Hi, here's my dilemma. I'm tapping into your experience as parents.

Which parental control app or service that can be configured in unified central manner, but resulting control be applicable similarly to android, windows, and iPad.
Top concern is browser filtering, Whatsapp, messaging, and possibly, making sure no embarrassing stuff gets shared or transmitted.
Multi-device, and tailored to different kids of different age.
Separate sign-on for each parent if possible, to manage the same set of kids.

I'd like to listen to pros and cons, to compare which is for better or for worse in aiding your parental quests.




Background:

New "normal" bring additional challenge in home schooling.

I found that my spouse was deluged by Whatsapp messages from both her own concerns AND from primary school teachers of our kids. Teachers keep sending links through Whatsapp and telegram and what else, to online resources: YouTube, google drive, survey links, sites that teaches basic programming, etc, etc.

She will then either have to surrender her phone to view those, or, for my kids to copy the link character-by-character into laptop or into another tablet, or for them to print some exercise.

After 2 months of such ding-dong, in good faith and in good trust despite my spouse warning against, I signed on to zerolution and the older kid now gets to trial a Samsung A31 smartphone
(which I think is enough to last a schooling requirement for few years; total of 24 interest-free installments < outright purchase, and additional 30GB to the family pool)

Now I am having a problem, which I am sure some of you also experienced.

Installed Whatsapp since that is primary method of communicating wth teacher. I removed all preinstalled social media app. Even YouTube gets removed by Google Family Link. I added few sites to Google Family Link blacklist. Can't install random app from Google Play without asking permission. Warned against applying any method to lock phone from parents as it is our rights to ambush his device. No social media, ever, as long as I think they are immature. I cannot remove internet browser and Google Drive since teachers do use them for distributing homework.

Despite me "sanitising" the phone and what else, when I review Family Link's log to internet browsing, Google Assistant, and time spent on Whatsapp and else, I cannot but to form impression that the kid have started wondering off the reservation. What I worry most is if there is communication with stranger, or my kid starts snapping pictures and sharing it.

I also want to make sure that the phone really gets used for its intended purpose - as aid to home schooling. I still want to be reasonable to the pre-teen kid who just laid his hand on a personal "inter-networked supercomputer".

I know from work experience, maintaining blacklist and whitelist is an expensive tedious route. I hate it. But it now seems inevitable.

I may have a solution in progress. Assuming, you have home broadband.

Basically home based server plus the all the phones. All the whitelisting and blacklisting is done in the server. So it applies to all devices including your own.

Now, the child phone, you have to allow access to mobile Internet only for selected apps, such as Whatsapp, and any that you think is important. That also includes parental control apps. Other resources are only accessed through home wifi. Perhaps you can remove Internet browser id you don't want to allow the child to access random Internet outside the house.

That is to say, the child smartphone becomes a dumb phone when its being used outside the house. Dumb phone + Whatsapp. You can gradually undumb and smarten the phone as the child ages and such.

Its an idea.

Have Digi-based B618, but I don't have home-based server to be used as 24/7 router.

WiFi router modem <--> ISP


I did thought setting up additional filtering device BEFORE B618, but that also mean I will need to disable the WiFi in B618 and having to set up another to compensate

WiFi <--> filter <--> WiFi router modem <--> ISP


Pros:
You gave lightbulb moment there with defaulting to disable from using mobile internet if not explicitly allowed to.


Cons:
- "immobility"
- additional hardware