How it works
What actually happens
ParentProof protects compatible Android tablets only. A Windows PC or Mac runs the setup app over USB; it is never turned into a protected child device., and a Windows PC or Mac can be protected too. The same setup app runs on either. Check device compatibility before you begin.
The whole path, before any detail
Six steps. The setup app only prepares the hardware; account, child and rule choices stay on the child device or your own phone.
Prepare the Android device
Back it up and factory-reset it when Android requires that. During Android's first-run screens, skip account sign-in.
Get the setup app
Download it to a Windows PC or Mac, then connect the child device with a data-capable USB cable. Get the signed setup app.
Provision over USB
The wizard checks the device, installs ParentProof and grants Android supervision. It does not ask for a ParentProof login or choose a child.
Connect Wi-Fi on the child device
The installed app opens its own guided setup. Until pairing is complete and a parent deliberately enters Kid mode, it remains recoverable and resettable.
Sign in or scan the QR code
Sign in directly, create an account, or continue on your phone. Verification and two-step sign-in keep the pending device identity, so success pairs this device automatically.
Choose the child and rules
Create or select the child, configure apps, time and web filtering, set the parent PIN, then enter Kid mode. The same controls remain available from the web portal and parent app.
Step two is the one thing you need a computer for. The setup app runs on Windows or Mac — get it here, with no sign-in needed to fetch it. The computer is the setup host for this step. Android hands over supervision across a USB cable and there is no route to it over the air, which is why this one step cannot happen on a phone.
The installer never receives your ParentProof password. Pairing happens in the child app after Wi-Fi works, either by signing in there or by scanning its QR code from another device.
Path one
A compatible Android tablet
Before you start
- A USB cable and the tablet in your hand. This is not done over the air.
- One switch turned on in the tablet's own settings, called USB debugging. The setup app shows you the exact taps for your tablet at the moment it needs it.
- No personal account signed in on the tablet yet. Android refuses to hand supervision to anyone while an account is present — this is the rule that usually means a factory reset.
Why the reset is usually unavoidable. Android grants its protected management role only when no personal accounts are present. This is Android's own safeguard against an app taking control of a device that is already in use. The rule is any account, not only a Google one — a Samsung, Microsoft or carrier account left signed in refuses setup the same way. After successful setup, the wizard explains when and how you can add your accounts back. Amazon Fire tablets are not supported at all, so this reset does not make one work.
The four things the wizard does to the tablet
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It looks, and it tells you what it found
The model, the Android version, whether an account is already signed in, and whether the tablet's maker has put something in the way. If your tablet cannot be fully supervised, you are told here — at the start, when you can still change your mind — and told what it can do instead.
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It hands ParentProof the keys
Your child's app is handed Android's protected management role, so Android treats ParentProof the way it treats the software that secures a work phone.
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It applies the restrictions and reads them back
Every restriction is switched on and then read straight back off the tablet. What you are shown is what the tablet itself reports, not what we meant to happen.
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It hands setup to the child app
The device opens a guided Wi-Fi and pairing screen. Direct sign-in pairs it automatically; QR and visible one-time codes let you finish on your own phone without losing which device you started with.
Exactly what is put in force
These are Android's own protections, not ours — the tablet enforces them, so an app cannot switch them off. Every one is listed, with what each buys you.
| Protection | What it stops | When |
|---|---|---|
| Extra user profiles | Creating a second user profile to escape the managed one | Always |
| Safe mode | Booting into safe mode, where installed apps are switched off — ParentProof included | Always |
| Factory reset | Wiping the tablet from its own Settings | Always |
| Installing from outside the Play Store | Installing an app file downloaded from a browser | Always |
| Moving files over USB | Moving files on or off over the cable | Always |
| Changing the date and time | Winding the clock forward to defeat a schedule or a daily limit | When you switch it on |
| Changing the tablet's web filter | Pointing the tablet at a different filtering service to get round yours | When you switch it on |
Two things we deliberately leave alone
- Installing apps is not blocked. After setup, open parent controls and choose Add apps from Play Store; the store closes again when you return to Kid mode.
- Changing accounts is not blocked, so the parent can sign into Google after setup. You do not need to sign into Google before installing ParentProof.
How we know this list is true. Nobody keeps it up to date by hand. Before every release, ParentProof sets up a real tablet, reads all seven protections back off it, and stops the release if one of the five permanent ones is missing — or if either of the two we promise not to use has appeared. If this page and the product ever disagree, the release is what breaks, not the page.
What the child sees
A home screen with their things on it
ParentProof becomes the home screen. The apps you allowed are there, large and plainly labelled. Nothing else is.
