My 12 year old has been spending way too much time on short video apps and I have no idea what she’s actually watching or who she’s talking to. I tried checking her phone manually but she’s getting pretty good at hiding things lol. Is there an app that lets me see her activity, maybe set time limits or get alerts if something sketchy comes up?
For a 12-year-old this is totally reasonable parenting territory. If she’s on an iPhone, Screen Time (built right into iOS) is honestly your best starting point — you can set daily limits, block apps, and it’s tied to your Apple ID so she can’t easily work around it without you knowing.
If you want to see actual content and get alerts, something like Bark is pretty well-regarded — it monitors messages and flags sketchy stuff without you having to read every single thing, which is a nice middle ground. For TikTok specifically, just set up a Family Pairing account in the app itself, it’s free and lets you control screen time and filter content directly.
The “hiding things” arms race is real, but at 12 the built-in parental controls are usually enough before jumping to third-party apps. 