Aleksandar Stevanovic spent 10 years honing his craft as a freelance content writer. He has a degree in Economics, and extensive experience in software, crypto,…
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The internet offers huge potential for children, but it’s also home to threats ranging from malware to adult content to predators and other malicious individuals. The best antivirus with parental control tools will provide protection, keeping you safe from viruses, malware, and spyware and giving you oversight over the content your children access and interact with online.
For this comprehensive guide, I’ve tested, reviewed, and compared the best parental control antivirus solutions available so you can make an informed decision and choose the right product for you.
The Best Antivirus Software with Parental Control Tools Tested by Our Experts
Norton — Best antivirus parental control software for activity tracking
The Best Parental Control Antivirus Tools Reviewed
In this section, I’ll provide detailed reviews of the best antivirus solutions with parental control features so you can see exactly what different providers offer and how much value you’ll get for your money. For additional technical detail, I’ve quoted lab test results from AV-Tests, which conducts regular, in-depth testing of cybersecurity services.
1. Norton – Best Antivirus with Parental Control Tracking Tools
Norton is one of the most powerful, comprehensive antivirus solutions on the market. It also offers excellent parental control tools and is a great package for tracking your children’s online activity.
Features
Malware Protection – Norton offers in-depth device protection from malware, viruses, ransomware, and hacking. It also includes invaluable security features like webcam protection and Dark Web monitoring, alerting you if your details appear online in a data breach.
Virus Protection Promise – Impressively, the provider offers a virus protection promise, guaranteeing users a full refund if the company can’t remove a virus from your device. This goes to show just how confident Norton is about the capabilities of its software.
Deluxe Features – Alongside its security features, Norton offers a dedicated parental control suite. You can buy it as a standalone product without the antivirus or as part of the Norton 360 Deluxe package, which includes the antivirus, a password manager, a VPN, and lots of other advanced features.
Parental Web Controls – The parental controls enable you to see what your children are searching for online and what videos they’re viewing, set screen time limits, and prevent them from accessing sensitive or inappropriate content online.
App Controls – You can also control what apps they’re using, manage their learning environment with School Time, and even leverage location tracking so you’ll know exactly where your child is at any given time by tracking their Android or iPhone devices. This ensures you can have complete confidence in their safety online and offline.
Pricing
Norton includes its parental control tools with the Norton 360 Deluxe package, which costs $49.99/year. This includes support for five devices, 50GB of cloud storage, a password manager, a VPN, and dark web monitoring.
Higher-tier plans add various identity theft protection tools, support for unlimited devices, $1m in stolen funds reimbursement, and bank and credit card activity alerts.
Who It's Best For
Norton provides an excellent parental control package and contends with McAfee as a leading provider for both antivirus and parental control tools. It’s a first-class solution for tracking activity across apps and devices, and I rate it as the best in its class.
Pros
Antivirus protection for all your devices
Complete oversight over your children’s online activity
Free plan for Windows, 30-day money-back guarantee
Antivirus Testing Results
Protection: 6/6, Performance: 6/6, Usability: 6/6
Max Devices
10
Compatibility
Windows, Mac, Android, iOS
Why We Picked It
Bitdefender is among the best-performing antivirus solutions on the market, both in terms of malware detection rates and for its robust firewall and limited impact on device performance. It also comes with a robust set of parental control tools.
Features
Malware Protection – Bitdefender offers complete protection against various cyber threats, ensures privacy with a VPN, webcam shield, and secure firewall, and provides parents with parental controls that cover all devices.
Parental Controls – Bitdefender offers application and website-level parental controls that give you oversight of the programs your children use and the content they consume and interact with online.
Screen Time, Location, and Reports – You can also track their screen time, see their full list of mobile contacts, and monitor your child’s location. What’s more, you’ll receive weekly emails with a comprehensive summary of your child’s online activity, so you’ll have more insights into what they use the internet for.
Pricing
The Bitdefender Internet Security plan offers parental control tools as well as a firewall, ransomware protection, and support for three devices for $42.99/year. It’s only available for Windows, though, and you’ll need to upgrade to the $49.99/year Total Security plan for Mac, Android, and iOS coverage.
