Kaspersky Safe Kids is a popular parental control app that provides web monitoring, app blocking, filtering, and more. It’s available for all major operating systems, including iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows. Not to mention, it comes at an affordable price.
We regularly review parental control software to see which apps are best suited to your family’s needs. Read our full Kaspersky Safe Kids review below to find out how effective this software is at protecting the privacy of your children.
Kaspersky Safe Kids: Short Review
What We Like
- Affordable price at $14.99/year
- One account for unlimited devices
- Effective internet filtering
- Category-based app blocking
- Real-time alerts
- Great features on Android and Windows
- Accurate geotracking and geofencing
- Screen time restrictions feature
- Battery tracking
What We Don't Like
- Few features on iOS devices
- Limited social media monitoring
- Based in Russia (data retention risk)
- Lengthy installation process
- No private browser monitoring
- No free plan
During our testing of Kaspersky Safe Kids, we found the software to be intuitive and user-friendly. The app also lets you set different parameters for each of your children, depending on their age. On top of that, you can create internet filters for 14 risk categories and receive web reports about what pages your kid is visiting. This can significantly enhance your children’s internet safety.
Until recently, there was a Kaspersky Safe Kids free plan, but this is no longer the case. Nonetheless, Kaspersky Safe Kids is quite affordable and includes several features that can enhance the privacy and security of your child online.
Note:
Kaspersky Safe Kids has the best price compared with other parental control software like Bark and Norton Family. If you’re on a budget, there’s no better app than this.
You can also restrict any web category you want, so your kid won’t have access to inappropriate content. Plus, the Kaspersky parental control app also offers Safe Search, a feature to block potentially harmful results on search engines. Best of all, you can get live updates of your kid’s location and device battery, as well as set “safe” areas with the geofencing feature.
But it’s not all rosy. Kaspersky Kids has some drawbacks. The Windows application and Android app are significantly more developed, making Kaspersky Safe Kids less suitable for iOS users. Additionally, it can take some time to set up the software for all accounts and devices.
Moreover, there are some other areas where Safe Kids could do better. For example, most kids today use potentially unsafe apps like Instagram or TikTok. Kaspersky Kids’ social media monitoring focuses more on Facebook and VK.
Nevertheless, Kaspersky Safe Kids is a good option for families who are looking for an affordable parental control app that has sensitive web filters and provides real-time alerts. Moreover, Kaspersky Safe Kids has a 30-day money-back guarantee, which gives you a chance to try the software for yourself without committing.
If you want the complete take on this parental control app, read the rest of our Kaspersky Safe Kids review.
Kaspersky Safe Kids’ Specifications
There are currently two plans parents can choose from: Kaspersky Safe Kids, which comes down to $14.99/year, and Kaspersky Premium, which is a combination deal for Kaspersky Safe Kids and Kaspersky’s antivirus software for $59.99/year. The best part – you’re not sacrificing too much for the much lower price point.
Here’s an overview of the features you get with both subscription packages.
| Features | Kaspersky Safe Kids | Premium Plan (Kaspersky Safe Kids + Kaspersky Premium) |
|---|---|---|
| Download link | Get Kaspersky Safe Kids | Get Kaspersky Premium Plan |
| Pricing | $14.99 (one user account for one year) | $46.99 (One device for one year) |
| Web filtering | ✔ | ✔ |
| YouTube Safe Search | ✔ | ✔ |
| App monitoring | ✔ | ✔ |
| Device use (screen time limitations) | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social networks monitoring | ✔ | ✔ |
| Screen access scheduling | ✔ | ✔ |
| Geotracking and geofencing | ✔ | ✔ |
| Low battery notification | ✔ | ✔ |
| Real-time antivirus monitoring | ✖ | ✔ |
| Online threat protection and removal | ✖ | ✔ |
| Data and password leak checker | ✖ | ✔ |
If you want to find out more about what the antivirus software has to offer, check out our Kaspersky Antivirus review.
Features and Effectiveness: How Well Does Kaspersky Safe Kids Perform?
During this Kaspersky Safe Kids review, our family panel put this parental control app to the test regarding its security features, filtering software, and real-time alerts, and we discovered that the app performs well. Therefore, we give the Kaspersky Safe Kids app a 7/10 for performance.
Here’s what we observed during our testing circuit:
- We were given some great options for screen restrictions.
- Geotracking features, including geofencing, worked well for us.
