Verizon today launched a new app to help parents monitor their kids and control screen time.
Verizon Smart Family is an updated version of Verizon's previous monitoring tool, FamilyBase. With Verizon Smart Family, you can track your kids' locations and set arrival and departure alerts for certain locations, like school and home.
You can also monitor your kids' phone usage and set limits on the data, texts, and calls that they have access to. If you feel like your kids are using the internet too much or you just want their full attention, you can pause their phone's internet connection at any time.
Finally, Verizon Smart Family lets you filter the content that your kids have access to on their phones. You can blog inappropriate apps, games, and websites based on content, like violence, drugs and alcohol, and pornography.
Verizon Smart Family starts at $4.99 per month, which will get you access to content filtering, call, text and purchase limits, and the ability to manage data usage. If you step up to Verizon Smart Family Premium for $9.99 per month, you'll also get the ability to view your kids' locations as well as their web and app activity.
There are Verizon Smart Family apps available for Android and iOS.
This updated Verizon Smart Family service looks like it could be nice for parents. While you can occasionally monitor your kid's phone and apps in person, it can be tough to know what they're doing when they're away from you. Verizon Smart Family lets you keep tabs on their location so you know that they're where they need to be and also monitor what's on their phone and control their usage without you having to touch their device.
