What is the safest browser for kids in the UK?

For most UK families, Microsoft Edge with Kids Mode and Microsoft Family Safety on Windows, or Apple Safari with Family Sharing and Screen Time on iPhone and iPad. For families on Android or Chromebook, Google Chrome supervised through Google Family Link.

What is the most private browser for a family in the UK?

Mozilla Firefox is the strongest mainstream choice, with Brave a close second for technically confident users.

Is Tor Browser safe for children?

No. Tor is designed to be unmonitorable and bypasses many UK family filters. It has legitimate adult uses; child supervision is not one of them.

Does Opera spy on UK users?

There is no public evidence of malicious behaviour, but ownership and telemetry concerns remain contested without a recent comprehensive independent audit. We do not recommend Opera or Opera GX as a child's primary browser.

Will the browser's parental controls stop my child seeing adult content on TikTok or YouTube?

No. Browser-level controls do not cover content viewed inside other apps. Network-level filters and app-level controls are also required.

Does DNS-over-HTTPS bypass my home broadband family filter?

It can, depending on the browser and configuration. Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave and Opera can all use DoH that routes around router-level filters. Safari leaves DNS to the operating system, so it does not bypass network filters by itself.

Are kid-only browsers such as SPIN Safe Browser, Kiddle, or KidzSearch UK-endorsed?

We could not find a UK regulator endorsement of any of them. The only kid-search engine specifically named by the UK Safer Internet Centre we located is Swiggle.

The safest browsers for families in the UK (2026) · ParentalControl.uk

Independent UK comparison of Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Opera, Vivaldi, Tor, Ecosia and kid-safe browsers for parents in 2026. Written for parents and guardians.

Author: Editorial team, ParentalControl.uk. Reviewed by: SSS Group editorial board. Last verified: 15 May 2026. Version tested: Browser versions current to May 2026. Changelog: view updates.

Initiative funded and led by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith, CMgr · MBA · LLM · DBA. Contact Alex directly at ams@upleashed.com or 0330 122 1223 / 07624 218080.

Why we wrote this

If you are a parent or guardian in the UK or the Isle of Man trying to work out which web browser is safest for a child, you will find dozens of confident answers online. Many of them are sponsored, vague, or out of date. This page is our attempt to do better. It compares the major browsers, plus a small number of kid-focused browsers, against the things that actually matter for family safety: built-in parental controls, default privacy posture, security architecture, vulnerability history, independent test results, SafeSearch enforcement, extension ecosystem trust, UK regulator guidance, and how well each browser integrates with the three big platform family controls (Apple Family Sharing, Google Family Link, Microsoft Family Safety).

Independence and conflicts of interest

ParentalControl.uk is operated by SearchSwitchSave Limited, an Isle of Man company (registration 030828B) registered with the Information Commissioner's Office in the Isle of Man (R697728). For this page specifically: we have taken no money from any browser vendor, filter provider, or parental control software vendor in connection with this comparison; we tested in plain UK home conditions on a domestic broadband connection in the Isle of Man and a domestic broadband connection in England, using out-of-the-box default settings; our methodology, including the test rig, the dates we tested, the version numbers we tested, and the way we score, is documented in full at parentalcontrol.uk/methodology; where any recommendation might be seen to conflict with a commercial relationship of SearchSwitchSave Limited or any of its directors, that conflict is disclosed in the relevant section. At time of writing, no such conflict exists.

We follow the UK Advertising Standards Authority's guidance on identifiable advertising and the Information Commissioner's Office Age Appropriate Design Code in the way this page is written and structured. This page is editorial content, not advertising.

Methodology and UK context

How we compared the browsers

For each browser, we attempted to find a primary-source answer to twelve questions:

Built-in parental controls. What can a parent restrict from inside the browser itself, without third-party software?
Privacy posture by default. What does the browser block out of the box, before the user changes anything? Specifically, third-party cookies, fingerprinting attempts, and telemetry sent to the vendor.
DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) defaults. Does the browser encrypt DNS by default, and can a parent or network admin override it? This matters because DoH can quietly bypass router-level family filters from ISPs such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media.
Sandboxing and security architecture. Process isolation, site isolation, exploit mitigations.
Vulnerability disclosure track record. CVEs in the last 2-3 years, evidence of fast patching, presence of a bug bounty programme.
Independent test results. AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives, peer-reviewed work, and reputable academic or vendor research.
SafeSearch enforcement. Can the browser, or a platform paired with it, force SafeSearch on Google, Bing, and YouTube?
Extension ecosystem trust. Review processes and known malware events on the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons (AMO), and Edge Add-ons.
UK regulator and government guidance. References by Ofcom, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC), and Internet Matters.
Open source status. Fully open, partly open, or proprietary.
Default search engine and how easy it is to change.
Children specifically. Child-safe mode, supervised browsing, integration with Apple Family Sharing, Google Family Link, and Microsoft Family Safety.

Where we cite a vendor for a feature claim, we mark it clearly as vendor claim. Where we cite an independent or regulator source, we mark that too. Where two reputable sources disagree, we flag it. We did not run our own CVE-counting exercise from scratch; we rely on the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) maintained by NIST, Google Project Zero's public 0-day tracker, and Google's Threat Intelligence Group annual reviews.

According to Statcounter, in the UK in February 2026 the all-platform browser market share was: Chrome 49.69%, Safari 29.43%, Edge 11.63%, Samsung Internet 3.98%, Firefox 2.33%, and Opera 1.10% (Statcounter, 2026, https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/all/united-kingdom). This matters because if you are choosing a browser for a family, you are choosing from a market dominated by three companies (Google, Apple, Microsoft) whose family-safety tooling is built into the operating system as much as into the browser.

Ofcom's Online Nation 2025 report and Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes 2024 set the regulatory backdrop. Roughly one in five 8-15 year-olds in the UK have a social media profile with a user-stated age of 18 or older, meaning a child-safe browser alone cannot protect them once they are inside an adult-rated platform (Ofcom, 2024, https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/online-research/online-nation/2024/online-nation-2024-report.pdf; Ofcom, 2025, https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/online-research/online-nation/2025/online-nations-report-2025.pdf). No browser fixes that. We come back to this point in the limits section.

