Kids are using our smartphones more these days, something app developers have taken notice of. The number of educational and kid-directed apps hitting the market has been ballooning as of late. So, there’s a need for parental controls – kids can’t be shadowed every second they play with smartphone apps. Famigo fills that need nicely.
Famigo essentially creates a sandbox that fences off all of the apps and content on your Android phone that you don’t want your kids to access. There’s an automatic family filter built into the app, but it is also completely customizable, as per the individual wishes of the parent. It also locks the home and lock buttons, which helps to prevent kids from circumventing the parental controls. It’s just as much for keeping inappropriate material away from youngsters as it is to prevent them from accidentally making calls and creating some unfortunately awkward situations. The app also sends you weekly reports about your child’s app use – how much time logged, and which apps were used.
The Famigo App Lock Sandbox Beta App is available now from the Android Market for free.
Update 10/12/2011: Sandbox is actually still in beta and expected to be launched publicly, general availability for Android, soon
