App Management – Only Some of the Features Work You can add or remove words from the list and even add non-English words. In addition to the filters, Boomerang has a Dictionary section, with words and phrases that send alerts when detected in SMS and text messages. SPIN browser places a lock screen over inappropriate or blocked sites You can also create a list of URLs that you want Boomerang to block. These categories are disabled by default. Additional Categories: Includes Entertainment and Arts, Hunting and Fishing, YouTube, Sex Ed, Dating, and Games.The default setting for these categories is enabled, although you can disable them if you want. Recommended: Categories include Drugs, Gambling, Gross, Illegal, Violence, Suicide, and Plagiarism Sites.Always On: Includes porn, file sharing, VPN or Proxy SItes.The web filter appears to be very comprehensive, It has 47 categories that are divided into three sections: Try Bark Free for 7 Days! Web Filter has 45 Categories – But Only Works With Special Browser It has a 7-day free trial so you can see how well it works for yourself before subscribing. If screen time rules are important for your family, check out Bark. Then, Boomerang was able to block the apps from staying open. To make it work, I had to open the parental dashboard and refresh the page. What’s even worse, is that after disconnecting the VPN, the phone still wasn’t affected by the screen time rules. Once connected, he could use his phone however he wanted. He opened a VPN app on his phone and connected to a local server before Boomerang shut it down. When the Boomerang screen time limit is reached, it automatically closes an app a few seconds after opening it. Now for the disappointing part – my son was able to bypass all screen time rules. It means I can add educational apps, personal fitness, and e-readers so that he uses those instead of TikTok, Netflix, and Twitter. I could tag specific apps that I want to encourage my son to use, and they remain separate from all of the screen time rules. What is unique is the Encouraged Apps feature. Both the daily limit and the daily calendar work in half-hour increments instead of actually letting me create limits and schedules that fit my family. This part of the screen time feature isn’t unique and, in fact, has fewer customizable options than Bark. I was able to combine the two options, meaning there was a total screen time of 2.5 hours a day, but there were specific times throughout the day when the phone was locked. Create a daily calendar of when the phone can be used.Multiple Screen Time Featuresīoomerang has two main options for setting screen time limits: To save you time, press on the child’s device name under Family Devices on the left menu bar, and then click the Devices tab on the middle section of your screen. It took me a few minutes to figure out where everything was, that I actually had to watch a Boomerang tutorial video on YouTube, so I could make adjustments to the filter. The dashboard doesn’t have a modern design Try Bark Free for 7 Days! In a Rush? Here’s a 1 Minute Summary You can test Bark free for 7 days and see how well it monitors your child’s online activities. It monitors over 30 social media, email, and SMS apps, allows you to set a daily screen time routine, and an AI-based filter with 17 categories. If you need a powerful parental control app with comprehensive screen time features, strong web filters, and social media monitoring, you should check out Bark. Even the screen time features had issues, and my son found a quick way to bypass the screen time limits. Not only did most of the features not work very well, but the Boomerang app drained my son’s battery. I challenged him to try and bypass the rules so I could see just how good it really is. I installed it on my son’s Android to evaluate and test all of the features. With no computer apps, Boomerang is exclusively for smartphones, and many of its features don’t work with iOS. This made me very skeptical that I’d be happy with the features, and it didn’t take long to see why. The first thing I noticed when visiting the Boomerang website is that it claimed it has “The most unique flexible screen time features.”I didn’t see anything about a web filter, content blocking, geo-tracking, or social media monitoring until I scrolled to the bottom of the page. Best Parental Control for iPhone & iPad.
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