Browser briefs

1. Google Chrome (desktop and Android)

Built-in parental controls.: Chrome does not have parental controls inside the browser by itself. Controls come from a Google Account that is supervised through Google Family Link. When a child's Google Account is supervised, Chrome on Android and ChromeOS can be set to Allow all sites, Try to block explicit sites, or Only allow approved sites, with SafeSearch on by default for under-13s and the ability to block extensions and require permission to visit blocked sites (Google, 2025, https://support.google.com/families/answer/7087030; Google, 2025, https://safety.google/families/parental-supervision/). On Windows, Mac, Linux and iOS, Family Link controls Chrome only partially; on iPhone and iPad many supervision features do not apply because of Apple's platform restrictions (Google, 2025, https://support.google.com/families/answer/7087030).
Privacy posture by default.: Chrome ended support for third-party cookies in Incognito mode and offers Tracking Protection in Incognito, but third-party cookies remain available by default outside Incognito as of mid-2026 after Google reversed its earlier deprecation plan. Telemetry to Google is on by default and includes browsing data when Make searches and browsing better is enabled. Independent reviews place Chrome behind Firefox, Brave, and Safari for default privacy.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Chrome supports DoH and can be set to With your current service provider (auto-upgrade) or a named provider including Cloudflare, Google, Quad9, NextDNS, or CleanBrowsing (Wikipedia, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_over_HTTPS). Default behaviour on consumer Windows is to attempt to upgrade the existing system resolver to DoH if it supports it. This can defeat router-level family filters; the Internet Service Providers' Association in the UK has publicly objected to browser-led DoH for that reason (Wikipedia, 2025).
Sandboxing.: Chrome pioneered the multi-process site-isolation model now used by every Chromium-based browser. Each site renders in its own process, with strict origin-bound isolation against Spectre-class attacks. V8 (the JavaScript engine) is the single biggest source of in-the-wild zero-days against the browser.
Vulnerability track record.: Chrome had ten known exploited zero-days in 2024 alone and at least five through mid-2025, most of them in V8. Time-to-patch is typically hours to days from disclosure (Google Cloud, 2025, https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/2024-zero-day-trends; Google Cloud, 2026, https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/2025-zero-day-review). Chrome runs the highest-paying browser bug bounty in the industry.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Family Link forces SafeSearch on for supervised under-13s on Google Search (Google, 2025, https://safety.google/families/parental-supervision/). YouTube Restricted Mode and Bing SafeSearch are handled separately.
Extensions.: Chrome Web Store has the largest extension catalogue and the largest recurring malicious extension problem. Google removed over 500 extensions in a 2020 sweep, and similar removals have recurred annually. Manifest V3 (mandatory from 2024) reduces some risks but has been criticised for weakening content blockers including uBlock Origin.
UK regulator references.: Internet Matters provides a dedicated Chromebook/Chrome with Family Link guide (Internet Matters, 2025, https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/). Better Internet for Kids (the EU Safer Internet portal that the UK Safer Internet Centre links into) recommends Family Link for Chrome (Better Internet for Kids, 2025, https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/learning-corners/parents-and-caregivers/parental-controls/browsers-search-engines).
Open source status.: Engine (Chromium, Blink, V8) is open source; the Chrome-branded build is proprietary.
Default search engine.: Google Search; easily changed in Settings.
Verdict for families.: Good with Family Link on Android or ChromeOS; weak on iOS where Family Link cannot reach into Chrome the same way; weak on Windows/Mac for parental controls unless you also use Microsoft Family Safety or a third-party tool.

2. Mozilla Firefox (desktop and Android)

Built-in parental controls.: Firefox has no native parental control panel. It checks the operating system's parental controls and respects them where present (Better Internet for Kids, 2025). Filtering is done via add-ons or via the OS-level controls.
Privacy posture by default.: Strongest among the mainstream browsers. Enhanced Tracking Protection is on by default in Standard mode and includes blocking of cross-site tracking cookies, fingerprinters, cryptominers, and tracking content in Private windows, with Total Cookie Protection on by default since Firefox 103 (Mozilla, 2025, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop; Mozilla, 2025, https://www.firefox.com/en-US/user-privacy/). Telemetry is on by default but limited and can be turned off entirely; sync is end-to-end encrypted.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: DoH is on by default in the United States since February 2020 and rolled out further since. In the UK, DoH is offered but is generally not forced on by default; users can choose Default Protection, Increased Protection or Max Protection with providers including Cloudflare and NextDNS (Mozilla via MDN, 2025, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Privacy/Guides/Firefox_tracking_protection; Wikipedia, 2025). The Internet Service Providers' Association and the Internet Watch Foundation have criticised Mozilla for DoH because of its potential to bypass UK ISP-level child filters (Wikipedia, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_over_HTTPS).
Sandboxing.: Firefox uses Fission site isolation, which puts each top-level site and each cross-origin iframe in its own content process. Architecturally similar to Chrome's site isolation but reached production a few years later.
Vulnerability track record.: Materially fewer in-the-wild zero-days than Chrome. Time-to-patch is comparable. Mozilla runs an active bug bounty.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Not native; relies on add-ons or DNS-level filtering.
Extensions.: Firefox Add-ons (AMO) operates a stricter human-review process for Recommended extensions. Mozilla retains uBlock Origin's full capabilities (unlike Chrome under Manifest V3).
UK regulator references.: Internet Matters and Better Internet for Kids both reference Firefox and its add-on-based approach to family filtering (Better Internet for Kids, 2025).
Open source status.: Fully open source (Mozilla Public License 2.0).
Default search engine.: In December 2024 Mozilla added Ecosia as a default option in several European markets, with Google remaining the default in the UK; easily changed.
Verdict for families.: Excellent on privacy. Average on parental controls unless paired with OS-level (Windows Family Safety, macOS Screen Time) or network-level filtering.

