FamiSafe: Parental Control App

It is near impossible to get in touch with someone from the company to provide help. I eventually figured out how to send a message and was reduced to emailing back and forth….meaning I had to wait to receive an email before I could resolve. The issue is, I was never able to resolve. What’s worse is when they would email me, they sent bits and pieces of information that was incomplete so I had to email them again for clear instructions. Most importantly, the app worked initially but stopped working. It sends me explicit notices from my child’s phone when she isn’t even using it. I let that nuisance go. Then my screen locked for my other child and they told me I had to upgrade controls which I never had to do when I initially installed the app or my daughter’s phone. After upgrading, I had to give control to my computer (because you can only upgrade using a computer) and iPhone to FamiSafe. Now my phone does not work properly….it all of a sudden says VPN at the top and I can’t view the items in my email without removing VPN. If I remove VPN, then I don’t have access to the internet and I can’t download. After searching on the internet, I learned that FamiSafe is using VPN in order to run and has more access than I would like. It also downloaded FamiSafe Jr and I can’t delete without deleting the parent app which the first takes up more storage space. It also required me to redownload the apps that I previously installed.

I downloaded this app to keep track of my 11 year old son and the websites/apps he’s accessing. I was directed to activate it on the computer but as soon as I did, my phone did a restart. When it came back up, I couldn’t access my apps - including my emails and banking accounts - or search on the internet. I spent over an hour at Verizon and on the phone with Apple to fix it and it was ultimately determined it was the fault of the app as it directly correlated with the activation. I reached out to Wondershare customer service (which there is no option for FamiSafe when you call in, it’s every other application they make). I was able to talk to Carlo who repeatedly offered to email me instructions to troubleshoot (the email I didn’t have access to). After 30 minutes of repeating myself, I asked to speak to a supervisor and he refused. He did send me an email requesting screenshots of the issue. However, I had to reset my phone to factory settings as deleting the app and my account didn’t fix anything. This is a complaint from other iPhone users on an Apple thread. I wanted to like this app - it seemed user friendly (according to pictures in the App Store) and tracked everything I needed. But the poor customer service and the stupidity of it blocking the parent has me researching other parental control apps.

The app is very effective at locking things down on your child's device or whatever.... but it's so effective that its intrusive. It does what it says it will do, but I was expecting more control settings so I could customize the various limits. Ultimately I didn't like the app and tried to uninstall it. That was when things got frustrating. Due to some glitch in their software I couldn't uninstall it and regain control of the device. We had just gotten the iPad for our child and they were very excited... but they couldn't install any apps at all. I will say their customer service was surprisingly responsive for an oversees company, but communication was slow with each exchange taking a day or two due to the time difference. Ultimately they did get it resolved but it took weeks while my kid was disappointed. In summary: the app is effective and does what it says, the settings options are too limited, and their customer service is actually pretty good - but I don't recommend unless you want the device on full lockdown.