How To Block Adult Content On Android: 5 Ways To Protect Your Kids

Gone are the days when children used to spend all their free time playing and running outside the house. 

In fact, the opposite has become true in recent times. Due to advancements in technology, children who own mobile devices are now getting younger and younger, which means they’d rather spend most of their time inside the house, browsing on their phones and tablets all day.

As a parent, it’s only natural for you to feel concerned about what they’re seeing on their phones, especially when you’re not there to supervise.

That’s why, in today’s guide, we’ll show you all the different ways of how to block adult content on Android.

5 Ways To Block Adult Content On Android

Luckily, there are many ways to make your kid’s Android phone child-friendly. Here are the best ways to block adult content and step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

Blocking Adult Content On Android With mSpy

mSpy is a parental control app that allows you to monitor, track, and even make changes to your child’s phone activity.

With mSpy, you can protect your child from seeing harmful content such as drugs, violence, and pornography by blocking apps and websites.

Since it’s a paid subscription, you’re going to have to subscribe to a package first before you proceed. After that, you need to install mSpy on the target Android phone. If you need help doing this, you can check out this full mSpy review right here.

Once you’re done installing mSpy, you can now begin the steps to block inappropriate websites on Android.

1. Go to the mSPy portal and log in using your mSpy email and password.
2. On the dashboard, navigate towards the upper-left corner and press the kebab menu icon.

   

3. mSpy will present you with a menu containing all the features you can use.

   

4. Scroll down to the very bottom of the options tab until you see the Block Websites feature. Click it.

   

5. The Block Websites window will then appear. On it, you will see a list of all the blocked URLs, their status (whether the block is applied or not), and the button to Unblock the website on the far right side of each item.

   

6. Scroll down again to the bottom of the window. You’ll see a bar where you can type in the URL of all the websites that you want to block.

   

7. Type in or copy-paste the URLs of the adult websites that you want mSpy to block on the Android device. At this point, it would be best if you already have a list of websites that you want to block.

   

8. After typing in the URL, click the blue Block button on the bottom right side. This will block the website from that particular device. Repeat for all of the websites that you want to prevent access.

Block Adult Content With mSpy’s Keyword Alert

While these steps are enough to block inappropriate websites on the target device, I’ve got something even better. You can take a proactive stance by setting a keyword alert whenever your child searches for something suspicious.

After that, you only have to click on the alert to block the website that they wanted to visit.

1. To do this, go to the hamburger menu once again.

   

2. Scroll down to the Keyword Tracking feature, and then click it.

   

3. You will then see the Rules window. From here, you can add a keyword and decide what will happen once mSpy encounters it. Just type in the word or phrase that you want to know in the Add rule field.

   

4. To be safe, choose “All” for the features and “Notify to email” for the action.

   

5. Press the Add button. Repeat for all of the keywords that you don’t want your children searching online.

As mentioned above, once you’ve added keyword notifications, you will be alerted every time your child searches for adult content, allowing you to block porn, violence, and other harmful websites as soon as possible.

Blocking Adult Content on Google Play Store

There are many apps on the Google Play Store that may not be safe for your kids to see. This includes apps that feature violence, gore, and of course, sexual content.

If you want to make sure that your child is not downloading an app that contains inappropriate content, simply follow these steps showing how to use Play Store settings.

1. Open the Play Store on your child’s Android phone. You’ll see a Hamburger icon at the top-left side. Click it.

2. A dropdown list will show. Click Settings.

3. Under user controls, the first option is Parental Controls. Tap that option.

4. Tap the toggle button showing that the Parental controls are off.

5. Once you tap it, a prompt will show up, asking you to create a PIN. Type in your chosen PIN and click OK. Take note that you’ll have to type it twice for confirmation.

6. After confirming your PIN, you can now set content restrictions. 3+ content is the most restrictive, while the least restrictive is 18+ content. Click Save to change the options.

And you’re done! You can now let your child browse the Play Store without worrying that they might download apps that they’re not supposed to.

Block Adult Content On Google Chrome

Setting up the Play Store settings is not the only thing you should worry about if you have kids who have their own Android phones. You should also make sure that Google Chrome, the world’s most widely-used browser, is safe from inappropriate content, as well.

Here are the steps to block adult sites and adult content on your child’s Chrome browser.