3. Microsoft Edge (desktop, Android, iOS)

Built-in parental controls.: Strongest of any mainstream browser. Edge ships with Kids Mode, a built-in locked-down browsing environment for ages 5-8 or 9-12 that uses an allow-list, forces Bing SafeSearch to Strict, blocks adult content, requires the device password to exit, and clears browsing data on close (Microsoft, 2025, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/learning-center/help-your-children-browse-more-safely-microsoft-edge; Microsoft, 2025, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/learning-center/how-to-set-up-parental-controls). When paired with Microsoft Family Safety, Edge supports web filtering, time limits, weekly activity reports emailed to parents, and the ability to require approval for blocked sites (Microsoft, 2025, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/learning-center/how-to-set-up-windows-parental-controls).
Privacy posture by default.: Tracking Prevention is on by default at Balanced level. Telemetry is on by default. Edge sends more data to Microsoft than Chrome sends to Google on some baseline measures, according to a 2020 Trinity College Dublin study by Douglas Leith, although Microsoft disputes the methodology.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Supported and configurable via Settings, Privacy, search, and services, Security, Use secure DNS (Wikipedia, 2025). Group Policy can disable DoH in managed environments.
Sandboxing.: Chromium-based, inherits site isolation.
Vulnerability track record.: Inherits Chromium V8 and Blink CVEs; Microsoft typically pushes patches within days of Chromium upstream.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Bing SafeSearch forced Strict inside Kids Mode and through Family Safety web filtering (Microsoft, 2025). Google and DuckDuckGo SafeSearch are not forced by Family Safety, which is an important limitation (ParentalEdge, 2026, https://parentaledge.com/blog/parental-controls-microsoft-edge).
Extensions.: Edge Add-ons store, plus Chrome Web Store compatibility. Smaller catalogue and lower historical malware rate than Chrome.
UK regulator references.: Edge Kids Mode is named in Better Internet for Kids parental-controls guidance (Better Internet for Kids, 2025).
Open source status.: Chromium base is open source; Edge build is proprietary.
Default search engine.: Bing; easily changed (but if changed away from Bing, Family Safety SafeSearch enforcement does not transfer).
Verdict for families.: The most family-friendly mainstream browser out of the box, especially on Windows. Bind to Microsoft Family Safety to get the full benefit. Weak when changed away from Bing.

4. Apple Safari (iOS, iPadOS, macOS)

Built-in parental controls.: Safari has no parental control panel inside the browser, but on every Apple device it is governed by Screen Time and Family Sharing. Parents can switch on Content and Privacy Restrictions, Content Restrictions, Web Content, then choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites (Apple-curated blocklist plus user-added Always Allow and Never Allow lists), or Allowed Websites Only (a strict allow-list with preloaded defaults such as Disney, PBS Kids, and Scholastic) (Apple, 2025, https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121; Internet Matters, 2025, https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/smartphones-and-other-devices/apple-iphone-and-ipad-parental-control-guide/). For under-18s, Web Content restriction is enabled automatically on new Apple Accounts (Apple, 2025, https://support.apple.com/en-ug/119854). Importantly, Web Content restrictions in Safari apply to Safari only; on iOS, other browsers will need to be blocked separately via Allowed Apps or by removing them, otherwise they bypass Safari's filter.
Privacy posture by default.: Strong. Intelligent Tracking Prevention blocks third-party cookies by default and uses on-device machine learning to limit first-party cookies that show tracking behaviour. Telemetry to Apple is limited and clearly described; differential privacy is used for aggregate features.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Safari does not have its own per-browser DoH UI. Instead, encrypted DNS is configured at the operating system level (iOS 14+, macOS 11+) via a DNS configuration profile or a Network Extension app. This means that family network filters that use DNS (such as those from BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, or third-party services such as CleanBrowsing or NextDNS) work consistently for Safari, unlike browsers that set their own DoH provider.
Sandboxing.: WebKit uses multi-process architecture with per-tab and per-site process isolation, app sandboxing on macOS, and hardware-enforced kernel isolation on Apple Silicon.
Vulnerability track record.: Safari/WebKit had several in-the-wild exploited zero-days in 2023-2025, including chains used against journalists and dissidents through commercial spyware vendors. Apple's response time is typically very fast (days), but the closed disclosure window is shorter than Chrome's. Apple runs a public bug bounty.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Web Content Limit Adult Websites filters by Apple's blocklist; it does not directly force Google or Bing SafeSearch. Forcing Google SafeSearch on a network basis requires DNS or proxy configuration.
Extensions.: Safari Web Extensions on macOS and iOS go through App Store review, which is the strictest of any browser store. The trade-off is a much smaller catalogue.
UK regulator references.: Internet Matters publishes a dedicated Apple iPhone/iPad parental controls guide that names Safari Content Restrictions specifically (Internet Matters, 2025, https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/smartphones-and-other-devices/apple-iphone-and-ipad-parental-control-guide/).
Open source status.: WebKit engine open source; Safari shell proprietary.
Default search engine.: Google in the UK (a contractual default for which Apple receives a reported multi-billion-dollar annual payment); easily changed to Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Ecosia in Settings.
Verdict for families.: Very strong when paired with Apple Family Sharing and Screen Time, particularly on iOS. Default filters work only inside Safari, so on iOS you must restrict other browsers via Allowed Apps or App Store age limits, or kids will simply install Chrome or Firefox and walk past your Safari rules.

5. Brave (desktop, Android, iOS)

Built-in parental controls.: None native; Brave defers to OS-level controls.
Privacy posture by default.: The most aggressive default privacy stance of any major browser. Brave Shields are on by default and block third-party ads, third-party trackers, third-party cookies (with ephemeral, partitioned storage rather than blanket-blocking, to reduce site breakage), known fingerprinting scripts (via farbling of fingerprintable surfaces), known tracker query parameters in URLs, and CNAME-cloaked trackers (Brave, 2025, https://brave.com/privacy-features/; Brave, 2025, https://brave.com/shields/). Brave does not send identifiable telemetry by default and is fingerprinted by independent researchers as among the most resistant to tracking, alongside Tor Browser.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Supported and on by default for many users; provider configurable.
Sandboxing.: Chromium site isolation; Tor windows route through the Tor network for stronger anonymity.
Vulnerability track record.: Inherits Chromium CVEs. Bug bounty runs through HackerOne.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Not native, but Brave Search supports a Strict SafeSearch toggle.
Extensions.: Chrome Web Store compatible. Same risk profile. Brave was criticised in 2020 for auto-completing affiliate-tagged URLs for crypto exchanges; CEO Brendan Eich apologised and the behaviour was removed.
UK regulator references.: Brave is not specifically named in NCSC, Ofcom, ICO, UKSIC, or Internet Matters family guidance at time of writing.
Open source status.: Fully open source (MPL 2.0).
Default search engine.: Brave Search; easily changed.
Verdict for families.: Excellent privacy; relies entirely on the parent to configure OS-level filtering for child safety. Built-in Tor and crypto wallet features make it unsuitable as a child's first browser without supervision.

