Parental Control Software Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Operating System (Windows, Android, iOS, Cross Platform/Multiplatform), By Deployment (On-premise, Cloud), By Application (Residential, Educational Institutes), and Regional Forecast, 2022-2029

The global parental control software market was valued at USD 992.7 million in 2021. The market is projected to grow from USD 1,102.1 million in 2022 to USD 2,453.8 million by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.1% during the forecast period. The global COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented and staggering, with parental control software experiencing higher-than-anticipated demand across all regions compared to pre-pandemic levels. Based on our analysis, the global market exhibited a growth of 9.9% in 2020 as compared to 2019.

The software considered in the scope includes Microsoft Family Safety, Google Family Link, Kaspersky Safe Kids for PC, Norton Family, Avast Family Shield, AT&T Secure Family App, and more.

Parental control software is a tool that enables parents to monitor their kid’s internet usage, record their online activities, block and filter websites and content, limit their online time, and view their browsing history and communications. Most schools have included computers, laptops, and tablets into their curriculum, which has urged the need to install monitoring tools to filter content and restrict sites. Similarly, parents are becoming more anxious about their children's safety and well-being with the growing multimedia entertainment and constantly changing technologies. Key players in the market are offering a new and innovative solution to provide more activity monitoring tools. For instance, in March 2021, Google Inc. announced the launch of separate Google+ TV accounts for kids to help parents choose appropriate content for kids. With this on-screen parental control, parents can manage kids’ screen time.

COVID-19 IMPACT

Sudden Shift to Smart Devices Amid Pandemic Crisis to Fuel Market Growth Significantly

The temporary closures of schools and other educational institutes amid coronavirus breakdown have affected the children's learning process across the globe. According to the most recent estimates published by UNESCO, about 1.3 billion students worldwide were unable to attend school or university from March 2020. Similarly, as per World Bank, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced to shutdown of schools of over 1.6 billion children and youth across 161 countries. The pandemic has forced educational institutes to initiate online and e-learning classes.

Many children are provided with personal devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and more to attain online classes to meet the unexpected changes in the education system. This direct access to smart devices and over-exposure to the internet and digital platforms might trigger negative results. Thus, it has become essential for the parents to ensure the content the kids are accessing through these platforms. Not only the exposure to the uncensored internet content, but this has resulted in increasing concerns of cyber safety. As per the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, online enticement reports increased by 97.5% in 2020. Thus, the adoption of online education is expected to fuel the parental control software market share amid a pandemic.

LATEST TRENDS

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Surge in Use of Social Media by Kids to Expand Market Opportunities

Social media platforms and applications have witnessed tremendous growth over the past years and are expected to be the largest source of data, engagement, and communication. According to a report published by We Are Social Inc. in collaboration with Hootsuite in 2020, people using social media platforms was 3.8 billion in January 2020. As per the survey report of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, in the U.S., 32% of children aged between 7 to 9 are using social media apps. This creates concerns for the parents as inexperience and lack of awareness of the social media application might impact the child’s mental health.

According to a 2019 Common Sense Media survey, smartphone use has grown among all age ranges in the last four years, especially among the youngest generation. As a result of parental scrutiny and regulation, social media sites have implemented parental control locking tools that help parents gauge the time children spend on social media and the internet. This is expected to boost the growth of the parental control software. Various social media and entertainment applications have implemented age restrictions and in-built parental control apps to observe children’s screen timing. Nonetheless, age restrictions can be difficult to impose and easily circumvented. Although in-app parental controls are evolving, they still have a long way to protect children and their details.

DRIVING FACTORS

Rise in Government Regulations to Standardize Digital Content for Children's Safety to Drive Market Growth

Online content offers a variety of educational, social, and entertainment benefits to kids. However, there are also perceived dangers, especially with the internet content and the behavior and interaction risks associated with internet-facilitated peer-to-peer communication. The use of parental control tools enables parents to limit children’s exposure to unwanted social media posts and helps in protecting children from unethical practices such as cyberbullying. Governments across countries focus on ensuring child safety regulations for digital media applications. For instance,

• In August 2021, the government of China ordered the gaming providers to reduce kid's content, and it has restricted the online video game time for the under 18-year children.


• In May 2021, the government of the U.K. published a new draft of the Online Safety Bill focusing on verifying online sites and protecting children from exposing to inappropriate content.


• In February 2021, the Indian Government announced a new set of regulations and guidelines to regulate digital content. In these rules and guidelines, OTT platforms must implement parental lock solutions for those above the age of 13 for the classified range.

Such regulations & guidelines coupled with parental guidance are expected to drive global parental control software market growth.

RESTRAINING FACTORS

High Initial Cost and Data Privacy Concern of Software to Hamper Market Growth

The software provides cutting-edge functionality and advanced applications at a high cost. For certain parents, this price could be prohibitively expensive. Purchasing parental control software could be out of budget for a few parents. Many websites provide innovative functionality at the high expense of parental control solutions. Thus, the high initial price is a crucial limitation for adopting parental control tools.

The software can be attacked with malware and is subjected to data breaches. This software can contain an infection or pose other threats to phone or computer devices, resulting in significant data loss. It may also harm other electronic devices in the vicinity. Thus, all these issues associated with software might impede market growth.

SEGMENTATION

By Operating System Analysis

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Growing Access to Multiple apps through Smartphone to Surge Android Supporting Software

On the basis of operating system, the market is categorized into Windows, Android, iOS, and cross-platform/multiplatform.

