How To Set Up Verizon Parental Controls

Verizon is one of the largest cell phone service providers in the U.S. Beyond smartphones, they also sell tablets, wearables, and other accessories. If Verizon is your provider, you’ll be glad to know they offer their own parental controls to help you keep your children safe online.

Verizon Family Safeguards & Controls allow you to manage everything from phone activity and usage to age restrictions on content, and more. Most of the features are included free with your plan. Let’s take a look at what’s included, and what you’ll have to pay for.

• Verizon Roadside Assistance: $3/month/line
• Verizon Smart Family: $4.99/month/account
• Block Calls & Messages: Free
• Internet Spam Blocking: Free
• Verizon Support & Protection: Free
• Family Locator: $9.99/month/account – included in Smart Family Premium
• Service Blocks: Free
• Total Equipment Coverage: Starts at $7/month/device
• Total Mobile Protection: Starts at $9/month/device
• Usage Alerts: Free

A note for families looking to use Verizon Smart Family with Bark: If you want to use Bark’s Parental Controls, you may not be able to use some of Verizon’s parental controls at the same time. Both parental controls use a VPN to protect your child’s device, and mobile devices only allow one VPN at a time. In addition, if you are looking to monitor the texts, photos, web browsing, etc. of your child’s iOS device, you may run into issues with content monitoring when using Verizon Smart Family. Please reach out to us if you believe that to be the case so we can help you decide what will work best for you and your family.

Verizon’s Just Kids Plan

The Just Kids Plan allows parents to manage screen time, filter content, track location, and more. Additional features include:

• 5GB monthly data
• Unlimited talk/text to 20 parent-approved contacts
• Safety mode to avoid data overages
• Smart Family premium with parental controls at no extra cost

Setting Parental Controls on Verizon

Only the Account Owner or Account Manager can access the Usage Controls/Smart Family.

1. Login into Verizon Smart Family using your My Verizon login credentials.
2. Select your desired Smart Family plan. Tap Next.
3. Select the lines you’d like to add to the Smart Family.
4. Name the lines you’re adding if you want. Then tap Sign up.

Pairing Your Child’s Devices

On Android

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Tap Pause Internet, Add protection, or Content filters.
3. Tap Next.
4. Enter your child’s age to get the appropriate protection level. Tap Next.
5. Select OK.
6. Block or customize each category according to what you believe is best for your child.
7. Tap Pair phone.
8. Tap Send.
9. Tap OK.
10. Open your child’s device.
11. Open the text from the Parent app.
12. Tap Show Me How.
13. Watch the tutorial. Tap Got it to continue.
14. Scroll to Smart Family Companion and tap that option.
15. Tap OK.
16. Toggle Smart Family Companion to ON.
17. Tap OK on your Parent device.
18. Repeat for any other children.

On iPhone

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Tap Pause Internet, Add protection, or Content filters.
3. Tap Next.
4. Enter your child’s age to get the appropriate protection level. Tap Next.
5. Select OK.
6. Block or customize each category according to what you believe is best for your child.
7. Tap Pair phone.
8. Tap Send.
9. Tap OK.
10. Open your child’s device.
11. Open the text from the Parent app.
12. Tap Show Me How.
13. Watch the tutorial. Tap Got it to continue.
14. Tap Install, then tap Trust. 
15. Tap Done. Tap OK.
16. Tap OK on the Parent device.
17. Repeat for any other children.

Enabling Content Filters

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Content Filters.
4. Tap everything you want to block.
5. When you’re done, tap Save.
6. Tap Content Filters again, and scroll down to Websites.
7. Tap Trusted Websites to add websites to that list.
8. Tap Blocked Websites to add websites to that list.
9. Repeat for any other children.

Setting Time Limits

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Limits.
4. Tap Time Restrictions.
5. Create time restrictions appropriate for your child.
   1. Add school or night hours by tapping School hours or night hours and adjusting the recommended restrictions.
   2. Tap Save to put the restrictions in effect.
   3. Add custom restrictions by tapping Add time restrictions. Choose times and days you want to go into effect. Tap Save.
   4. To remove restrictions, select the restriction you want to remove, then tap Remove.
6. Repeat for any other children.

Setting Data Target Limits

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Limits.
4. Tap Data target.
5. Create data targets appropriate for your child.
   1. Enter the data target in gigabytes for the child.
   2. If you want to be notified when your child reaches that target, tap Don’t block data, but alert me when the limit is reached.
   3. Tap Save to put the limit into effect.
   4. To remove restrictions, tap the data target for the family member, then tap Remove. Confirm removal by tapping remove again.
6. Repeat for any other children.

Setting Purchase Limits

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Limits.
4. Tap Purchase Limits.
5. Create a purchase limit based on what you feel is appropriate for your child.
   1. Enter the dollar amount to set the limit. Tap Save to put it in effect.
   2. Remove the limit by tapping it and tapping Remove.
6. Repeat for any other children.

Setting Text Limits

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Limits.
4. Tap Text limit.
5. Create a text limit based on what you feel is appropriate for your child.
   1. Enter the maximum number of texts you’ll allow your child to send and receive in a month. Tap Save to put it in effect.
   2. Remove the limit by tapping the limit and tapping Remove.
6. Repeat for any other children.

Setting Call Limits

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Limits.
4. Tap Call limits.
5. Create a call limit based on what you feel is appropriate for your child.
   1. Enter the maximum number of minutes you’ll allow your child to use in a month. Tap Save to put it in effect.
   2. Remove the limit by tapping the limit and tapping Remove.
6. Repeat for any other children.

Location Alerts

If you’ve opted for Smart Family Premium, family location features are included. You can add locations where your child often is, and get notified when they arrive at and leave those locations.

1. Select the Child from the Family Picker.
2. Scroll down to Manage Controls.
3. Tap Location alerts.
4. Tap Places & alerts.
   1. Tap Add a place.
   2. Enter a name and address.
   3. Tap either Arrival or Departure alert switches.
   4. Tap Save.
   5. Repeat for any additional locations.
   6. Remove alerts by selecting the Place Alert you want to remove, then tap Remove. Tap Remove again to confirm.

How to Monitor Content

In addition to setting parental controls on your child’s device, the next safety layer parents and caregivers should strongly consider is a monitoring solution to assess the content their kids encounter (and produce) across text messages, social media, and email. Bark can do this for you. On Android devices, Bark can monitor text messages (including deleted ones!), photos, videos, web browsing (including Incognito on the Chrome browser/app!), and many installed apps, including Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok (formerly Musical.ly), WhatsApp, and Kik. On iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod), Bark can monitor text messages/iMessages (including some deleted messages!), photos, videos, web browsing (on Safari and Chrome), and Whatsapp! Any other email and social media accounts must be connected via the parent dashboard and will be monitored at the account-level, regardless if accessed on a phone, tablet, or a computer. Bark also monitors your child’s Android device location with check-ins. If you’d like to see a detailed list of everything Bark can monitor, click here.