6. DuckDuckGo Browser (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows)

Built-in parental controls.: None.
Privacy posture by default.: Strong. Blocks third-party trackers before they load, blocks fingerprinting, enforces HTTPS, blocks link-tracking parameters, sends Global Privacy Control, and on Android blocks tracker traffic at the system level via App Tracking Protection which functions as a local VPN service (DuckDuckGo, 2025, https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/company/how-does-duckduckgo-protect-privacy; DuckDuckGo, 2025, https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/p-app-tracking-protection). DuckDuckGo states it does not track searches or build user profiles.
Caveat.: Independent researcher Zach Edwards revealed in 2022 that the DuckDuckGo browser allowed Microsoft Bing tracking scripts to load on third-party sites because of DuckDuckGo's search-syndication contract with Microsoft. DuckDuckGo subsequently removed this allowance. Worth knowing because some older comparison articles do not reflect the fix.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Not the focus; relies on default OS resolver.
Sandboxing.: Uses the system browser engine: WebKit on iOS/iPadOS, an in-house engine plus Chromium on Android, and Chromium on desktop.
Vulnerability track record.: Underlying engines drive most CVEs.
SafeSearch enforcement.: DuckDuckGo Search has a Safe Search: Strict setting that the parent must set; not currently enforceable by an external supervisor.
Extensions.: Limited extension support compared with mainstream browsers.
UK regulator references.: Not specifically named in UK regulator family guidance.
Open source status.: iOS and Android apps are open source; some desktop components are not.
Default search engine.: DuckDuckGo; not changeable in-app on mobile.
Verdict for families.: Privacy-strong, parental-controls-light. Best for older teenagers who you trust to make sensible decisions and to whom you want to teach better defaults.

7. Opera and Opera GX (desktop and mobile)

Built-in parental controls.: None.
Privacy posture by default.: Includes a built-in tracker blocker, ad blocker, and a free VPN which is technically a browser-only proxy (not a full system VPN, despite the label). Telemetry is on by default.
Ownership and concerns.: Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo but is majority owned (since 2016) by a Chinese-led investor group, with Kunlun Tech historically the largest shareholder. Multiple privacy researchers and German-language tech outlets have flagged concerns about data routing and ownership. Opera disputes those concerns, points to its GDPR compliance and to a Deloitte audit of its VPN, and says EU servers in the Netherlands and Poland hold user data (Opera Forum, 2025, https://forums.opera.com/topic/84462/general-reliability-security-and-privacy-of-opera; Comparitech, 2025, https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/is-opera-gx-spyware/; PureWL, 2025, https://www.purewl.com/is-opera-gx-safe/). We mark these as a contested area: there is no public evidence of Opera actively spying on users, but there is also no comprehensive independent audit of its full browser telemetry.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Supported; defaults to Cloudflare (Wikipedia, 2025).
Sandboxing.: Chromium site isolation.
Vulnerability track record.: Inherits Chromium; Opera typically takes Chromium versions a little more slowly than Chrome, then backports security patches (Opera Forum, 2025).
Open source status.: Chromium base open; Opera shell proprietary.
Default search engine.: Google (UK); easily changed.
Verdict for families.: We cannot confidently recommend Opera or Opera GX as a child's default browser given (a) no native family controls, (b) unresolved questions over ownership and telemetry, (c) gaming-themed marketing in the case of Opera GX that is intentionally appealing to children and teenagers.

8. Vivaldi (desktop, Android, iOS)

Built-in parental controls.: None native.
Privacy posture by default.: Vivaldi blocks trackers and ads (configurable), does not include a user advertising profile, and sends only a once-per-day pinged installation ID containing version, CPU architecture, screen resolution and time-since-last-ping to Vivaldi's servers in Iceland (Vivaldi, 2025, https://vivaldi.com/security/; Privacy Guides community, 2025, https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/questions-about-the-closed-source-nature-of-vivaldi/13891). Some privacy reviewers regard this ping as a mild fingerprinting risk; Vivaldi argues it is necessary for stable user counting and is anonymous.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Supported via Chromium settings.
Sandboxing.: Follows Chromium Extended Stable; Vivaldi inherits Chromium security patches typically within days (Vivaldi, 2025, https://vivaldi.com/security/).
Vulnerability track record.: Inherits Chromium.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Not native.
Extensions.: Chrome Web Store compatible.
UK regulator references.: Not specifically named.
Open source status.: Vivaldi is partly open source: the Chromium base is open and Vivaldi-modified Chromium source is published under a BSD licence, but the UI layer is proprietary (Vivaldi, 2025, https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/privacy/is-vivaldi-open-source/).
Default search engine.: In Europe, Qwant or DuckDuckGo are offered; easily changed.
Verdict for families.: Privacy-respecting, no native child controls. Reasonable choice for older teenagers paired with OS-level family controls.

9. Tor Browser (desktop and Android)

Built-in parental controls.: None, and we strongly recommend against Tor Browser as a child's primary browser. Tor Browser routes traffic through the Tor network for anonymity; this means it bypasses ISP-level family filters (BT Family Filters, Sky Broadband Shield, TalkTalk HomeSafe, Virgin Media F-Secure) and bypasses many DNS-based parental control services. Exit nodes can also serve content that has been blocked locally.
Privacy and anonymity.: Best-in-class for anonymity. Three-hop onion routing, fingerprinting resistance, HTTPS-Only mode, three security levels: Standard, Safer, Safest (Tor Project, 2025, https://support.torproject.org/tor-browser/features/security-levels/; Tor Project, 2025, https://support.torproject.org/tor-browser/security/using-tb-safely/).
Sandboxing.: Based on Firefox ESR with hardened settings.
Vulnerability track record.: Inherits Firefox ESR. Tor Browser updates promptly after upstream Firefox patches.
Open source status.: Fully open source.
Verdict for families.: Not suitable as a child's primary browser. Legitimate use cases (journalists, dissidents, sensitive research) exist; child supervision is not one of them, because the design of Tor is to be unmonitorable.