Windows is likely to gain maximum segment share during the forecast period. The kids are spending more time on gaming, video calling, accessing OTT platforms and YouTube through laptops. Thus, the demand for windows operating systems supporting parental control tools gained traction.

Android is likely to witness rapid growth during the forecast period due to the children's increasing time spent on smartphones. As per the Common Sense Media report in 2019, teens spend an average of 7 hours on a smartphone just for entertainment activities. Also, the parents with limited funds can now afford smartphones for the kids’ education are expected to drive android based parental control software demand. iOS to showcase steady growth owing to its increasing popularity among the teen. Similarly, various players are offering cross-platform/multiplatform software to easily monitor the platform on all the home devices, thus driving cross-platform/multiplatform software demand.

By Deployment Analysis

Ease of Access and Scalability to Surge Cloud-based Software Demand

Based on deployment, the market is bifurcated into on-premise and cloud.

Cloud-based software is more in demand as the tools are hosted remotely on the vendor’s server and are extremely stable with less downtime. It is offered on a subscription basis. Users need to pay a monthly, quarterly, or annually recurring fee to use the software and receive automatic updates and support services.

On-premise parental control tools are installed directly onto user hardware, either a computer, server or private network. On-premise tools are bought as one-time perpetual license fees, and the cost depends on the number of coexisting users. However, the user has to pay extra for training, support, and updates.

By Application Analysis

Rising Online Security Concerns Increased the Adoption of Software Among Residential User

By application, the market is divided into residential and educational institutes.

Residential is expected to dominate the segment share. In past years, issues such as increasing screen time, rise in use of social media, fear of children getting exposed to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and child-abusing have led parents to install this software on child’s devices. The global pandemic has further raised security concerns due to the sudden enforcement of online learning in the lockdown period.

The educational institutes are steadily adopting the software owing to the increasing and encouraging government initiative of digital education. The government is focused on installing this software to safeguard students' online journeys. This software allows educational institutes to monitor the students' online activities and block access to any inappropriate websites, content, and applications.

REGIONAL INSIGHTS

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The global market is classified across five regions, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.

North America leads the global parental control software market share due to digitalization's early adoption in the education sector. Stringent government regulations regarding children's online safety are surging the adoption of software in North America. For instance, laws such as the Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the U.S. are employed to safeguard children's information. An increase in the rate of web crimes such as child abuse, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment is a major concern amongst parents, which has increased awareness and the importance of installing software on a child’s device.

Asia Pacific is expected to showcase rapid growth during the forecast period. The region is looked at as an opportunistic region by key players for establishing their business network. With the growing e-learning and distant learning courses, educational institutes across countries such as India, South Korea, China, and more are focusing on strengthening the digital well-being of students.

In Europe, strict GDPR and laws associated with children’s privacy are crucial factors to drive considerable adoption of parental control software across Europe. Additionally, adequate software providers and the opportunistic proliferation of new entrants are probable to exhibit modest market growth in the near future.

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The Middle East and Africa showcase significant growth due to the increasing digitalization. The growing investments in the education sector are likely to fuel the software demand in the coming years. Similarly, growing smartphone demand in South America is expected to fuel the software market growth.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Focus on Global Expansion through Strategic Partnership & Collaboration to Boost Market Share

The major players in the market are expanding their business by collaborating and partnering with network providers, smartphone and gadget manufacturers, telecommunication providers, Wi-Fi router enablers, among others. The companies aim to offer advanced parental control solutions to boost a safer and healthy online learning environment for the kids. Besides, the market players are highly focused on developing new features and products to strengthen their market position. These companies heavily invest in research & development activities to launch new products and boost business growth.

February 2022 – Qustodio announced a partnership with France-based Bouygues Telecom to offer children digital and online safety with its next-generation control tools for parents. The companies are entering the France market with its cross-platform services for iOS phones, Android, Windows, Chromebook, Mac, and Kindle through the partnership.

March 2021 –YouTube launched parental control solution Supervised accounts to support parents in monitoring and blocking access to restricted links and content on YouTube. It allows supervision of the kids’ downloads, activity, and usage habits.

LIST OF KEY COMPANIES PROFILED:

• Alphabet Inc. (Google LLC) (U.S.)


• AO Kaspersky Lab (Russia)


• AT&T Inc. (U.S.)


• McAfee, LLC (U.S.)


• Microsoft Corporation (U.S.)


• Avast Software s.r.o. (Czech Republic)


• NortonLifeLock Inc. (U.S.)


• Qustodio SL (Spain)


• Bark Technologies, Inc. (U.S.)

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS:

• March 2021–Google LLC announced the launch of Google+ TV with parental control features for separate kid accounts in the U.S. The separate kid account is available on Chromecast and other Google TV devices. The company will launch the same feature in other countries in the next few months.


• March 2020 –AT&T Inc. launched a new security service AT&T ActiveArmor to address growing concerns and challenges regarding network protection. The new security services offer a smart home manager, parental control, AT&T Wi-Fi Gateway, and more to provide 24/7 proactive security.

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The global parental control software market report highlights regional analysis across the world to offer a better understanding of the user. Furthermore, the report provides insights into the latest industry and market trends and analyzes technologies deployed at a rapid pace at the global level. It further highlights some of the growth-stimulating factors and restraints, helping the reader gain in-depth knowledge about the market.

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