How does Kidslox technically work?

This is one of the most common questions we get about Kidslox.

People are often surprised when we tell them about the powerful features of Kidslox especially when it comes to implementing them on Apple’s tightly regulated iOS software.

Kidslox works on iOS by installing an official Apple Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile onto the device you wish to supervise. This profile enables Kidslox to carry out the remote features over the internet (WiFi or 3G/4G/5G) which means the parent doesn’t even need to be in the same location as their child’s device.

It’s a fairly similar process for integrating Android devices, though Administrator privileges are used in place of an MDM profile. You can supervise iOS devices from Android devices, and vice-versa.

What this looks like in practice is that if, for example, a parent wants to put their child’s device into the heavily restricted ‘Lock mode’, they can use the Kidslox app on their own device (or on any desktop via their web browser using the web app login) to move the three-way toggle across to ‘Lock Mode’. This sends a message to the child’s device over the internet, telling it to apply the tighter restrictions.

Please note that on the Android platform a three-way toggle, Daily Limits, and Schedules features work offline.

For the correct work of Kidslox, we also use a VPN. VPN will connect automatically when the mode changes to Parent or Child, it is required for the following features: content blocking, daily limits, individual app blocking, and screen time. Kidslox VPN doesn't change the IP address of the device, it is used to filter all the traffic.