10. Ecosia Browser (desktop, Android, iOS)

Built-in parental controls.: None.
Privacy posture by default.: Built-in ad blocker. Ecosia states it does not create personal profiles from search history and does not use third-party tracking tools; search queries and IP addresses are passed to Microsoft Bing and Google to deliver results and prevent fraud (Wikipedia, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosia).
Sandboxing.: Chromium-based on desktop and Android; uses WebKit on iOS.
Vulnerability track record.: Inherits Chromium and WebKit.
SafeSearch enforcement.: Search results are filtered through Bing or Google, both of which expose SafeSearch settings; not forced by default. SPIN Safe Browser, by contrast, explicitly forces Safe Search on Ecosia (SPIN, 2025, https://spinsafebrowser.com/).
Open source status.: The browser is described as proprietary, although the Android source is published on GitHub (Wikipedia, 2025; Ecosia, 2025, https://github.com/ecosia/chromium-android-browser).
Default search engine.: Ecosia search (Bing-syndicated, with European Search Index in partnership with Qwant in development).
Verdict for families.: An ethical choice rather than a safety choice. Pleasant secondary browser for older children who care about environmental impact. No meaningful family-specific protections.

11. Samsung Internet (Android, Galaxy devices)

Built-in parental controls.: Samsung Internet supports tracker blocking add-ons (uBlock Origin and others) and integrates with Samsung Kids (a system-wide parental control on Samsung devices). When Samsung Kids is on, the device launches a curated, walled-garden environment for young children that supersedes the browser.
Privacy posture.: Tracker blocking via add-ons; Smart anti-tracking feature blocks third-party storage of trackers by default since Samsung Internet 11.
DNS-over-HTTPS.: Supported in recent versions.
Sandboxing.: Chromium-derived.
Verdict for families.: Adequate; mostly relevant only on Samsung Galaxy hardware.

12. Kid-focused browsers and safe-search engines

Several products specifically target child use. None of them is published or endorsed by Ofcom, ICO, NCSC, or UKSIC; we mention them so parents can make an informed choice, not as recommendations from a regulator.

SPIN Safe Browser (iOS, Android, Chromebook, also enterprise via Jamf/Intune). Free. Forces Safe Search on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia. Blocks adult content automatically across 20+ categories including Prone to Porn sites such as Reddit and Tumblr. No private/incognito mode. Pairs with Boomerang Parental Control or Parental Board for monitoring (SPIN, 2025, https://spinsafebrowser.com/; National EdTech, 2025, https://www.nationaledtech.com/spin-faq/). Worth knowing that paid features (custom allow/block lists, passcode lock) require SPIN+ subscription.

Kiddle (web). A child-targeted search interface (not a browser) using Google Custom Search with Google SafeSearch plus Kiddle's own additional editorial filtering, blocking inappropriate keyword variants. Best for 5-12 (Findmykids, 2025, https://findmykids.org/blog/en/kiddle-for-kids). Easily bypassed by a child opening a new tab in any browser, so works only when paired with other restrictions.

KidzSearch (web and Android/iOS app). A child-friendly Google Custom Search engine with hard-coded SafeSearch Strict, additional filters, a moderated KidzTube video portal, and a children's encyclopaedia (KidzSearch, 2025, https://www.kidzsearch.com/). Same bypass caveat as Kiddle.

Kidoz, Pinwheel, Bark Kids browser, KidRex, Kidtopia. These are either curated content launchers (Kidoz, Pinwheel) or further safe-search wrappers around Google Custom Search. We did not find evidence of meaningful UK adoption or independent UK testing, and we therefore do not include them in the comparison tables.

Swiggle. A child-safe search engine specifically promoted by the UK Safer Internet Centre to UK schools (CEOP Education, 2025, https://www.ceopeducation.co.uk/parents/articles/Parental-controls/). Notable as the only kid-focused product we found that is specifically named by a UK safer-internet body.

Comparison tables

These tables are intended for direct conversion to HTML. All judgements are based on out-of-the-box defaults and the primary-source evidence cited in the briefs above. Vendor claim is marked where the only available source is the vendor.

Table 1. Privacy at a glance
Browser	Third-party cookies blocked by default	Fingerprinting protection by default	Default telemetry to vendor	Default search engine	Independent privacy view
Chrome	No (Incognito only)	Limited	On (extensive)	Google	Weakest of the mainstream
Firefox	Yes (Total Cookie Protection)	Yes (Standard ETP)	On (limited, opt-out)	Google in UK; Ecosia in some EU markets	Strong
Edge	Partial (Tracking Prevention Balanced)	Partial	On (extensive)	Bing	Mid; Trinity College Dublin (Leith 2020) flagged high telemetry
Safari	Yes (ITP)	Yes (ITP)	On (limited)	Google in UK	Strong
Brave	Yes (with ephemeral partitioning)	Yes (farbling)	Minimal	Brave Search	Strongest
DuckDuckGo Browser	Yes	Yes	None claimed (vendor claim)	DuckDuckGo	Strong, with 2022 Bing-script exception now resolved
Opera	Partial	Limited	On	Google	Contested due to ownership
Vivaldi	Partial (configurable)	Limited	Daily anonymised ping	Qwant or DuckDuckGo in EU	Mid-to-strong
Tor Browser	Yes	Yes (strongest)	None	DuckDuckGo	Strongest for anonymity
Ecosia	Partial	Limited	Limited (vendor claim)	Ecosia (Bing-backed)	Mid
Samsung Internet	Partial (Smart Anti-Tracking)	Limited	On	Google	Mid
SPIN Safe Browser	n/a (filtering, not privacy)	Limited	Telemetry to SPIN	Forces Safe Search on Google/Bing/DDG/Ecosia	Not a privacy product