Further upgrades add credit monitoring, $2m identity theft insurance, and an unlimited VPN.
Who It's Best For
My Bitdefender parental control review found it to be an excellent toolset, and it’s the cheapest option on this list while also having among the best-rated antivirus programs and impressive firewall capabilities.
ESET is a robust antivirus solution that uses advanced machine learning to keep you protected from cyber threats 24/7. It’s particularly strong when it comes to activity logging with its parental controls.
Features
Malware Protection – In addition to the typical antivirus, malware, and spyware detection and removal features, ESET offers an additional layer of protection in the form of a ransomware shield.
Advanced Security Features – Additional ESET security features include an exploit blocker, advanced memory scanning, cloud-based scanning, and script-based attack protection. Notably, Dark Web monitoring is missing, so Norton beats ESET in this regard.
Parental Controls – In terms of parental controls, ESET allows you to set up age-based restrictions for the entire Windows account. This means you need to set it up once and can simply switch between users before letting your child use the computer.
Content Controls – You can also limit their access to specific websites or even entire categories based on subject, such as adult content.
Android Parental Controls – There’s also a separate parental control product for Android, if you just want to place parental controls on an Android phone.
Pricing
The ESET Essential plan, at $49.99/year for one device, includes the provider’s parental control tools. Longer-term subscriptions and additional devices come at a reduced rate, with a five-device, three-year subscription costing $11.19/year per device.
Upgrading your plan adds features such as a password manager, data encryption, system optimization tools, an unlimited VPN, and identity theft protection.
Who It's Best For
ESET is a great option if you want a comprehensive antivirus tool as well as parental controls with detailed activity logs.
Intego is a superb antivirus for Macs. It’s specifically designed to combat macOS viruses and threats, protect your network, and help clean your device and optimize its performance.
Features
Mac Security Features – In addition to the real-time antivirus, Intego provides a fast and secure VPN, NetBarrier, a firewall against network attacks, and automated personal backups to protect and recover key files.
Content Controls – If you opt for Intego, you’ll also have access to ContentBarrier, a set of tools that helps you boost your family’s online safety and gives you valuable insights into your children’s online habits.
Parental Controls – The parental controls let you put age-specific boundaries in place, customize profiles for each family member, and set time limits on internet use. The software also automatically monitors all of their online chats and can be set up to notify you of inappropriate content, terms, or phrases that are entered.
Pricing
Intego’s Mac Premium Bundle X9 costs $65/year with a two-year subscription. Features include virus protection, network protection, system optimization tools, and personal backups, alongside the parental controls.
Who It's Best For
Intego is an ideal pick for the macOS ecosystem and comes with an impressive range of features.
The parental controls aren’t available for iOS or Windows, unfortunately, so if you want a more inclusive product, you may want to opt for Norton, McAfee, or Bitdefender.
Pros
Excellent virus protection for macOS devices
Built-in VPN and firewall
File cleanup and system optimization features
Fully customizable profiles for every family member
Real-time notifications of inappropriate content in online chats
McAfee excels when it comes to advanced security features. It offers total protection for an unlimited number of devices, a VPN that will automatically protect you from unsafe networks, and actionable insights on how to improve your security with its Protection Score.
Features
Security Features – With McAfee antivirus, you also get proactive web protection, a firewall, a password manager, identity monitoring, and personal data cleanup scans. Coupled with multi-platform compatibility, this makes McAfee a great choice for protecting every device in your household.
Parental Controls – The parental controls are available with the McAfee+ Premium Family package, and they offer you complete control over your children’s internet activities. In addition to limiting what content your children can access and setting screen time for each internet session, you’ll be able to monitor the location of their phone and will receive real-time alerts when they arrive or leave specified areas.
Pricing
McAfee’s parental control tools are included with all its family plans. The cheapest of these is the Premium plan, available at $64.99/year. This impressively includes security features for unlimited devices as well as a VPN, a password manager, and dark web monitoring.
