eKAVACH is a digital App that enables today’s parents to stay connected with and monitor their most precious possessions, their children. As the online world expands its horizons, our children are exposed to and accessible to many online resources that are age inappropriate. They are also on social media platforms and are at a risk of being befriended by unwanted elements. Since smartphones and tablets are ubiquitous, so much so that even very young children are playing games on them, it makes sense to monitor their online activities to keep them out of harm’s way. eKAVACH is a much-needed App in this space to help keep our children safe and also keep track of their online activities.
After all which parent of our generation is not concerned about the inordinate time that our children spend playing online games, browsing, spending time on social media platforms and chats.
How to download eKAVACH Apps?
Get it for free on your Google Play Store and IOS. You need to install the Parent App and Child App on two mobiles. After registration of a family which can include up to two parents and two children, the parent sees the child’s activities on the Dashboard of the App on their mobile phones. The features are quite extensive and are covered below. The installation is really easy and the setup is done under 10 minutes.
Features of the eKAVACH App:
- Set a safe online environment for your child:
This is a very useful feature as it enables the parents to block out sites and inappropriate content using the setting in their preferences. This can be done using the right filters as per the age of the child. This enables a safe browsing experience for children. This is especially useful for very young children.
- Set healthy access limits for your children
This feature is quite helpful as most children end up spending too much time on their gadgets for both playing games and browsing. eKAVACH allows the parent to choose how much time is available to the child for browsing and blanks out sites at other times. The only hitch is if the child has access to other avenues like laptops or desktops where they can continue browsing. This App will need to be installed on each gadget that the child uses to be really effective.
The Family time feature helps you to determine the times when access to all Apps and browsing will be blocked. This will enable the members to spend quality time with each other without distractions.
- Keep tabs on Apps
Parents can keep track of the child’s browsing activities on social networking like WhatsApp, Facebook and so on apart from gaming Apps. If required, certain Apps can be blocked. While, this will help in case of children who absolutely do not follow parental guidelines, it is also important that the parent communicate with their children explaining why such action is required.
- Real time Alerts and Push notifications
This feature I found to be particularly useful especially if your child is caught in a risky situation. The child can send an SOS notification to the parent which also shares the child’s last known location. There is a feature called heartbeat that checks in the child’s location at different times over the day thus letting the parent know their location through the day no matter where they are. The only hitch being that the child especially teens may consider it an invasion of their privacy if their every movement is tracked and sent to their parents. This feature can be more useful if it can be enabled only at certain times like late-night outings etc. when the child would feel safer if the parent actually tracks their movements.
- Dashboard view of your child’s online browsing activities
This will give a parent a view of the complete list of Apps and websites that the child visited/ tried to visit and likes to frequent using the mobile phone or tablet. This information helps the parent to gauge the child’s interests.
- Remotely manage activities of your child without being physically present
You can change the browsing parameters for your child, reduce their internet time and other such things using the settings on your eKAVACH App. This gives you enhanced control of your child’s online activities. Remember if the controls are very strict then the child can always find other ways to access what they want. Best would be to have a dialog with the child to mutually come up with guidelines.
The Child App also enables the child to send regular updates to the parents.
Pros of the eKAVACH Parent and Child Apps:
- Simple to install and register
- One registration for the entire family
- Offers excellent control and protection features
- Instant notifications
- Excellent offline notifications for the times when the mobile is out of charge or in adverse situations
- Extensive features
Cons of eKAVACH Parent and Child Apps:
- Complete control of the child’s phone by the parent which can cause the child to feel powerless
- Can lead to a feeling of being monitored/stalked by an adult especially in older children
- It should allow disabling of certain features by parents at certain times to allow for better acceptability and for being more age sensitive to the child
My verdict is that the App is very pertinent and useful. Use it for your older children only after prior discussion and their assent. For younger children, this App is wonderful.
All pics courtesy: eKAVACH
This app is something that I was wondering about, and lo behold here is a review. S while using the ipad managed to access the internet, and subscribe to youtube channels that he was watching (of course it was a kiddie channel so no harm done). I have been looking for a good parental control app from that day.
I am so glad that the review came at the right time for you, Jaibala. Considering that S is pretty young, I think this is a very handy App for you to try out. I have noticed that my younger son is also hooked onto youtube videos these days of cars, airplanes and lego toys. 🙂
I’ve used it. It’s an effective app for younger children. For teens, you have mentioned the cons and, those hold true as today’s kids are quite sensitive.
Thanks, Maniparna. Yes, you are right. When I was trying this App on my teen’s phone, he started feeling that his cellphone was completely out of his control. He wasn’t too happy about it.
Seems to be a useful app in tracking children’s activity online. Good review. 🙂
Thanks, Ravish. A pretty unique App certainly.
Detailed review.
Much needed App 🙂
Thanks, Anita. Yes, definitely much needed.
I liked this app too. Yes, it should be used with older children after discussion!
Thanks, Shilpa. The App gives the parent absolute control over the phone or tablet of the child. Older children will surely throw a fit. I hope they allow relaxing some features or enabling them only at certain times.
I’ve read about this app. It does seem a pretty useful app to have with kids around. I can see how it won’t go too well with teenage kids.
Yes, Kaddu. I love that name. 🙂
It is THE APP for parents. Sometimes I am shocked at the content available online. One must protect and monitor a child’s activities on internet.
Yes, it is a scary world out there. We do have a need for such Apps.
Though sounds a great app, but kids might consider it as too much spying on them 🙂
Yes, hence it feels more suitable for younger kids.
Very useful. The cons need to be kept in mind, perhaps even with younger kids. Quite certain actually.
Thanks, Subho. Yes, I cannot even put the App for the younger one because he will have a thousand questions as to why I am doing it. We need to communicate with them every step of the way or they will just be alienated.