Table 2. Parental controls at a glance
Browser	Native parental control panel	Integrates with platform family controls	SafeSearch enforcement	Time limits and activity reports	Blocks switching to another browser
Chrome	No	Google Family Link (Android, ChromeOS strong; iOS weak)	Yes for under-13 supervised	Yes on Android/ChromeOS	Yes via Family Link
Firefox	No	Respects OS controls	No (add-ons or DNS)	Via OS	No
Edge	Yes (Kids Mode)	Microsoft Family Safety (Windows, Xbox, Android)	Bing only, Strict	Yes	Yes via Family Safety on Windows
Safari	Inside Screen Time	Apple Family Sharing	Apple's own adult-content list; not direct SafeSearch	Yes (Screen Time)	Only if other browsers are blocked separately
Brave	No	Respects OS controls	No (Brave Search Strict optional)	Via OS	No
DuckDuckGo	No	Respects OS controls	DuckDuckGo Strict (user-set)	Via OS	No
Opera	No	Respects OS controls	No	Via OS	No
Vivaldi	No	Respects OS controls	No	Via OS	No
Tor Browser	No	Bypasses many filters	No	Via OS	No
Ecosia	No	Respects OS controls	No	Via OS	No
SPIN Safe Browser	Yes (built-in filter)	Pairs with Boomerang	Forces Google/Bing/DDG/Ecosia Strict	No (Boomerang adds)	Yes when set as default and other browsers blocked
Kiddle / KidzSearch / Swiggle	Search engines, not browsers	Use inside another browser	Always Strict	No	No

Table 3. Security architecture and vulnerability response at a glance
Browser	Engine	Site/process isolation	Bug bounty	Known exploited zero-days 2024-2025	Typical time to patch
Chrome	Blink / V8 (Chromium)	Yes (originator)	Yes (largest payouts)	10 in 2024, 5+ to mid-2025	Hours-days
Firefox	Gecko / SpiderMonkey	Yes (Fission)	Yes	Materially fewer	Days
Edge	Blink / V8	Yes (inherited)	Yes	Inherits Chromium	Within days of Chromium
Safari	WebKit / JavaScriptCore	Yes	Yes	Several (some chained with spyware)	Days
Brave	Blink / V8	Yes (inherited)	Yes	Inherits Chromium	Within days of Chromium
DuckDuckGo	WebKit (iOS), Chromium (other)	Yes (platform)	Limited	Inherits platform	Days
Opera	Blink / V8	Yes (inherited)	Yes	Inherits Chromium (slightly slower)	Few days behind Chrome (Opera Forum, 2025)
Vivaldi	Blink / V8 (Extended Stable)	Yes	Yes	Inherits Chromium	Days (Vivaldi, 2025)
Tor Browser	Gecko (Firefox ESR)	Yes	Yes	Inherits Firefox ESR	Days after upstream
Ecosia	Blink / V8 (desktop, Android), WebKit (iOS)	Yes	n/a	Inherits Chromium / WebKit	Days
Samsung Internet	Chromium	Yes	Yes	Inherits Chromium	Weeks behind Chrome stable
SPIN Safe Browser	iOS WebKit, Android Firefox-based	Yes (platform)	n/a	Inherits platform	Platform-dependent

Table 4. Child-safe modes and platform integration
Browser	Dedicated kid mode	Apple Family Sharing	Google Family Link	Microsoft Family Safety	UK regulator named
Chrome	No	Limited on iOS	Yes (strong on Android/ChromeOS)	Limited	Internet Matters; Better Internet for Kids
Firefox	No	Via Screen Time	Via OS	Via Family Safety	Better Internet for Kids
Edge	Yes (Kids Mode 5-8, 9-12)	n/a	n/a	Yes (full)	Better Internet for Kids
Safari	Via Screen Time Web Content	Yes (full)	n/a	n/a	Internet Matters
Brave	No	Via Screen Time	Via OS	Via Family Safety	No
DuckDuckGo	No	Via Screen Time	Via OS	Via Family Safety	No
Opera	No	Via Screen Time	Via OS	Via Family Safety	No
Vivaldi	No	Via Screen Time	Via OS	Via Family Safety	No
Tor	No	Bypasses	Bypasses	Bypasses	No
Ecosia	No	Via Screen Time	Via OS	Via Family Safety	No
SPIN Safe Browser	Yes	Works alongside	Works alongside	Works alongside	No (but used by US schools widely)
Swiggle	n/a (search engine)	Use inside any browser	Use inside any browser	Use inside any browser	Yes (UK Safer Internet Centre)

Table 5. DNS-over-HTTPS behaviour (matters because of router-level family filters)
Browser	DoH default	Provider default	Override possible	Impact on ISP family filter
Chrome	Auto-upgrade if OS resolver supports it	OS-resolved	Yes (Group Policy or Settings)	May bypass if a public DoH provider is set in-browser
Firefox	On by default for many users (US first, expanded later)	Cloudflare	Yes	High risk of bypassing UK ISP filters (ISPA, IWF criticism)
Edge	Auto-upgrade	OS-resolved or Cloudflare	Yes (Group Policy or Settings)	Same as Chrome
Safari	No browser-level DoH	OS-level	OS profile only	Does not bypass network filters by itself
Brave	On	Cloudflare	Yes	May bypass router filters
Opera	On	Cloudflare	Yes	May bypass router filters
Vivaldi	Off / inherits OS	OS-resolved	Yes	Inherits OS behaviour
Tor	n/a (uses Tor)	n/a	n/a	Bypasses
Samsung Internet	Off by default	n/a	Yes	OS-resolved

Table 6. Open source status and default search engine in the UK
Browser	Open source status	Default UK search engine	How easy to change
Chrome	Chromium open, Chrome build proprietary	Google	One click
Firefox	Fully open (MPL 2.0)	Google	One click
Edge	Chromium open, Edge proprietary	Bing	One click
Safari	WebKit open, Safari proprietary	Google	One click
Brave	Fully open (MPL 2.0)	Brave Search	One click
DuckDuckGo	Apps mostly open source	DuckDuckGo	Not changeable on mobile
Opera	Chromium open, Opera proprietary	Google (UK)	One click
Vivaldi	Partly open (Chromium open; UI proprietary)	DuckDuckGo or Qwant (EU)	One click
Tor	Fully open	DuckDuckGo	One click
Ecosia	Partly open (Android source on GitHub)	Ecosia	One click
Samsung Internet	Proprietary, Chromium-based	Google	One click

Recommendations

We have grouped recommendations by the two questions parents most commonly ask us. Recommendations are based on the evidence in the briefs and tables above, not on commercial relationships. We have no commercial relationships with any of the vendors named.

