Times are changing, and kids these days get their own devices much before they are actually capable of understanding what’s right or wrong for them. While you cannot keep them deprived of what seems to have become a necessity in this digital age, you may certainly still keep a watch on them. Wondering how? With our top-picked social media spy apps.
Social media is like a second home to most kids these days. They spend most of their time online, meeting new people, making friends, and maybe even finding love. If you are worried about the possible dangers that come with new experiences, check out these spy apps for social media to monitor their online activities.
Why Should You Monitor Your Child’s Social Media?
Nearly 46% of teens between 13-17 have been bullied online at least once in their lives. The Internet has made it easier for strangers to connect to innocent children. But with constant social media monitoring, the following is possible:
- Protect them from ill-intentioned strangers online
- Prevent oversharing, especially personal details online
- See who they are closest to and who has the most influence on their life
Every day in every city, a kid is getting harassed online, but only 1 in 10 teens inform their parents. So how do you know whether your child is safe online or not? Try the social media monitoring apps listed below.
How to Spy on Social Media of Your Child? 3 Ways
If you don’t want to jump into using a spy phone app right away, here are some other ways to track your child’s phone.
1. Have Access to Their Accounts
The easiest way to track your child’s social media activities is to have direct access to their accounts through their login credentials or password. You may either directly ask them for their passwords or use these spy apps listed below to find out their passwords using the keylogger feature.
2. Sync Phones
If you want updates from your kid’s phone directly on your device, you can also try syncing the device. It is necessary to get access to their iCloud. In case you don’t have their Apple ID, you’ll again need a spy app (at least temporarily) to get their password. You may try to hack into their iCloud, but we don’t recommend that method — it’s both tricky and risky.
3. Use Spy Apps
In case your child neither gives you direct access to their accounts nor lets you sync it with your phone, your best option is to use spy apps. Check out our list of the top 5 robust social media spy apps below.
Best Social Media Spy Apps to Keep an Eye Over Your Offspring
Here are our top 5 picks for apps to spy on social media:
1. uMobix: Overall, the Best Social Media Spy App
uMobix social media spy tool is a great app to monitor your child’s social media activities on their phone or tablet in real time.
Our favorite feature of uMobix is it gives you access to deleted info such as calls, messages, and contacts. Your child might think that deleting controversial items will keep them off the hook during the next routine phone inspection, but with uMobix, you get access to everything they deleted.
It also tells you every time they rename a contact. For example, if you ask your kid to stay away from someone and they simply rename their contact to deceive you instead of actually deleting their number, uMobix will let you know immediately.
Social media apps covered by uMobix include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, etc. The information gets updated every 5 minutes so that you are always getting the latest updates and have enough time for damage control in case your child makes a wrong move online, such as posting an inappropriate picture or exchanging numbers with a stranger.
Another benefit of using uMobix is that your kids can’t outsmart you by changing their SIM cards. Any time they try to use a different sim card for unethical activities, you’ll be notified of the SIM card replacement immediately.
Compatibility: Android, iPhone, iPad
Best Features:
- Social media tracking
- Location tracking
- Access to photos/videos
- Call tracking
- Live audio and video streaming
- Taking screen snaps
- Viewing browser history
Pricing:
Android and iOS
Full (1 month) | Full (3 months) | Full (12 months) |
$49.99 | $89.97 ($29.99 per month) | $149.88 ($12.49 per month |
2. Glassagram: The Best Anonymous Spy App
Glassagram is a popular anonymous story viewer. This is the perfect app for you if you don’t want to break into your child’s phone but still keep a watch on their Instagram account.
While you may anonymously check their posts and reels if their account is public, Instagram will let them know if you view their stories but not with Glassagram.
The best part is that getting started with Glassagram is super easy. Once you create your account, all that you have to do is give it your child’s Instagram details and wait 5 minutes for it to retrieve their stories.
You are free to watch as many of their stories as you want in real-time, all without leaving a trace. While a regular story lasts for only 24 hours, Glassagram saves each story for up to 48 hours so that you never miss a single social media update of your kid.
Even if your child is using multiple social media accounts, Glassagram will help you manage data from all of them seamlessly, and you don’t have to pay extra for that. Each Glassagram account lets you manage multiple Instagram accounts in the same dashboard. Among social media spy apps for Instagram, this software ranks top positions.
Compatibility: Android
Best Features:
- Anonymous Instagram story viewing
- Saving stories up to 48 hours
- Managing multiple Instagram accounts
- Saves posts and videos
- Allows to spy without registering your own Insta account
Pricing:
1 month | 3 months | 12 months |
$54.99 | $99.99 ($33.33 per month) | $179.88 ($14.99 per month) |
3. Qustodio: A Widely Compatible Spy Tool
Qustodio social media spy software is a lot like uMobix — a comprehensive spy app to spy on social media with excellent social media monitoring features that won over 4 million parents worldwide.