1. Open Google Chrome on your child’s Android phone and type google.com/preferences on the search bar.

2. This will take you to the Search Settings screen. Select Filter explicit results under SafeSearch Filters.

3. Click Save.

While SafeSearch isn’t 100% accurate, turning it on will give you some peace of mind that your child won’t accidentally see explicit content while searching for random things on the Internet.

Block Adult Content On The Google App

Google App is another commonly-used app that you should filter for inappropriate content on your child’s phone. 

It works the same way as Google Chrome, except with more features. You can recognize it by its single ‘G’ icon with Google’s color scheme. 

You can also turn the app’s SafeSearch on to block explicit content.

1. Open Google App on your child’s phone. Once you enter the app, you’ll see a horizontal panel at the bottom showing some options. Click the Meatballs icon with the label ‘More’ at the bottom-right of the screen.

2. Click Settings.

3. Click General, the first option on the list.

4. You’ll see a toggle for SafeSearch. Tap that to enable SafeSearch.

Android Apps That Block Adult Content

You shouldn’t just rely on SafeSearch to protect your children from adult content. There are also plenty of Android apps whose main goal is to filter any and all kinds of inappropriate content from showing up on your child’s phone.

Qustodio

Qustodio is a parental control app that allows parents to let their children use phones without worrying about inappropriate content. It works seamlessly on multiple platforms, including Mac, Windows, iOS, and of course, Android.

The free version limits the monitoring to just one device and only up to seven days of history, but the premium plans allow 5-15 devices and up to 30 days of history, depending on your preferred plan. 

Prices range from $49 per year for the Premium Small plan to $124 per year for the Premium Large plan. With Qustodio, parents can easily track their child’s activity on different devices, filter their web browsing, monitor potentially explicit texts or calls, and even set it to block adult content on social media, albeit only on Facebook.

Interested in Qustodio? Take a look at our comprehensive review.

Famisafe

Famisafe is another app that makes monitoring your children’s activity and filtering explicit content much easier. It’s also compatible with Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, although you have to go through different processes to download and configure the service on each device. 

The smallest but most expensive plan is $9.99 per month for up to six devices, billed monthly, while the biggest but cheapest plan costs $4.99 for up to 30 devices, billed annually.

In terms of features, Famisafe is an all-around app that has everything you need to protect your child from getting exposed to inappropriate content. It allows web filtering, app blocking, screen time limits, and YouTube control. If your child has an Android phone, the app will even notify you if it detects suspicious photos and explicit messages on your child’s phone.

Here’s a more detailed review of Famisafe in case you’re interested in checking it out.

Google Family Link

If you’re looking for a free app that will block adult content on Android, look no further than Google Family Link. The app is available on iOS, Android, and Chromebooks by up to six family members. 

Currently, only 38 countries worldwide can use it, though Google does plan to expand its service in the future.

Like the other apps mentioned here, Google Family Link also allows web filtering and app blocking, among many other features. 

One nifty feature is the ability to lock your child’s phone remotely just by giving a command on your phone’s Google Assistant. So if you’re worried that your child may be staying up past his bedtime just to use his phone, you now know what to do.

Net Nanny

Net Nanny is another option if you want an app that you can use to manage your child’s phone usage. It’s available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Chrome OS devices.

The service costs $54.99 a year to get all the features you need, including web filtering, app blocking, and even location tracking. 

App blocking is quite limited on iOS devices, but it can block virtually any app you want on Android, perfect if you don’t want your kids checking out apps that they shouldn’t be using.

Kaspersky Safe Kids

Kaspersky Safe Kids is a good option for parents who are on a tight budget. The app is available on various platforms, like iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows and even just the free version has plenty of features to offer such as web monitoring and device scheduling. If you want more features, the premium version is just $14.99 per year.

Now You Know How To Block Adult Content On Android

These days, children are getting so adept with technology such as Google Search that it’s getting harder for parents to keep their environment family-friendly.

That’s why it’s important to know how to block adult content on their Android phones, especially if you don’t want them to get exposed to things that they shouldn’t be seeing at a young age. 

Turning SafeSearch on in their browser and in Play Store and Google app is a good way to filter out inappropriate content, as well as limiting the apps they can download from Play Store.

If you want more management options, you can also use apps like Qustodio, Famisafe, or mSpy to make sure that your child is only viewing family-friendly content. You can use these apps on multiple devices and across different platforms, which means you’ll have better control over your child’s device usage.

Did you enjoy this tutorial? Have you already used one of these apps before? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!