If your top priority is child safety, with simple set-up

1. Microsoft Edge with Microsoft Family Safety (Windows or Android). Edge is the only mainstream browser with a built-in Kids Mode for ages 5-8 and 9-12, and the only one whose vendor publishes detailed parental-control documentation specifically for the browser as a product (Microsoft, 2025, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/learning-center/how-to-set-up-parental-controls; Microsoft, 2025, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/learning-center/how-to-set-up-windows-parental-controls). Pair with Microsoft Family Safety to get web filtering, time limits, weekly email activity reports, and InPrivate blocking enforced for the child account. Limitations: works best inside Edge; if the child opens Chrome or Firefox, the controls do not apply unless you block those browsers separately (ParentalEdge, 2026). Bing SafeSearch enforcement does not cover Google.

2. Apple Safari with Family Sharing and Screen Time (iPhone, iPad, Mac). If the family is on Apple devices, this is the most coherent set-up. Web Content restrictions (Limit Adult Websites or Allowed Websites Only), Communication Limits, Communication Safety (detection of nude images), Ask to Buy, Downtime, and Screen Time activity reports are configured once in Family Sharing and sync across all the child's Apple devices (Apple, 2025, https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121; Internet Matters, 2025, https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/smartphones-and-other-devices/apple-iphone-and-ipad-parental-control-guide/). Critical caveat: under Screen Time, you must restrict other browsers via Allowed Apps or the App Store age restriction or your Safari Web Content filter is trivially bypassed.

3. Google Chrome with Family Link (Android phone or tablet, ChromeOS). Strongest for families standardised on Android or Chromebook. Family Link gives content filtering, Only allow approved sites, site permission control, extension blocking, time limits, app approvals, and bedtime locks (Google, 2025, https://support.google.com/families/answer/7087030; Google, 2025, https://safety.google/families/parental-supervision/). Critical caveat: Family Link is materially weaker on iPhone and iPad because Apple's platform does not give Google the necessary system-level hooks (Google, 2025). Use Apple's own Screen Time on iOS instead.

For very young children (roughly under 8), we also see value in pairing one of the above with Swiggle as the default search interface inside the browser (UK Safer Internet Centre, 2025, https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parental-controls-offered-by-your-home-internet-provider). Swiggle is the only child-search tool we found that is specifically named by a UK safer-internet body.

If your top priority is privacy, with parental controls a close second

Mozilla Firefox paired with the OS-level family controls (Microsoft Family Safety on Windows, Screen Time on Mac/iPhone, Family Link on Android/ChromeOS). Firefox blocks third-party cookies by default through Total Cookie Protection, blocks known fingerprinters, blocks tracking content in Private windows, lets you turn off telemetry, supports DoH with proper override (so you can also turn it off if you want your home ISP filter to keep working), is fully open source, and has a markedly better extension review track record than the Chrome Web Store (Mozilla, 2025, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop; Mozilla, 2025, https://www.firefox.com/en-US/user-privacy/).

Honourable mention: Brave for older teenagers who are technically curious. Brave Shields blocks more by default than any other mainstream browser (Brave, 2025, https://brave.com/privacy-features/), and Brave is fully open source. We do not recommend it for young children because of the built-in cryptocurrency wallet and Tor windows, both of which sit one click away.

Browsers we cannot confidently recommend for UK families

Tor Browser. Designed to be unmonitorable. Routes traffic around ISP-level family filters and DNS-based parental control services. Has legitimate adult use cases. Not suitable as a child's everyday browser.
Opera and Opera GX. No native parental controls. Ownership concerns with majority Chinese investor backing that have not been resolved by an independent third-party audit of full browser telemetry (Comparitech, 2025, https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/is-opera-gx-spyware/; PureWL, 2025, https://www.purewl.com/is-opera-gx-safe/). Opera GX is also marketed in a way that is intentionally appealing to children and teenagers and includes a VPN that is in fact only a browser proxy.
Standalone Kiddle and KidzSearch as a child's only protection. Both are search engines, not browsers. Both are easy to bypass by opening a new tab in another search engine. Useful only as part of a layered approach.
Ecosia for child-safety use specifically. Excellent ethical browser, but has no parental controls of its own, and SafeSearch is not enforced by default. Choose it for its environmental mission, not to keep a child safer.

Important context for all recommendations

No browser is a substitute for network-level filtering (such as your ISP's parental controls from BT, Sky, TalkTalk, or Virgin Media, or a third-party DNS service such as CleanBrowsing or NextDNS), and no combination of browser plus network filter is a substitute for conversation with your child. The UK Safer Internet Centre, Internet Matters, the NSPCC, the ICO Age Appropriate Design Code, and Ofcom all make this point repeatedly (UK Safer Internet Centre, 2025, https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parental-controls-offered-by-your-home-internet-provider; Internet Matters, 2025, https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/; Ofcom, 2025, https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/how-ofcom-is-helping-children-to-be-safer-online-a-guide-for-parents).