- Kaspersky Safe Kids is not the best app for iOS users.
- Internet filtering was (mostly) effective during our testing circuit.
- Notifications are in real-time and accurate.
- Social media monitoring is limited.
- Safe Search is great at sheltering your children from inappropriate content.
- The YouTube filtering feature can go a long way in protecting your kids (although it lacks compared to some competitors).
Unfortunately, not all operating systems support each of the features mentioned above. On iOS and macOS, in particular, they aren’t as effective.
iOS Limitations:
Kaspersky Safe Kids works best on Windows or Android operating systems. On iOS and macOS, web filtering and app monitoring — arguably, essential aspects of any parental control software — are limited. This is because Apple’s third-party app access regulations prevent Kaspersky from OS-level monitoring.
Below we take a closer look at the differences in features across platforms.
| Feature | Windows | Android | iOS | macOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web filtering | ✔ | ✔ | Limited | Limited |
| App monitoring | ✔ | ✔ | Limited | Limited |
| Social media monitoring | Limited | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| Device use and screen time | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Geotracking and geofencing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Web filtering
For their internet filtering feature, the Kaspersky parental control app presented us with 14 website categories that we could block or restrict at will.
Each category could be marked as “Allowed,” “Forbidden,” or “Warning.”
Forbidden websites will be made completely inaccessible, but kids can request permission to use a website or app if it’s blocked. When accessing websites from the Warning category, your child will receive a pop-up message before visiting the website, telling them that visiting that site isn’t advised. They have the option to leave the website or proceed.
This is certainly a plus since it gives kids, especially teenagers, more control over their online behavior. It invites them to think responsibly and develop their digital literacy skills. It also opens up the conversation between parents and children about the balance between privacy and safety, including prevalent topics such as how to prevent cyberbullying, for example.
When it comes to internet filtering, we’re generally very pleased with Safe Kids’ performance. The first time we logged into the Parent Portal with our Kaspersky account, the categories were already set to certain age restrictions. However, we could adapt each category manually, depending on how lenient or strict we wanted to be.
Testing the sensitivity of web filters
We wanted to know how good Safe Kids’ filters are. How sensitive are they? Can Safe Kids successfully block unwanted websites? So we put this app to the test.
During our testing, we found that content filters are pretty effective. We made various search requests for forbidden categories such as “Adult” and “Alcohol.” They were successfully blocked, with real-time notifications sent to the Kaspersky web portal for parents.
This is what a notification looks like when your child goes to a forbidden website.
We tested the app’s filtering during our Kaspersky Safe Kids review by running some YouTube searches with unsafe content, which were promptly flagged as well. YouTube is really popular with kids, so it’s great that Kaspersky has you covered on that end. The Safe Kids app also monitors your child’s YouTube search history, which is viewable in-app.
When it came to “Categories,” we had set our controls to “Warning.” However, the results were inconsistent. We did receive a notification when we tried to access an email program, which got flagged as “internet communication.”
Moreover, when searching for terms like “fun, violent games” on Google, we received no warning and got to see regular results.
We were also able to visit a website directly without receiving a warning about potentially seeing content that would be inappropriate.
However, other apps like Bark were better at blocking similar content. During our Bark review, we found that this app has very sensitive filters and a wider range of categories. For parents who want to make sure nothing slips through the cracks, that might be a good alternative to consider.
Safe Search
When it comes to browsers, the Kaspersky Safe Kids app offers a Safe Search mode. This covers search results on Bing, Google, Mail.ru, Yahoo!, and Yandex.
While we were testing Kaspersky Safe Kids, the anonymous DuckDuckGo browser was overlooked by the Safe Search feature, but we could choose to add it manually. To add separate websites to the list of forbidden content, all you have to do is go to “Add Exclusions,” enter the website, and mark it as “Forbidden.”
You can also whitelist websites that you trust or deem safe enough for your children to use. Just enter them in the same bar and mark them as “Allowed.”
Finally, a notable feature we noticed while reviewing Kaspersky Safe Kids was that the app blocks proxy servers. This makes it less likely that your child will be able to use a proxy server to get around restrictions. Unfortunately, it was not possible for us to filter an Incognito browser with the Kaspersky parental control app. But this is usually the case with parental control apps.
App filtering and management
App management is set up in the same way as internet filtering. Again, you’ve got category-based blocking and predetermined settings based on your child’s age.
