Your kids may hate me for this story. You can try it for free

There’s a time in almost every child’s life where Halloween goes from being a cute night walking through the neighborhood with mom and dad to a night racing through the streets with their friends. If you’re a parent of a child that age, Halloween might be scarier than a Stephen King novel.

There are many apps in both app stores that may offer some peace of mind. OurPact is one of the most highly reviewed parental control apps in the Apple App Store. It promises to help you keep on eye on your kids everywhere they go, including the internet. Here’s what you can do with it. Install the app on your phone and download a ‘profile’ on your child’s phone. This gives the parent control of their device at any time.

The folks at OurPact set me up with an account connected to a phone of a little guy named Owen. When I opened the app on my phone, I could see his exact location with the last updated time displayed.  You can set up a perimeter, also known as a ‘geo-fence’. If Owen were to go outside that perimeter, the parent will get a notification with his whereabouts.

This is great for Halloween if you set certain boundaries for your kids trick-or-treating.

Parents can also protect their kids when they’re online with OurPact. Block adult content they could run across in a browser and block specific websites. Parents can control how much time they spend on their phone and within certain apps. Owen can’t play on his phone after bedtime at 8:30, during his Wednesday piano lesson or during school hours.

Parents can block access at any time for any length of time. And grant time as a reward. When I blocked access to my son’s phone, watch what happened. All of the social media and gaming apps disappeared from the screen.

Parents can also set time limits for individual apps or restrict them altogether. And if the kids download new apps, they’ll appear on their parents’ phone in the OurPact app.

The OurPact app is free where you can control how much time they spend on their device. The free version is good for 1 child device. To access all of the features I’ve mentioned there is a $6.99 per month subscription. OurPact is offering our viewers a 2-month premium subscription by going to this link: http://app.ourpact.com/signup/fall19