Honest limits

A browser is only as safe as its configuration. Edge with Family Safety set up is excellent. Edge installed and ignored is no safer than any other Chromium browser. Safari with Screen Time, Content Restrictions and a strong Screen Time passcode is excellent. Safari with no Screen Time passcode is bypassable in seconds.
Filters at the network level catch things that the browser cannot. ISP filters (BT Family Filters, Sky Broadband Shield, TalkTalk HomeSafe, Virgin Media F-Secure) catch traffic from every app on every device on the home Wi-Fi, including apps that ignore browser filters entirely. A child watching adult content in a TikTok or YouTube embed inside a third-party social app will not be caught by a browser's SafeSearch setting.
No browser substitutes for a conversation. Ofcom's Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes 2024 found that one in three parents of 5-7 year-olds let their child use social media unsupervised and only a third of parents know the correct minimum age requirements for most social media platforms (Ofcom, 2024, https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/children/children-media-use-and-attitudes-2024/childrens-media-literacy-report-2024.pdf). The technical layer cannot fix this gap.
Mobile browsers have meaningfully fewer family controls than desktop browsers on the same platform. Especially on iOS, where Apple restricts what other browsers can do.
DNS-over-HTTPS can defeat your router-level filter without the parent realising. If your home filter is based on the DNS your router hands out, a browser with its own DoH provider routes around it. This is a known concern documented by the UK Internet Service Providers' Association and the Internet Watch Foundation (Wikipedia, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_over_HTTPS).
Vendor claims about telemetry are difficult to verify. We mark vendor claims accordingly and rely on independent academic work (such as Douglas Leith's 2020 Trinity College Dublin browser-telemetry paper) where it exists. Where such work does not exist (DuckDuckGo, Brave, Vivaldi), we cite the vendor and label it.
The threat landscape moves faster than any comparison page. Browser security in particular: there have been more than ten Chrome zero-days in 2024 and the trend continued into 2025. We reviewed this page in May 2026; if you are reading it later, check the date at the top of the page and check parentalcontrol.uk/methodology for the test rig in use at the time.
We did not run our own malware tests. We rely on third-party test labs (AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives), the National Vulnerability Database, Google Project Zero's tracker, Google's Threat Intelligence Group annual reviews, and primary vendor advisories. Where AV-TEST or AV-Comparatives last published browser-specific anti-phishing results, those results are now several years old; we therefore do not lean on them in this comparison.
UK government procurement guidance for schools does not currently mandate a particular browser. NCSC guidance for schools emphasises patching, account security, and Cyber Essentials/IASME compliance rather than a specific browser choice (NCSC, 2025, https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/education-skills/cyber-security-schools). Schools should look to NCSC's Cyber Security for Schools and Colleges guidance rather than to this page for procurement decisions.
A note on age. Browser-level controls give you per-device coverage. Account-level controls (Apple ID, Google Account, Microsoft Account) give you cross-device coverage. For a child with multiple devices, the account-level layer is usually more important than the choice of browser.

Conflicts of interest and corrections policy

ParentalControl.uk is operated by SearchSwitchSave Limited. No money was taken from any browser vendor, filter provider, parental control vendor, or VPN vendor in connection with this page. If you believe any fact on this page is wrong or out of date, please email corrections@parentalcontrol.uk and we will respond within ten working days. Material corrections will be logged in the change-log section of parentalcontrol.uk/methodology with the date of correction and the source on which the correction was based.

Factual uncertainties and contradictions

Opera ownership and telemetry. Opera and its UK-distributed reviewers state that Opera operates under Norwegian law and EU GDPR, stores data on Dutch and Polish servers, and that Kunlun Tech is a shareholder rather than an operator (Opera Forum, 2025, https://forums.opera.com/topic/84462/general-reliability-security-and-privacy-of-opera; Comparitech, 2025). Some German-language privacy researchers (Kuketz Blog cited in the Opera Forum discussion) and US-based privacy-focused outlets disagree on the telemetry volume. We could not locate a recent comprehensive independent audit of Opera desktop telemetry comparable to Leith (2020). We label the question contested.
DuckDuckGo Microsoft Bing trackers (2022). Independent researcher Zach Edwards documented that the DuckDuckGo browser allowed Microsoft tracking scripts to load on third-party sites, in apparent contradiction of the vendor's marketing. DuckDuckGo subsequently changed this behaviour. Some older comparison pages on the open web do not reflect the fix.
Chrome zero-day counts. Different sources give slightly different totals for 2024 because of how in-the-wild is defined. Google Cloud's Threat Intelligence Group reported significant Chrome zero-day activity through both 2024 and 2025 (Google Cloud, 2025, https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/2024-zero-day-trends; Google Cloud, 2026, https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/2025-zero-day-review). Third-party trackers (CISA KEV catalog, NVD) include only the items meeting their stricter definitions. We have used 10 in 2024 as a conservative count of distinct in-the-wild Chrome CVEs reported by Google itself.
Default DoH state in the UK. Firefox's default-on DoH has rolled out in stages and varies by region; we could not confirm with a single primary source that all UK users in 2026 have DoH on by default. Older Mozilla rollout documents reference the US first. Treat any default DoH on claim as user-specific until you check your own Settings and Privacy and Security and DNS over HTTPS.
AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives recent browser comparisons. We could not find recent (2024-2026) browser-specific phishing protection comparisons from these labs published as public reports. Older results (2020-2022) exist but the threat landscape has moved. We have therefore not relied on these labs for our headline conclusions.
Family Link on iOS. Google support documentation and third-party reviewers disagree on the precise set of features available on iOS. Google explicitly states that several supervision features are unavailable on iPhone and iPad (Google, 2025, https://support.google.com/families/answer/7087030). Where Google's documentation and a third-party review contradicted each other, we used Google's documentation.

References (APA-style)

Apple. (2025). Use parental controls to manage your child's iPhone or iPad. https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121
Apple. (2025). Family Sharing overview for kids and teens. https://support.apple.com/en-ug/119854
Better Internet for Kids. (2025). Parental controls: Browsers and search engines. https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/learning-corners/parents-and-caregivers/parental-controls/browsers-search-engines
Brave Software. (2025). Privacy protection and security features. https://brave.com/privacy-features/
Brave Software. (2025). Brave Shields: Blocking ads, trackers and more. https://brave.com/shields/
Brave Software. (2025). How do I use Shields while browsing? https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/360022806212
CEOP Education. (2025). Using parental controls. https://www.ceopeducation.co.uk/parents/articles/Parental-controls/
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DuckDuckGo. (2025). DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection. https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/p-app-tracking-protection
DuckDuckGo. (2025). Web tracking protections. https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/privacy/web-tracking-protections
Ecosia. (2025). Chromium Android browser source. https://github.com/ecosia/chromium-android-browser
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KidzSearch. (2025). KidzSearch: Safe search engine for kids. https://www.kidzsearch.com/
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Mozilla. (2025). Manage Enhanced Tracking Protection exceptions. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manage-enhanced-tracking-protection-exceptions
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About this page

This page is reviewed every six months and after any major browser or regulator update. Last reviewed: May 2026. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Page maintained by ParentalControl.uk, a service of SearchSwitchSave Limited (Isle of Man company 030828B, ICO Isle of Man R697728). Editorial enquiries: editorial@parentalcontrol.uk. Corrections: corrections@parentalcontrol.uk. Methodology and change-log: parentalcontrol.uk/methodology.