Android
On Android, there are three ways apps can be blocked:
- Age restrictions: Any app in the Google Play Store that’s unsuited for the age of your child is automatically blocked and made inaccessible for download.
- Category blocking: You can block an entire category of apps, such as social media or online shopping apps. Similarly to web filtering, you can mark each category as “Allowed” or “Forbidden.” It’s also possible to set an app to “Limited.”
- Manual blocking: If you wish to block a specific app, you can flag it separately. This is useful for apps like Likee that are marked as 12+ in the Google Play Store, but you might wish to block it anyway. The same goes for TikTok, which can be unsafe for young children.
Kids can request to use a specific app, which sends a notification to you in the Parent Portal. If you consent, the app will be unblocked.
iOS
App management is very limited on iOS. All age-inappropriate apps are automatically blocked in the Apple App Store. When we activated app filtering on an iPhone for testing purposes, apps like Discord, Snapchat, Twitch, and Viber all disappeared. But this is as much as you get for app management on iOS.
Kaspersky Safe Kids Limitations:
It is worth noting that with this parental control app , you can’t manually block applications on iOS.
On Windows and macOS, it’s possible to monitor and block any desktop app or program that you like, as we discovered during our Kaspersky Safe Kids review.
Social media monitoring
Unfortunately, social media monitoring is limited with Kaspersky Kids. The app can only thoroughly monitor Facebook and VK and does not focus on how safe TikTok is, for example. To set up the monitoring feature, you can send your child a login link for each platform.
This is useful if you want to track the apps mentioned. Kaspersky Safe Kids will give you updates on your child’s public posts and new friends. This can be especially useful for parents in Russia, where apps like VK are popular.
Device use and screen time
The Kaspersky Safe Kids app allowed us to set limitations on how long a certain app may be accessed. This is a great feature for parents who wish to give their children some access to apps but not too much.
We tested this function by going to the Safe Kids Portal and changing the setting of an app to “Limited.” Once the maximum screen time was reached, the app was blocked. Alternatively, you can choose to lock the device too.
Unfortunately, there are no countdown notifications that give your child a heads-up about running out of screen time. If you want a milder approach to limitations, it is possible to only set a warning message. Keep in mind that this will allow your children to continue using an app even when the limit has been reached.
Pro Tip:
If you’re worried about losing touch with your child’s online activities when their phone is locked, it’s possible to whitelist apps that will always work, even during a screen time lock, for example calling or texting services.
Geotracking
One of the better Kaspersky Safe Kids app features is its GPS tracker, which most of the best parental control apps have. It updates you on your child’s location with real-time, pinpoint accuracy. Not to mention, you get a lot more information about their location, which makes Kaspersky an amazing choice for geotracking.
In the portal, Kaspersky specified to us what the coordinates were based on (Wi-Fi, GPS, or cell-tower triangulation), which gave us insight into how accurate they might be. Not to mention the app also allows parents to know how much battery life their kid’s phone has. This can help ease your mind if the GPS location isn’t updating anymore when their battery runs out.
A good addition to geotracking is geofencing. With it, we could set certain areas as “Safe” in the Parent Portal. This can include, for example, your child’s school, the streets their friends live on, or a local mall. The moment your child leaves a safe area, you immediately get a notification. Not all parental control apps have this, so, in this case, it’s an advantage to choose Kaspersky Kids.
Notifications and alerts
During our Kaspersky Safe Kids review, we found the app’s notification system to be very effective. You get real-time alerts via the Kaspersky Safe Kids app, but also via email. Here’s an example of your feed in the app:
In the portal, it’s possible to see a report of your child’s online activity that lists all the times they tried to access a blocked website. You basically get a detailed breakdown of every time a feature was triggered. It’s also the place you’ll be able to approve more screen time for your child, set up safe areas, and use most of Safe Kids’ features.
Ease of Use: How User-Friendly Is Kaspersky Safe Kids?
Overall, we’ve found the Kaspersky Safe Kids app and website to be well-organized and easy to navigate, but the installation requires some effort. Unfortunately, we’ve also found customer service to be largely unhelpful.
As a result, we give the Kaspersky parental control app a 6.5/10 for usability. This is what we observed during our testing circuit:
- The Safe Kids app is easy on the eyes and not too hard to navigate.
- The installation was intuitive.
- Setting up everything to your own preferences takes some time.
- It can be tricky to locate specific information on the support page.
- Customer service was slow to respond and gave generic responses.
