Norton Family Premier (Android): Best Overall Features Parental-Control App

Norton Family Premier packs just about any feature a parent could ask for into its mobile-device-management offering, giving you control over multiple features on multiple devices. You won't be able to monitor every aspect of how your kids are using their Android phones, but with the web-filtering, app-monitoring and location-tracking features, you'll have enough control to remind them to responsibly use their mobile devices.

Only ESET Parental Control and Qustodio approach Norton's ability to help you monitor multiple devices and multiple children. It's easy to set up age-appropriate profiles on Norton Family Premier, and even easier to port them across multiple devices.

The web filters in Norton Family Premier can keep your child away from questionable websites, and it's easy to set times for when it's OK to use an Android phone. (One complaint: Norton's offering would be more powerful if it let you block out times for specific apps.) But Norton's best feature may be its location-tracking capabilities, which give you a fairly accurate picture of where your children (and their phones) happen to be.

Like ESET, Norton is at heart an antivirus maker. Norton Family Premier comes free if you spring for Norton's most expensive antivirus suite, Norton Security Premium. That product nominally costs $90 per year, but it's often discounted for as little as $60. At that price, getting Norton Family Premier and Norton's excellent antivirus protection for $10 more is kind of a no-brainer.

Don't expect to be able to block specific callers and texters with Norton Family Premier, and the app's text-monitoring features are a little overbearing. Still, the overall mix of features makes this the best choice for parents who want to stay on top of what their kids are doing with their smartphones.

PhoneSheriff: Runner-Up

Of all parental-control services we tested for Android devices, PhoneSheriff came out near the top, bested only by the Android version of Norton Family Premier. For $89 a year ($49.95 with coupon code: SAVE40), it provides the tools you need to manage how your child uses up to three mobile devices while also logging a wealth of information — perhaps even too much — about what your kid is doing on that phone.

While it's one of the tougher programs to install, PhoneSheriff offers a robust set of features and makes them relatively easy to use. It's an effective way to monitor all age groups, though its features come in particularly handy when it comes to preteens.

PhoneSheriff has a great suite of features. You can review apps installed on your child's phone and block the ones that don't pass muster. You can set time limits both via the PhoneSheriff admin panel and on the device itself. PhoneSheriff reveals every text your child sends, and you're able to block people, setting up both whitelists and blacklists of phone numbers. The service also logs your child's location, and a geofencing feature will alert you should your child leave a specified area. 

PhoneSheriff does just an adequate job at monitoring web browsing, and it doesn't offer social-media monitoring. The services it does provide, however, are stellar and provide an easy way to make sure that your child's texting and app use are aboveboard. Smart features like a panic button that lets your child send you an alert with his or her location will add to your peace of mind.

ESET Parental Control for Android: Best Value

Parents concerned with how much time their kids spend on Android devices and the apps and websites they're using may want to consider ESET Parental Control. This parental-control app prizes simplicity and easy setup, though you give away some of the more precise control you'd enjoy with the Android versions of Norton Family Premier and PhoneSheriff.

When you configure ESET, you can automatically set web filters based on subjects, which are easy to adjust with a thumbs-up/thumbs-down interface in the app's parent portal. Adding websites that might otherwise be blocked is a little less intuitive, though you can easily OK emailed requests from your kids.

Time limits, too, are easy to institute, whether it's a limit on how long kids can use their Android phones or how much time they can spend on apps that you slap with a Fun & Games label. However, that time limit applies to all Fun & Games apps — you can't place different limits on different apps. ESET is particularly strong when it comes to letting you quickly review and approve which apps are installed on your child's phone.

ESET can track a phone's location, though it lacks pinpoint accuracy and a location log. You'll also want to look elsewhere if you want to manage your child's social network activity or phone calls, since the app doesn't offer those features. Still, ESET offers a valuable app-usage report, and supports an unlimited number of Android devices. If you want a straightforward parental-monitoring tool for multiple devices, ESET's approach to setting up web filters and time limits has some appeal.

ESET Parental Control for Android is bundled into ESET Multi-Device Security Pack, which can cost as little as $69 for three users for a year. However, it's different from the parental controls built into other ESET antivirus products, including ESET Internet Security and ESET Smart Security Premium.