What a block actually looks like
Today a blocked site simply does not open, so most apps show their own "can't be reached" message rather than a ParentProof one. ParentProof's own kid browser goes further — it names the site and offers "ask a grown-up" right there.
A way to ask
A request goes to you rather than to a dead end. The most common cause of a defeated filter is a child with no legitimate route to the thing they need.
Apps and sites are controlled differently, and the difference matters
Apps: allow-only
Nothing opens unless you named it. ParentProof becomes the home screen, so an app you have not allowed has no icon, and Android will not open it. You are never chasing the next thing they installed, because installing it is not what decides whether it runs.
Sites: filtered, not allow-listed
You pick a family filtering service — Cloudflare's or AdGuard's — and the tablet is locked to it, so it cannot be swapped out on the device. Adult sites then stop opening in almost every app, including the browsers hidden inside TikTok, Instagram and Discord. The Standard and Strict filter levels also block gambling, and ParentProof checks sites against its own list as well, refreshed every day. Off blocks no categories. During a child's setup you can switch on whole categories such as social media, streaming or shopping, one by one. You can also block any site by name. The Categories screen for a child does not offer website switches yet.
What this filter does not cover. A browser that looks sites up privately on its own — Firefox does this out of the box — sits outside this filter, and a site opened by typing its raw numeric address is never looked up at all. Both are still held by the app allow-list, because an app you did not allow cannot open in the first place. Your dashboard tells you, tablet by tablet, whether the filter is confirmed in force or only requested, and treats "not confirmed" as "not filtering" rather than rounding it up.
The setup host
What Windows or Mac does — and does not do
The ParentProof setup app runs on a Windows PC or Mac and prepares the compatible Android child device over USB. It does not install child protection on the computer, apply the child's rules there, or consume another plan device.
The computer does
- Run the signed setup app
- Check the connected Android model and setup prerequisites
- Install and verify ParentProof on the child device over USB
The computer does not
- Become a protected child device
- Receive the child's app, web, or time rules
- Need to remain connected after setup finishes
Path two
A Windows PC or a Mac
Same installer, same account, same dashboard. This one changes the machine it is running on, so it asks for administrator rights once and prints every change before it makes it.
Windows 10 and 11
- ParentProof runs underneath every account on the machine, not just yours, so it cannot be closed from a child's account
- A family web filter covering the whole computer
- The browsers' own private lookups turned off, so they cannot slip around that filter
- Rules applied inside Chrome and Edge — the only place a rule about one page inside a site can hold
- Programs you have not allowed do not start
macOS
- Installed once with your administrator password, and out of a child's reach afterwards
- A family web filter covering the whole machine
- Every step checked after it is applied, and reported back as a tick or a cross
- A way to remove it, put in place at the same time
Never a cross hidden as a tick. If a step did not take, the installer says so and says which.
The way out is installed before the way in. Before ParentProof changes anything on the computer, the tool that undoes it is already there. A setup that stops halfway can be reversed without us and without wiping the machine — which is the difference between a bad evening and a lost computer.
Web rules on a computer. On Windows, the categories and sites you block stop resolving for every browser and app on the machine. On a Mac, the family filter covers the whole machine and the individual sites you name are not blocked. A rule aimed at one page inside a site reaches Chrome and Edge only, so block the whole site when it matters.
The same five questions, per platform
Everything above, side by side. A row says yes only where the protection holds on the device itself.
| Question | Android tablet / phone | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only allowed apps open | Yes — ParentProof is the home screen | Partial — the programs you blocked will not start, but a child can still open others | Partial — the programs you blocked will not start; it is not the allow-only home screen the tablet has |
| Web filtering | Yes — a family filter across the whole device, plus ParentProof's own kid browser | Yes — blocked categories and named sites stop resolving for every browser and app on the machine | Partial — the family filter covers the whole machine; individual sites you name are not blocked here |
| Daily limits & bedtime | Yes — schedules, per-app limits, and a whole-day budget | Partial — scheduled pauses are enforced; per-app limits and the whole-day budget are not | Yes — schedules, per-app limits, and a whole-day budget |
| Pause now, from your phone | Yes | No — Android only | No — Android only |
| Child can remove it | No — Android itself holds ParentProof in place | No — administrator rights only | No — administrator rights only |
Undoing it
Returning to Parent mode or temporarily handing the tablet to a grown-up keeps supervision in place. A device-specific recovery code can open parent recovery while the tablet is offline. Permanent removal is a separate choice: Remove ParentProof controls. Follow the tablet recovery and removal steps, including confirmation of any requested removal from your account. Keep the Windows or Mac setup app available until the tablet confirms release; then uninstall that utility separately. Read the steps before you start, and begin on a device you are able to reset or restore.