The provider’s top-tier family plans offer $2m identity theft coverage, lost wallet protection, $25k ransomware coverage, and access to identity restoration experts.
Who It's Best For
The McAfee parental control toolset is a relatively expensive package, but you get an excellent level of protection with a huge range of antivirus features. In addition, the ability to protect an unlimited number of devices is unmatched at this relatively low pricepoint.
The Best Antiviruses with Parental Controls Compared
Here’s a quick reference table of the top antivirus solutions that offer parental controls so you can see how they performed in independent tests and how different solutions compare head-to-head:
We base our recommendations on first-hand experience and in-depth testing. All the Antivirus products we suggest, have been tested based on the following criteria:
Core Security Features: We make sure that the antivirus software is fully equipped with features like real-time protection, scanning, a firewall, web protection, and more.
Malware Detection Rates: We test malware detection rates ourselves by running both in-depth and quick scans on our devices. Additionally, we check independent lab tests.
Compatibility: We check which devices and operating systems the antivirus software is compatible with. Often, different-looking dashboards and slightly different packages of features may be available.
Performance Impact: A reliable and functional antivirus should not slow down your device significantly. So, we examine our device performance with and without the antivirus running.
Customer Experience: Alongside our own experience, we are curious to know what real users have to say regarding the services. So, we’ve scoured the web for feedback on each of our tested antiviruses.
Value for Money: We always consider value for money and how much each product is offering for the set price point.
How to Choose the Best Antivirus Parental Control Apps
There are multiple levels of online security, though, and a range of antivirus tools, and not every antivirus package that includes parental control features is on the same level.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the key features to consider when picking the best family antivirus solutions:
When it comes to an antivirus, the most important metric for basic protection is how effective it is in combating cyber threats. Ideally, you want an antivirus with a 99.99% malware detection rate to ensure your device and data are kept safe.
Parental controls
Parental controls often include content logs and content restriction capabilities, while additional features like age-based restrictions, web filtering, real-time notifications, monitoring of social media apps, and location tracking can offer added security.
Consider what’s most important to you, whether you want an antivirus with parental time controls, an app blocker, location tracking, or YouTube monitoring.
Performance impact
Antivirus solutions can be demanding on device resources, reducing response times to user input. The lower the impact on the device’s performance, the better, but you shouldn’t sacrifice safety for the sake of performance.
Compatibility
Not every product is compatible with every device and operating system.
Make sure your chosen antivirus can run on the devices you want to protect, and that you’re getting all the features you need across desktop and mobile and protecting every iOS and Android device in your household.
Additional security features
In addition to malware protection and parental controls, you should consider security features and tools such as VPNs, password managers, online payment protection, and firewalls.
These all enhance your family’s online safety, security, and anonymity. For more focus on specific features, you might also consider researching the best password managers for families.
Value for money
When comparing the prices for the monthly and annual subscriptions of different antivirus solutions, be mindful of what you’re getting for your money. The cheapest solution may be a bad buy if it doesn’t include the features you need.
How to Get Started with an Antivirus with Parental Control
Here’s a step-by-step guide for getting started with Norton Antivirus and setting up parental controls so you can ensure your children are safe online:
Sign Up for Norton Antivirus
Visit Norton and scroll down until you reach the pricing plans. Note that parental controls are only available with the Norton 360 Deluxe and Select packages.
Click the “Buy now” button on the appropriate plan, enter your email address, and provide your payment information to finalize the purchase.
Install Norton on Your Device
After completing your purchase, you’ll receive a purchase confirmation on the email address you’ve provided, together with your login credentials and an installation file.
Download the Norton installation file and follow the simple prompts on your screen to install the antivirus on your device. Note that you’ll also have to install Norton on your child’s device to apply parental controls from your PC, laptop, or phone.
Set Up Parental Controls
Log into your Norton account, navigate to the “Family” tab, and add each of your children’s devices to your account. Select the type of device and the operating system.
