record your teen’s chats, texts, or emails for you to review verbatim. Instead, it takes a respectful approach and offers parents holistic insights into their teens’ online behaviors. During testing, Aura let us know how many messages our child sent on social media apps like Instagram, Messenger, and Snapchat. It then gave insights into our teens’ tone and how their messaging compared to other kids using the same platforms.

Age-based restrictions: Aura makes screen time limits simple at the child level. Parents can set daily time budgets, bedtime schedules, and per-app limits to trim time spent on high-distraction apps, while leaving messaging open. Content web filtering uses age templates that can be adjusted by category, and Safe Search prevents explicit results on major engines and YouTube Restricted Mode. 

What we didn’t like

Fewer features than other parental apps: Aura does not include location tracking, which many parents prefer for monitoring their children's after-school activities. It also lacks conversation monitoring across social apps, texts, and email, which you can get with Bark. However, if you need location tracking, Aura can be combined with built-in tools like Find My or paired with a separate tracker, such as Life360.

Can delete on Android: On Android, a determined teenager can delete the app without triggering an immediate parental alert.

Bark: Best for social media and text monitoring

Who it’s best for

Bark offers complete message monitoring for parents who want a closer look at their teens’ texts and social chats. Yet Bark protects a teen’s privacy by showing only flagged items, not every message. It’s also beneficial for parents who want to receive AI-powered alerts when content crosses specific lines, such as self-harm, bullying, or sexual content.

What we liked

Comprehensive message monitoring: Bark monitors more than 30 popular social apps (including Discord and TikTok), as well as texts and emails, sending alerts with suggested actions for parents. Bark leverages machine learning to catch the latest slang and keywords, helping prevent cyberbullying and online predators. Plus, Bark’s algorithms analyze conversational content rather than just searching for triggering keywords, so parents can adjust the sensitivity level based on their preferences.

App-level restrictions: Screen time management allows you to set rules for school time, bedtime, and free time, and block apps or categories such as social media or gaming. Other parental control apps offer only time limitations, but Bark offers granular control to block specific apps.

Unlimited devices: Compatibility is another advantage. You can cover unlimited devices and extend filtering to TVs and consoles with Bark Home. For busy households with mixed devices, this coverage reduces blind spots and produces detailed insights across all platforms.

What we didn’t like

Glitchy apps: The iPhone version required a desktop connection and multiple passcode entries. The Android app also crashed during activation and needed an entirely separate (and according to Android, possibly dangerous) APK download. The dashboard was confusing, with screen time, web monitoring, and location tools spread across different tabs.

Delayed alerts: Activity reports also fell short. They listed only recently used apps instead of detailed usage trends, and often felt outdated even after they were updated. Help options were limited to email and chat instead of a live agent.

Norton Family: Best for location tracking

Who it’s best for

Norton Family is best for families who want structured controls with strong web filtering, reliable location tracking, and instant lock, especially those with Android phones or Windows PCs. If conversation monitoring isn’t a priority but time limits, safe search, and detailed reports are, Norton Family is a steady pick.

What we liked

Reliable tracking alerts: Unlike most parental control apps, Norton Family‘s location tracking with geo-fencing sends accurate alerts when a device leaves or arrives at saved locations. Plus, the activity reports are straightforward, including internet search monitoring, visited sites, and video history for browser-based YouTube.

Content blocking: Norton Family excels at filtering websites across more than 40 categories, with age-based templates and exceptions for approved sites. Setting screen time limits and school time is easy.

What we didn’t like

App restrictions are lacking: You can’t set time limits per app — only for the device as a whole, and there’s no conversation monitoring for texts or social media. For deeper insight into social apps, Bark is a better fit. But for privacy-forward screen time controls, Aura leads.

Not as robust for iPhone: Compared to other parental apps, Norton Family’s iOS app has fewer features than Android, and there’s no macOS client.

FAQs

Bottom line: The best parental controls app for teenagers

Aura Parental Controls is the top choice for teens thanks to its strong screen time management, age-based web filtering, and Balance insights that maintain trust between parents and teens.

Bark is the right option for families who want active monitoring across social apps, texts, and emails with AI-powered alerts for self-harm or bullying. Norton Family remains a reliable choice for parents who value location tracking, geo-fencing, and comprehensive web filtering.

Choose based on your family’s main focus, whether it’s screen time, social media, or location, and you’ll find the right device for your teen. Check out more information on the best parental control apps on the market.

3 best parental controls apps for teenagers

	Starting price	Best for	Learn more
	$8.33/mo	Best for unintrusive monitoring	View plans Read Aura Parental Controls Review
	$5.00/mo	Best for social media and text monitoring	View plans Read Bark Review
	$4.17/mo	Best for location tracking	View plans Read Norton Family Review