Secure Teen App Review – An Overview

Secure Teen App Review – An Overview

While searching for the best parental control apps, I stumbled upon another exciting option – Secure Teen. This app operates quietly in the background of your child’s device and possesses qualities similar to mSpy. However, it doesn’t label itself solely as a monitoring app, as Secure Teen also has numerous parental controls.

I’d categorize it as both a parental control and monitoring app. The app offers many features that allow you to manage and supervise your child’s digital activities. You can also review their activities to ensure they adhere to all the rules.

Secure TeenTeen boasts multiple features, including daily screen limits, schedules, location history, web filters, app blockers, and more. On average, the app’s features work well, but the efficiency of its web filters is questionable. These filters cover a limited range of terms within a category and may have a few loophole.

Secure TeenTeen is a sophisticated and reasonable choice to track your child’s activities. It keeps you updated and always connected to your child’s activities. For an in-depth look at my experience with the app, check out my Secure Teen review.

Secure Teen Highlights

Secure Teen Review – A Package of Monitoring & Controls

Secure TeenTeen is marketed as a one-stop solution for all your digital parenting needs. It offers a combination of monitoring and control features for your child’s device. With features such as screen time limits, app and web restrictions, and more, you can effectively manage how your child uses digital devices.

However, it doesn’t stop there. Secure TeenTeen also provides monitoring features, including social media monitoring and a keystroke logger. These features give you valuable insights and information about your child’s activities on their device.

At first glance, this combination appears impressive. Still, a deeper Secure Teen review is necessary to evaluate how effectively these features work together. Measuring the efficiency of these features in sync with each other can be challenging. Still, a closer examination will help us arrive at a more informed verdict.

Top Features

• Web Filters –Put filters on web browsing to prevent your child from browsing inappropriate sites.
• Screen Time Management – Set daily screen time limits to restrict excessive device usage daily.
• Location Tracking – Know the exact location of your child in real-time or look at the visited places.
• App Blocker – Block unwanted or inappropriate apps on a child’s device.
• Keylogging – Monitor the child’s device activities by reviewing keystrokes and tap patterns.
• Social Media Monitoring – Monitor what your child is doing on social media apps, from chats to posts and searches.
• SMS, Calls, & Gmail Monitoring – Access all SMS, Calls, and Gmail records on the child’s device.
• Insights Report – Review the child’s digital activities and interaction with multiple apps

Setting Up Secure Teen Parental Control App

Getting started with Secure Teen is quite a different experience. I was not a fan of the app initially, but after seeing its interface, making a parent account was smooth. By just giving my credentials, it was easy to create a free account and enjoy all of the app’s features for free.

The only hiccup that came up was with downloading the app on my child’s device. Like mSpy, Secure Teen’sTeen’s app is also unavailable at the Play Store or iStore. You need to scan a QR code using your child’s device and then download the app to your child. The APK file download may be unusual,but it works fine on the device.

Once the app is installed, you must provide the permissions, and it’s all done. Once you have provided all device permission to the app, it will start controlling or monitoring the child’s device. Use the parental dashboard to set up rules and proceed with controls.

Parent Dashboard

While reviewing the best parental control apps, the parent dashboard has always fascinated me. It is an attraction that helps me to access all the settings on board.

The case with Secure Teen is different. Its dashboard is old school with a basic and boring interface. Though the app is simple, it could be more user-friendly or attractive. Instead, I loved the parent dashboard of the FamilyTime parental control app. That one is also easy to use, interactive, advanced, and pleasant.

Another bad thing is Secure Teen does not have a child’s dashboard. It’s totally concealed; children will never know anything coming on board.

Daily Limits & Rules

I mean it when I say Secure Teen combines parental control and spy apps.Like other parental control apps, Secure Teen allows you to set daily limits and rules for your children’s device usage. You can easily configure the daily usage hours in the settings in the daily limits section. The app permits you to apply a single generic setting for all days or create exclusive settings for each day of the week.

Another feature you’ll find here is the screen rules. These rules enable you to block device usage during specific periods, such as dinner, study sessions, school, coaching classes, and more.

However, one downside is the absence of a time left monitor. Unlike other apps like FamiSafe, Mobicip, and FamilyTime, you cannot track how much time has been used or consumed.

Web Filters & Safe Search

My experience with web filters on Secure Teen was quite positive. The app offers a wide range of filters that cover almost all sensitive content types and websites. You have the flexibility to select these filters according to your preferences. No default selections allow you to customize the filters based on your child’s age, needs, and interests.

