Is Your Child Using Safe Mode on Android to Bypass Parental Controls? “I swear I turned YouTube off after 9 pm,” my friend told me, waving her son’s phone in the air. “But he’s still watching videos in his room, and all my settings are gone by morning.” After a bit of digging, we figured it out. Her son had learned how to restart his Android in Safe Mode, which quietly disables many p...

Samsung Secure Folder: The Secret Hiding Spot For Games Your Kids Don’t Want You To See “I swear I deleted that game, Mom.” Your child hands you their Samsung phone, you check the apps, and sure enough, the game that caused last night’s meltdown is gone. An hour later, you walk past their room and hear the sound of the same game again. No new download, no app in sight. So where on earth i...

AI Chatbots & Deepfakes: Protecting Your Child from New Cyber Threats in 2026 “Mom, is this really you?” Your 12‑year‑old is holding up a video on their phone. It looks and sounds exactly like you, but you never recorded it. Five minutes earlier, the same child spent half an hour chatting with what they thought was a “study helper” chatbot that quietly pushed them to share personal ...

Locket Widget: Fun Photo Sharing or Privacy Risk? 2026 Safety Review “Mom, look what Emma just sent to my home screen!” my friend’s 13‑year‑old daughter shouted from the couch, grinning at a silly selfie that suddenly appeared on her phone. It looked harmless and fun. But my friend glanced at me with that familiar parent look that says, “Wait, how does this work, who can see her, and ...

What Is RedNote? The New TikTok Alternative Every Parent Should Know in 2026 “Mom, nobody uses TikTok anymore, we’re all on RedNote now.” Your child says it casually over dinner while scrolling through their phone, laughing at short videos, live streams, and something that looks suspiciously like shopping. You have never heard of RedNote, but your kid is already deep into it. If that sound...

Top 5 Dangerous Apps for Kids in 2026: A Parent’s Watchlist “Mom, it’s just an app, everyone at school uses it.” Your child says this, rolls their eyes, and disappears into their room with their phone. Then later that night, you notice they are anxious, hiding their screen, and barely sleeping. You start to wonder what, exactly, is happening on that “just an app”. If that feels ...

How to Keep Your Child Safe Online: A Complete Guide for Parents Last week a friend called me in tears because her 9‑year‑old had accidentally clicked on a link in a gaming chat and ended up on a porn site. A month before that, another friend discovered her teenager had been secretly talking to strangers on Instagram late at night. If any of this sounds even slightly familiar, you are far fro...

Best parental control 2026: how to actually keep your kids safe online Alex is 11. One evening, his mom grabbed the tablet to check homework and found TikTok videos that were far from age appropriate, plus a browser full of late night gaming sites. She thought parental controls were “on”, but clearly they were not working the way she expected. If you relate to that feeling in your stomach,...