Parental Control Apps: Ensuring Online Safety or Eroding Trust?

Written By: Noosha Nafarzadegan, Clinical Trainee at ACS, On-Campus Counseling Program

WITH THE EVER-INCREASINGprevalence of smartphones among teens and pre-teens, parents often turn to parental control mobile applications (apps) to protect their children from online risks. These apps can block, filter, and monitor a wide range of online activities, providing parents with the tools to oversee mobile app usage, web browsing, calling, and texting. However, the question arises: Are these apps truly safe, both for managing online risks and for protecting the privacy of the teens they are designed to monitor?

Parental Control Apps and Privacy Concerns

A critical concern with parental control apps is their intrusive nature when it comes to privacy. A study conducted by Feal et al. (2020) examined 46 Android parental control apps, revealing that these apps are, on average, more “permission-hungry” than the top apps in the Google Play Store (on Android phones). They tend to request an increasing number of permissions with every new release, often without transparency about the data being collected and shared. Worryingly, 34% of these apps gather and send personal information without appropriate consent, and 72% share data with third parties, such as online advertising and analytics services, without disclosing this in their privacy policies. These practices highlight the tension between monitoring teens’ online activities for safety and protecting their privacy.

The study’s findings indicate that many parental control apps fail to comply with privacy regulations, raising questions about the ethical use of such apps. While parental control apps can reduce dangers associated with online activities, their lack of transparency and oversight could expose teens to significant privacy risks. Parents may inadvertently compromise their children’s privacy while attempting to protect them, underscoring the importance of scrutinizing the apps they use.

Power Imbalances and Communication Challenges

The use of parental control apps also introduces issues related to family dynamics. Research by Akter et al. (2022) explored how families manage mobile safety and app privacy. Their study involved 19 parent-teen pairs (ages 13-17), who used a co-monitoring app called Community Oversight of Privacy and Security (CO-oPS). The app allowed both parents and teens to view the apps installed on each other’s devices and the privacy permissions granted to those apps. While parents were more open to the idea of collaborative oversight, teens resisted the notion of monitoring their parents, revealing a power imbalance in the parent-teen relationship.

This imbalance often makes co-management of online privacy and safety difficult. Teens, in particular, found the idea of monitoring or scrutinizing their parents’ online activities uncomfortable, even though both parties recognized that parents often lack the technological expertise to manage their own online safety. While the CO-oPS app increased transparency and communication, it did not resolve the underlying tension between teen autonomy and parental oversight. The findings suggest that while collaborative efforts can enhance online safety, achieving a balance between privacy and control remains a challenge.

A Youth-Centric Approach to Online Safety

Given these challenges, researchers have begun to question whether traditional parental control apps, designed primarily with parents in mind, are the best solution for teen online safety. Badillo-Urquiola et al. (2019) argue that parental control apps often overlook teens as stakeholders, focusing more on restricting their activities than fostering their development. Their research suggests that a more youth-centric approach, which balances teen autonomy, privacy, and safety, may be more developmentally appropriate.

By incorporating feedback from emerging adults (college students), Badillo-Urquiola and colleagues designed parental control app features that emphasized open communication, trust, and mutual respect between parents and teens. Instead of relying solely on restrictive monitoring, these features promoted parent-teen cooperation and allowed for greater teen autonomy while still addressing safety concerns. This approach acknowledges that teens, like adults, need opportunities to make their own decisions online, within the guidance and support of their parents.

The effectiveness of parental control apps in reducing online risks remains debated. Although these apps can limit exposure to harmful content, some studies have found that strong parent-teen relationships are more effective at protecting teens from online risks than restrictive apps. Davis and Koepke (2016) discovered that a trusting relationship between parents and teens offered more protection than parental monitoring apps, which were seen by teens as invasive. Furthermore, Ghosh et al. (2018) reported that teens often resent parental control apps, viewing them as overly restrictive and harmful to trust within the family.

These findings suggest that while parental control apps can be a tool for managing online risks, they are not a replacement for open, trusting communication between parents and teens. Apps that promote transparency, cooperation, and mutual respect are more likely to foster a safe and supportive environment for teens as they navigate the complexities of the digital world.

Conclusion

Parental control apps offer parents the ability to monitor their teens’ online activities, but they are not without significant privacy and relational concerns. Research shows that these apps often lack transparency and compliance with privacy regulations, potentially exposing teens to privacy risks. Additionally, the power dynamics inherent in their use can strain parent-teen relationships, particularly when teens feel that their autonomy and privacy are being infringed upon. More collaborative, youth-centric approaches to online safety—ones that balance trust, privacy, and autonomy—may provide a more effective and developmentally appropriate solution. Ultimately, open communication and a strong parent-teen relationship remain key in navigating online risks, whether or not parental control apps are used.

___________________________

References

Akter, M., Godfrey, A. J., Kropczynski, J., Lipford, H. R., & Wisniewski, P. J. (2022). From parental control to joint family oversight: Can parents and teens manage mobile online safety and privacy as equals?. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CSCW1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3512904

Badillo-Urquiola, K., Chouhan, C., Chancellor, S., De Choudhary, M., & Wisniewski, P. (2019). Beyond parental control: designing adolescent online safety apps using value sensitive design. Journal of adolescent research, 35(1), 147-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558419884692

Davis, K., & Koepke, L. (2016). Risk and protective factors associated with cyberbullying: Are relationships or rules more protective?. Learning, Media and Technology, 41(4), 521-545. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2014.994219

Feal, Á., Calciati, P., Vallina-Rodriguez, N., Troncoso, C., & Gorla, A. (2020). Angel or devil? a privacy study of mobile parental control apps. Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. https://doi.org/10.2478/popets-2020-0029

Ghosh, A. K., Badillo-Urquiola, K., Guha, S., Jr, J. J. L., & Wisniewski, P. J. (2018). Safety vs. Surveillance: What Children Have to Say about Mobile Apps for Parental Control. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Montreal QC, Canada. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173698