In addition to the built-in filters, you can enable safe search and restrict access to specific URLs within the app. These blocked websites are off-limits to your child. Furthermore, you can add a few allowed websites to the list. It’s not uncommon for default filters to occasionally block useful websites due to the limitations of automation.

Adding allowed websites in the app can prevent this inconvenience and ensure your child’s access to necessary online resources.

In the reports you can review all the browsing activities at a glance. It lets you know the attempts of accessing the blocked sites or the sites that are blocked by the web filters based on your child’s search terms.

App Blocker

It’s a blessing when you’ve linked your child’s device with the Secure Teen parental app and gained access to all the installed apps on your portal. This feature needed to be more present in Mobicip, leaving me quite troubled. However, with Secure Teen, things went smoothly.

I had complete access to all the installed apps, and with just one click, I could easily block or unblock them. It was a seamless and convenient experience. However, one feature I found missing is the ability to limit app usage time for children. Unfortunately, Secure Teen allows you only to block or unblock apps but doesn’t offer the option to restrict their usage time. For this particular feature, my favorites are FamilyTime and Mobicip.

Screen Time & Schedules

As parents, one of the most sought-after features in a parental control app is the screen time manager. We must restrict our children’s screen activities, and Secure Teen provides this crucial functionality. The app offers daily limits that you can customize for each day of the week.

You can create new rules if you prefer different daily limits for specific days. I found this feature useful, as I often grant my kids extra screen time on weekends or holidays, allowing them to enjoy it to the fullest.

However, there’s a drawback when altering the screen time within one rule. Unfortunately, Secure Teen doesn’t offer an edit option for rules. To make changes, you must delete the existing rule and create a new one with different settings.

Beyond daily time limits, the app also allows you to establish daily or special schedules. You can select specific time frames during which you don’t want your child to access and block the device. This could be bedtime, dinner time, study hours, or any other customized time you need your child’s full attention. Adding and assigning these schedules to different dates or days of the week is convenient and flexible, adapting to your specific needs and preferences.

SMS, Calls, & Email Monitoring

Setting limits and applying filters is a straightforward process with Secure Teen. However, the real game-changer comes when you want to satisfy your curiosity about what your child is doing on their device. Secure TeenTeen functions like mSpy offer a complete insight into the calls, messages, and emails your child makes or receives.

You can access call records, including call duration, contact names, and more. Additionally, the app allows you to view SMS and email snippets or the complete conversation history on your portal and reports. Unlike the Bark parental control app, Secure Teen lets you see the entire conversation.

It’s important to note that the app operates in hidden mode, making it undetectable for your child to know that their activities are being monitored. However, from a personal perspective, displaying the entirety of a child’s conversations might be too intrusive. To build their confidence, there should be a balance between monitoring and respecting your child’s privacy. For a child, discovering such extensive monitoring can be both damaging and disturbing.

Social Media App Monitoring

Secure TeenTeen offers significant and appropriate access to the social media apps on your child’s device including communication. You can access various content options, from posts to messages. The app mirrors all conversations and chats for your review. It doesn’t function like Bark, focusing solely on identifying threat messages and conversations. Instead, you have access to nearly everything on your child’s device, providing you with comprehensive insights into their conversations.

While this level of access is convenient for reviewing the details of your child’s interactions, I also see it as a potential threat to my child’s personal space. It raises concerns that not only can I access what my child is talking about on the phone, but the data might also be stored externally, which feels somewhat unjust.

Ideally, the app should incorporate some restrictions on content recording and access to user information. It should prioritize privacy for children and only flag or record unsafe messages or activities, respecting their personal space to some extent.

YouTub Safe Search

My children are obsessed with YouTube. It’s an easily accessible and ever-present source of entertainment for them. While I allow them to explore appropriate content, I’m always concerned about the possibility of something inappropriate slipping through. That’s why using YouTube filters and safe searches is my top priority.

Secure TeenTeen offers a straightforward YouTube Safe Search feature that restricts access to inappropriate content for children on the app. Knowing that my children can safely surf on YouTube without stumbling upon content that’s inappropriate for their age or that falls outside the predefined filters gives me a sense of peace.

Mics. Settings

In addition to the core settings, Secure Teen offers some other equally important features for parental control. While these features are categorized as miscellaneous within the app, they hold significant value.

Location Tracking

For parents, it’s essential to be aware of their child’s whereabouts when they are away. Location tracking is an effective and necessary feature that provides constant reassurance. Without this feature, it can be difficult for parents to have peace of mind.

Secure TeenTeen offers extensive location tracking capabilities. You can set the interval between each location ping the app will capture for your child’s device. Remember that shorter intervals can drain the battery of your child’s device more quickly. Hence, choosing safe and longer intervals for location pings is advisable.

