How Qustodio monitors web searches

Qustodio monitors and reports searches made on search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, and more. 

Search history

You can see the terms your child has searched for by checking their timeline. To do this:

1. Log in to your Qustodio account and go to your child’s profile
2. Head to their activity timeline
3. Click the ‘All activity’ dropdown menu and select Searches 

You can also see the individual words your child has searched for, and how many times, by checking the Web searches card on their dashboard.

Search alerts

Qustodio uses AI to detect when your child searches for something related to a potentially concerning topic, such as bullying, self harm, school absence, and health worries. If a concerning topic is detected, you’ll receive an email, a push notification, and see a notification on your child’s dashboard. Potentially concerning search terms will also be flagged on your child’s timeline.

To stop receiving search alert emails and push notifications, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Qustodio account and go to your child’s profile
2. Go to Rules then Web filtering
3. Head to Settings and, in the Alerts section, turn off the toggle next to Searches. 

Enforce Safe Search

Qustodio’s Safe Search feature forces Google, Bing, and YouTube to filter out inappropriate content from search results. This is also known as ‘restricted mode’. 

To enforce Safe Search:

1. Log in to your Qustodio account and go to your child’s profile
2. Go to Rules then Web filtering
3. Head to Settings and switch on Enforce Safe Search

Note that the filters are controlled by the search engines themselves: they decide which results are filtered out. Qustodio’s Safe Search feature forces this restricted mode and prevents your child from switching it off. Enforcing Safe Search will additionally hide the comments section on YouTube to further protect from inappropriate content.

Safe Search on Android

Due to Google policies, Qustodio is not able to enforce Safe Search on the Google App or Google’s search bar widget on Android devices. Therefore when Enforce Safe Search is switched on, Qustodio will open a web browser every time the app is opened so that it can enforce restricted mode. Note that this affects all aspects of the Google App, including the Voice Assistant and Google now. 

What to do if your child searches for concerning content

Here we’ve put together some resources to support you when your child looks for concerning content. In case of a life-threatening emergency, call the emergency services.

Suicide and depression

• US: Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - 988
• UK: Samaritans helpline - 116 123
• Spain: Suicide helpline - 024
• Helping your depressed teenager
• What to do if you’re worried about suicide

Self esteem and bullying

• Global: Take it Down: Report explicit images 
• Ways to boost your child’s self esteem
• How to talk to your teen about negative body image
• What to do if your child is being cyberbullied
• What to do if your child is a cyberbully
• How to report cyberbullying

Inappropriate and mature content

• Global: Take it Down: Report explicit images 
• What to do when your child looks up inappropriate content online
• What to do if your young child sees pornography