Kaspersky Safe Kids website and installation process
Kaspersky uses a web-based Safe Kids Portal. This is where we could change settings, receive notifications (though we could also choose to receive push-up notifications), and track a child’s location.
The portal is well-organized and has a user-friendly interface which are features that can be found in other parental control apps, as we discovered in our Norton Family review. There was a menu bar at the top of the page that allowed us to switch between children’s profiles and adapt the settings based on their age.
Each of your children can have their own profile with individual stats and linked devices. You can navigate to the following tabs:
- Where is my child?: Access location tracking and geofencing features.
- Internet: This is where you find the web filtering feature, including Safe Search.
- Device use: Set time limits for your children’s devices.
- Applications: Access to app management.
- Social networks: See which social media networks are linked to Safe Kids.
- Child’s devices: Get an overview of connected devices, including stats and reports for each device.
- Profile: View your personal account information.
We found the Advice section a particularly useful feature of the Safe Kids Portal. This section offered us appropriate advice on how to monitor activity using the app, which helped us make the most of our subscription. Depending on the age of your kids, you get different tips.
For teenagers, the app focuses on open communication and mutual agreement.
While you might feel like you don’t need any advice, it’s great for parents who are looking for topics to discuss with their kids. Since parental control software is most successful with involvement and consent on all sides, Kaspersky’s advice is a welcome addition.
How to install Kaspersky Safe Kids
Generally, the installation process of the Kaspersky Safe Kids app is fast and straightforward. While it took us some time to tweak the settings to our personal preferences, the pre-set parameters were good enough that we could get started right after we had activated our account.
To make things easier for you, we’ve created a step-by-step guide for setting up Kaspersky Safe Kids. First, you have to set up an account on a Windows PC. Here’s how to do that:
- Go to the Kaspersky Safe Kids website and download the application.
- Run the installation wizard.
- Accept the License Agreement.
- The installation process will now start (takes 2-3 minutes).
- Click “Finish” when the software is done installing.
You can also set this up on your macOS. And the installation process will be pretty similar. However, it’s a bit more time-consuming, especially when giving Safe Kids the right permissions. So we recommend you use a WindowsPC.
Now that you’ve got the Kaspersky parental control software on your PC, you must create an account. Kaspersky guides you through this process. In order for you to be able to track your child’s activity on your PC, they need to have their own Windows account.
Once you have your account, you have to verify your email address. After that, you can log into the Kaspersky Safe Kids app. To get everything running, follow these steps:
- Go to the Safe Kids Portal by going to the Kaspersky Safe Kids website and clicking “My Kaspersky” under “Existing Customers” at the top.
- Log in with your account.
- Link your children’s devices (go to the App Store on their phone or tablet and look for the “Kaspersky Safe Kids Family GPS” app).
- Download the app.
- Log in with your account.
- Specify that this is your child’s device.
- Go back to the Kaspersky app on your PC and follow the instructions to link the accounts.
Your child’s device is now linked and will be monitored. If you want to change any settings, you must do so via the portal.
It can take a little while to configure Safe Kids, but the suggested settings for different age groups are a great start. We do recommend you assess them and adapt them where necessary.
Using Kaspersky Safe Kids
The Kaspersky Safe Kids app is not always straightforward to use, as we discovered during our Kaspersky Safe Kids review. For example, when we wanted to set up time limits for a particular app, we had to go through several menus before we could do that. We also experienced several bugs while testing the software, including being unable to access the software at times.
During our Qustodio review, which is another excellent parental control app, we did not experience such problems.
Despite our issues with Kaspersky Kids, we found the interface user-friendly, as we also had access to all the information we needed in our dashboard. It’s pretty easy to see where your child is at a given time, and you get an instant notification if they trigger the web filter or the Safe Search feature.
Customer service
Kaspersky Safe Kids doesn’t have its own support page, which is a significant disadvantage. We had to use the general website’s support page. There, we were given various options, as shown below.
- User Guides: This is where you can find instruction guides for different products.
- Knowledge Base: This is one of the better support resources with useful information.
- FAQ: You’ll find quick answers to the most popular questions here.
- Free Tools: This is where you can find free versions of Kaspersky products.
- Forum: Use the forum for more personal advice and interaction with other users.
- Download: If you’d like to use more Kaspersky programs, you can download them here.
To talk to someone directly, scroll down on the support page to see the different options for your location. Most likely, you can reach out to remote assistance, contact email support, use the chat function, or phone someone.
