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Friday, May 29, 2015

An App to secure your Child- eKAVACH A Review

An App to review... and the pestering begins...
Have. you downloaded it yet???
Etc...
Point of Contention-You need to buy your child a smart phone.
Sweet Child has my old Nokia 5233 ,which is as smart as a slow learner is compared to over achieves.

He managed to activate Whatsapp and Facebook and his own email account... that I can keep a tab on because his email account is a secondary account on my phone.
The rest...I keep tabs on.
Not so long ago ,my mum told me that a mother must be like an evil spirit...not with an intent to screw the child's happiness....but just to know everything that is happening in his life.
And after having worked with teenagers for a large part of my professional life ,I agree.
So the eKAVACH  app seemed to be a good idea.
As my son's phone does not support eKAVACH , we tried it on hubby dear's phone.( What a way to keep a check on phones lolzz??)
Mine was the primary phone and the other was the secondary phone.

 1. Heart beat and Geo locator
This feature allows you to track the physical location of your child and if you feel that the location has alarming coordinates you can quickly do something to ensure that the child is safe.

2 . Control over Apps and websites and safe search
You get alerts when your child downloads any Apps and accesses websites.  My son tried downloading the PlayStation app...and then accessing high violence video games.

I got notified for the apps downloads but not of the Access to games like WWE and God Of War etc.

However I received alerts for websites accessed.  You will have to define the websites your child can access according to his age group.And if your searches for red flagged words,you will be alerted.

3 . Family time.
This was the best thing I liked about the eKAVACH  app.  Turn off the Internet to be able to spend time together. So as a parent, you can turn off his Internet so he won't be surfing the net while you sleep or while the family gets to spend quality time together.

4.View Dashboard Stats
Another plus point...the child can not delete the history of the sites accessed and you know minute by minute that he or she is logging into websites for his homework and project research or knowledge or just wasting his time in social networking sites. And since you are remotely connected it is extremely easy to share info or suggestions so you can help with his homework and studies. This was the biggest plus.

5. Communicate with Parents
Why?Why do you need an app for this?Isn't that what phones are for??
If you need to communicate, talk ...or text ...or make time .
OK, this works when you cant talk...like when you are at a meeting or a party or just need some me time.
After realising that the App gave me more control than he was willing to surrender...messages like this kept popping up...

I will not post the conversation that carried on after this...
6. Cyber Bullying Monitoring,IM & Chat Room monitoring
This by far is the best thing that the App does. You need to know that your baby is safe...And be aware of the stuff going on in the chat rooms. Drugs and sex are the ugly words that exist in the real world. Even in small town India.

My opinion...
Well ,I'm old school.
I was not so impressed. If you must control everything that the child views on his phone, don't give him a smart phone. But there is more to it than meets the eye.
To avoid being "spied" on-as sweet child said...he can use his friend's smart phone... Or the computer at home...or a cyber cafe...


Remember, your child is smarter than the smart phone. My son took 15 minutes to uninstall the secondary app while my Parent eKAVACH  app was showing me that I had control.
So much for control.
All he had to do was make changes in the settings of the secondary phone.

I am not saying this is totally useless but if you do download the app ,don't depend on it with your eyes closed.
You should know where the children are , it would be a blessing to be able to track them even if they are with friends so you can keep them safe.
But when you are so concerned about the child's safety, know that eKAVACH  is not enough.
Bond with your child and win his or her trust.
Learn to read signs of change or depression or aggression or anger ...
Spend time together, be there for him or her -your child always needs you.
Love is the most important insurance policy you can apply for your child.

So do download the eKAVACH  App on your phones and learn to read the signs to keep your child safe.The app is available free on Google Play Store and on for Apple iPhone too.

'I am checking out the eKavach app as a part of an activity at BlogAdda'

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