Edit the Settings
After adding their accounts, go through each of the individual settings and apply the level of control you want. These include:
Web – Choose which topics you want to block from being accessible and how you want to be notified of web activity
Search – Restrict the searches and see what your kids are searching for
Time – Set time restrictions and schedules for device/internet use
Video – See what your children watch on YouTube
App – See what apps your kids have downloaded on their Android devices (not available on iOS) and restrict access to specific apps if necessary
Location – Monitor the location of your child’s Android or iOS device in real-time and review their 30-day location history
With this done, you’re good to go. You’ll always be able to further configure, update, or change these restrictions from your device, as well as being able to monitor online activity.
How Good is the Best Free Antivirus with Parental Control Tools?
There are many antivirus solutions that offer free plans, but these usually have a limited range of features, and you’ll typically need to upgrade for parental controls. Indeed, you’ll be very hard-pressed to find a free antivirus solution that lets you monitor and control your kids’ internet activity.
In addition to parental controls, you’ll be missing out on other key features with free antivirus solutions, such as firewalls, VPNs, data breach monitoring, and payment protection.
Put simply, it’s far more worthwhile to set some money aside for a premium antivirus solution with parental controls since you get complete protection for all your devices, whereas a free antivirus will typically only offer malware and virus protection at most.
Conclusion – What’s the Best Antivirus Parental Control Suite? Norton Antivirus
The internet can provide enormous opportunities for children for education and entertainment, but it also opens the door to a wide range of threats.
Antivirus software can help block malicious sites and malware-infected files, and parental control tools can do a whole lot more, screening inappropriate sites and content, enabling screen time management, and helping flag concerning communications and app use.
Based on my thorough testing, I rate Norton as the best antivirus with parental control tools available on the market today. It provides an outstanding antivirus with a virus protection guarantee and first-class parental controls that allow you to monitor device use to the precise level you require.
In addition, the antivirus has a great set of apps and browser extensions and higher-tier plans include protection for unlimited devices. It also comes with an impressive trial and money-back guarantee.
What’s the benefit of using an antivirus with parental controls?
In addition to safeguarding your family from online threats, parental control packages provide valuable insights into what your children are doing online and can block inappropriate content and potentially dangerous conversations with strangers on the internet.
Do I need to use parental controls?
You don’t have to, but I recommend it for parents. Children with unsupervised access to the internet can encounter disturbing content, engage in unsafe conversations, and have their thoughts and opinions shaped by malicious individuals and groups. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to moderate what content your children can access and interact with to ensure they’re safe online.
How good are the Norton parental control tools?
Norton’s parental control tools are excellent. With Norton, you’ll have complete oversight of what your children are doing online, as well as control over what they can and can’t access on the internet.
Are the McAfee parental controls good?
McAfee’s parental controls are very good. They allow you to set up content filters, restrict screen time, and monitor your child’s physical location by tracking their phone. They’re also bundled with the provider’s antivirus tools and support an unlimited number of devices.
Can you get parental spyware with an antivirus?
Parental spyware sits in a different category to antivirus solutions and parental control products. Parental control antivirus solutions are geared toward monitoring children’s online behavior, while spyware lets you control the device and see how they’re using the device as a whole. The biggest drawback of parental spyware is that it doesn’t protect your child from malware and cyber threats.
Is there a free antivirus with parental control functionality?
There are free antivirus solutions, such as Avast, but you won’t get access to parental control functionality with free plans. Your best option is to look for a trial that includes parental control features and to upgrade to a paid plan when you’re satisfied you’ve found the right product.
Techopedia’s editorial policy is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
Aleksandar Stevanovic spent 10 years honing his craft as a freelance content writer. He has a degree in Economics, and extensive experience in software, crypto, and cybersecurity industries. He covers a multitude of topics, writing factual and informative articles, helping individuals better understand the intricacies of the online world. Over the last two years, his research focus shifted more towards tech and software content, as evidenced by his publications on CEX.IO, Business2Community, and Techopedia. He believes in simplifying complex topics and bringing them closer to like-minded individuals. His work is as detail-oriented as it is creative, and is designed to…
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