It is possible to check what your child is doing on their phone at any given time. This includes social media activities like chatting, posting pictures, or watching videos. In case you don’t like the content they watch or find any app they use to be inappropriate for their age, you can go ahead and block them. Your child won’t even know it was you.
Another benefit of using Qustodio is it lets you limit your kid’s screen time. Just because your child isn’t doing anything wrong or inappropriate doesn’t mean they get to be on their device 24/7. Set time limits in advance, and soon as the time is up, their device will automatically shut off. This way, you will ensure they are getting enough sleep, completing their homework, and living a life outside their phone.
Qustodio is one of the few apps that provide two-way communication. With this spy app for social media, you get to keep an eye on your kid’s activities, and they reach out to you in case they are in trouble through the SOS feature — get an instant alert whenever your child needs help.
Compatibility: Android, Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Chromebook
Best Features:
- Screen time limit
- Messages and calls tracking
- Location tracking
- Blocks inappropriate web content
- Real-time alerts
- Smart web filters
- Multi-device monitoring
- Phone support in English and Spanish
Pricing
Small | Medium | Large |
$54.95/year (5 devices) | $96.95/year (10 devices) | $137.95/year (15 devices) |
4. iKeyMonitor: Best Free Social Media Spy Software
iKeyMonitor, a free social media spy app, is trusted by more than 400k parents from 100 countries, making it one of the largest all-in-one social media spy apps.
Speaking of social media monitoring, some of the most popular platforms are covered by iKeyMonitor. This includes WhatsApp, Skype, Vibe, Kik, Instagram, Snapchat, and even Tinder & Bumble. If you feel like your kid isn’t ready to date yet, Tinder and Bumble are the first apps you need to remove from their device.
Back to the other apps, you will be able to check their messages and voice messages and exchange media files and calls with detailed dates and timestamps. If you want evidence to confront them, iKeyMonitor will provide you screenshots of their chats.
iKeyMonitor also lets you spy on your kid’s surroundings through their own phone camera. It’ll remotely turn on the camera and command it to take pictures of everything happening around the phone. However, these pictures won’t be saved on their device; they’ll be immediately sent to you. This is a great hack to keep a tab on your child when they are out or at a friend’s house.
While you might have to jailbreak or root to enjoy some of the features of iKeyMonitor, there’s hardly any app to spy on people’s social media that gives you such command over your child’s phone.
Compatibility: Android, iPhone/iPad
Best Features:
- Call recording
- Geo-fencing
- Social media monitoring
- Keylogger
- Taking screenshots
- Ambient listening
- Screen time limit
- Alert words
- Tracks 24 messaging apps
Pricing
Mobile (Android/iPhone) | Desktop (Windows/MacOS) |
Free
Add-on features: $9.99 – 3 days From $16.66/month – on demand |
$29.99/month/device |
5. Norton Family: A Spy Tool for 360-Degree Monitoring
Norton is a popular antivirus solution, you might have heard of it, but did you know they have an equally fabulous social media spy app?
Just like Qustodio, Norton Family helps you set screen time limits for your child to cultivate a balanced lifestyle and save your kids from wasting all their time online. As a working parent, you might not always be around to ask them to put their phones away, but you can still remotely turn off their device as soon as their daily screen time limit is up.
What’s more, you are able to also sign up for email reports to stay updated on your kid’s activities and see when they come online remotely.
The danger isn’t limited to social media. It’s everywhere around us. That’s why along with helping you track their social media activities, Norton Family also helps you track their location in real time.
You can also create virtual boundaries with areas that are safe for your child. Anytime they go in and out of these boundaries, Norton will notify you. Norton also makes it easier for your kids to share their live location with you in just a few taps.
Compatibility: Android, Mac, iOS, iPad, Windows
Best Features
- Location tracking
- Screen time limits
- App supervision
- Email activity reports
- Messages surveillance
- Monitoring search terms and activity history
Pricing: multiple subscription plans with add-ons; from $4.99 to $819.99 per year
Is It Legal to Spy on Someone’s Social Media
As long as you are only monitoring your child and they are legally minors, it’s completely okay to spy on someone’s social media accounts. After all, it’s your responsibility as a parent to ensure their well-being, and you don’t even need any consent from them to track them digitally since you are deemed the phone owner, though it’s recommended to consult local laws.
Spying can be of different types. You might open a fake account and get added to your kid’s friend list, directly spy on their phone when they leave it unlocked, or install a social media spy app to get real-time updates on all their activities. As long as they are minors and you have their best interests in mind, every spying method is legal.
Conclusion
Many parents might find spying on kids to be immoral. But here’s the thing, the world today is far more dangerous than it used to be. And kids these days get exposed to strangers at a much younger age, thanks to the Internet and social media. Indeed, every kid should get the opportunity to make their own decisions. You don’t have to strip off their freedom. But with these social media spy apps, you basically have a safety net around to protect them in case something goes wrong.