We tried submitting a question via email. Unfortunately, the Kaspersky parental control app uses pre-set categories to determine how they can best help you. You can’t just send them a direct email. Since not all questions are easily labeled, this can be a bit of a frustrating experience.
When we sent a support request, it took Kaspersky a while to reply. We got our first response after 24 hours, which didn’t help our issue. We were asked to elaborate on the question and send supporting screenshots.
The second response took another 24 hours and came from a different support agent. We were provided with general information but nothing that helped solve our problem.
Data Privacy: How Does Kaspersky Safe Kids Use Your Data?
Kaspersky is not known for its privacy-sensitive approach to data. For Kaspersky Safe Kids, in particular, there’s not a lot of information about data and privacy available. For this reason, we also researched Kaspersky’s general policy extensively during our Kaspersky Safe Kids review.
Overall, we give Kaspersky Safe Kids a score of 6/10 for data privacy. Here are our main conclusions:
- A lot of personal information is gathered.
- Safe Kids is COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) compliant.
- It’s unclear what happens to your data.
- Kaspersky is subject to Russian data retention laws.
- Kaspersky has made improvements to its data infrastructure since 2020.
Privacy policy
In its Global Privacy Policy, Kaspersky states that it logs the following information: “In case of using Safe Kids Products — child’s profile (name, birth year), device location information, information about visited websites, messages posted by children on social networks, numbers of incoming or outgoing calls and SMS.”
This is a lot of sensitive information. Since parents provide permission when accepting the license agreement, Kaspersky Safe Kids is technically COPPA-compliant.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is a U.S. law that requires companies to obtain parental consent when collecting data belonging to children under the age of 13. It’s been criticized as being outdated. Moreover, it’s unclear how long this data is stored and where.
Controversies surrounding Kaspersky’s data practices
A different point of potential concern is the fact that Kaspersky was founded and is still based in censorship-heavy Russia, which is a country known for strict surveillance practices. In 2017, U.S. President Trump even signed legislation to ban Kaspersky from all government computers. This has kept some users away from Kaspersky products, which is understandable.
On the other hand, Kaspersky’s data centers for international clients were moved to Switzerland in 2020. Plus, the service provider has transparency centers all across the globe, where government experts, regulators, and agencies can come and review Kaspersky’s source code.
Final Thoughts: Is Kaspersky Safe Kids Worth It?
Kaspersky Safe Kids is a product that certainly offers value for a reasonable price. Compared to other parental software programs, the annual price of $14.99 allows you to improve your children’s online security at a low cost.
But there are some drawbacks, too, as we discovered during our Kaspersky Safe Kids review. Kaspersky’s software doesn’t work very well on iOS. On Apple devices, like the iPad and iPhone, you won’t get as many features as you would on PCs. This really makes it more suited for Windows or Android users.
We also have some doubts when it comes to Kaspersky’s privacy policy, as well as its customer service, which was not able to answer a relatively easy question, and the response times were overly long.
Still, if you’re looking for a well-designed parental control app for a good price, it’s worth giving Kaspersky Safe Kids a try since it also offers you a 30-day money-back guarantee to test its features.
For more resources on kids’ online safety, check out the articles below:
- Experts Give Parents Tips on Internet Safety for Kids and Teens
- Video Game Addiction in Kids: How to Stop Excessive Playing
- How to Protect Your Kids From Online Predators: A Parent’s Guide
Do you have any questions about Kaspersky Safe Kids? Check out our FAQ below for some quick answers!
Kaspersky Safe Kids is worth it as it offers decent parental controls for a reasonable price. The software only costs $14.99/year, however, it is less effective on iOS and macOS. Read all about this app on our extensive Kaspersky Safe Kids review.
Kaspersky Safe Kids allows parents to block categories of apps and websites to enhance their children’s internet safety. If a child tries to access these, parents receive a notification right away. They can also view their kids’ YouTube search history. Finally, Kaspersky Safe Kids allows parents to geotrack their child.
No, unfortunately Kaspersky Safe Kids does not filter any activity done in an Incognito browser. They do have a Safe Search feature that covers results on Bing, Google, Mail.ru, Yahoo!, and Yandex.
Kaspersky offers the Kaspersky Safe Kids software, a good parental control app that allows parents to set limitations on their children’s internet activity. It protects kids from inappropriate content and excessive screen time.