Emergency Contacts

One feature I appreciate in Secure Teen is the emergency contacts. You can easily add multiple emergency contacts for your child to contact when they need help. It’s just one touch away from them to seek assistance from a reliable person in an emergency.

Activity Reports

While I didn’t find the reports provided by Secure Teen overly pleasant, they are still fairly good. They do have room for improvement. At first glance, you don’t get many details; instead, you have to click on each tab to access more information. Unfortunately, no graphics or infographics provide a smart and easy-to-understand view of the data.

It can be a bit hectic for parents, especially if your child has numerous apps and activities on their device. Moreover, if you are using the free version, you are limited to overview reports, and that’s all you have access to.

I didn’t find these reports as efficient as possible—the app records and compiles data. However, no data processing or evaluation can help parents adopt better parental tactics based on the insights provided. There’s room for improvement in this aspect.

What Impressed Me in the Secure Teen App?

Having an app that works as a parental control and monitoring app is a plus. It offers you both benefits and tools, which I love. The convenient option is its free version, where you do not have to pay anything or provide verification. Just sign up, and you are good to use all features with basic reports.

Plus, the app offers you an extensive range of features to set up time limits and web filters and block or allow websites and apps, too.Additionally, it provides access to the child’s device gallery and lets you have a look at what’s in their gallery. I found it helpful in keeping an eye on what my child’s recording, watching or saving on devices.

You can control all the interactions your child makes in the online world. All of its features are convenient; however, sometimes, it needs to catch up in efficiency and responsiveness.

A Few Downsides

I found installing the Secure Teen app on my child’s device challenging since it’s not available on the Google Play Store. However, scanning the QR code from the website and the installation went smoothly. The app’s plain and somewhat boring interface needed to be updated and in need of several improvements. Instead of a dashboard displaying major highlights, it simply showed a list of all added child devices.

Furthermore, the overall interface needs more excitement and interactivity. While a free version offers almost all the features, it doesn’t provide usage statistics. Insightful activity reports are inaccessible in this version, as you need to subscribe to the premium plan.

Secure TeenTeen does offer YouTube monitoring but lacks custom filters for advanced controls and monitoring. Changing daily limits is also cumbersome, as you can’t simply edit a setting; you must delete the older one and add a new one. Additionally, updates to settings can be time-consuming and require a good internet speed for detection.

One major drawback of Secure Teen is the absence of geofencing. It means you cannot set specific areas to receive alerts about check-ins and check-outs, unlike the FamilyTime app. An app makeover, from its interface to design and efficiency improvements, could greatly enhance the user experience.

Pricing

Secure TeenTeen offers a 7-day free trial of its premium features, allowing you to access most of the functionalities across multiple devices with a single login. For the paid versions, you can choose between Premium and Premium Plus, each with its pricing:

Premium: Priced at $39.99 annually, this package is compatible with Android, Windows, and iOS devices. It covers all premium features, including internet filtering, app blockers, call and SMS monitoring, social apps like WhatsApp and Viber, safe search, and more.

Premium Plus: Exclusively available for all Android devices for $69.99 annually. This package includes all features compatible with Android, and it goes even further with Skype and Facebook Messenger logging, Snapchat picture logging, Instagram monitoring, web history monitoring, and much more. It offers extensive control over your child’s activities.

While both packages are available yearly, some users may find them relatively expensive for the features offered. I believe that effective digital parenting doesn’t always require extensive controls. Comparatively, more reasonable alternatives like FamilyTime, Qustodio, and Bark offer competitive pricing.

Secure Teen Vs FamilyTime

My Take on Secure Teen!

Secure TeenTeen can be an effective tool for parents to keep track of their child’s online activities. It excels in monitoring and control, offering useful features for ensuring your child’s online safety, including web and YouTube filters. The app provides intensive social media monitoring, location tracking, and call tracking, making it an ideal choice for parents who want a detailed overview of their child’s digital activities.

However, for some, Secure Teen might go beyond the ideal limits of digital parenting. Excessive monitoring and controls can infringe on a child’s privacy and sense of autonomy. Striking a balance is crucial.

Additionally, while features like keystroke logging can help observe your child’s device usage behavior, they may need to be more efficient. Secure TeenTeen also needs to improve in providing insightful reports that can effectively justify its extensive feature set. Improving the interface and reporting capabilities could enhance the overall user experience.

For those considering the premium and premium plus packages for multiple devices, it’s worth mentioning that they come at a relatively high cost. Try the free trial before committing to a year-long subscription to ensure it meets your specific needs and preferences.