Four ways to do it, from a free setting to a paid app. Each one has a real limit — here's what each covers, what it costs, and what a kid can switch back off.
Facts checked 7 September 2026.
The short answer. The free methods below each cover part of the job, but each leaves a gap a curious kid can find — off in Settings, Chrome-only, or stuck at your front door. For filtering that follows the phone onto any network and pings you the moment it's switched off, use an on-device app: that's what Zaksha does. Start a free trial, or read the full walk-through first. Comparing tools? See our parental-control app comparison.
Android has a built-in setting called Private DNS (Settings → Network & internet → Private DNS, or Connections → More connection settings on Samsung). Point it at a family-safe DNS resolver and the phone routes its lookups through a filter that blocks known adult and gambling domains — on Wi-Fi and mobile data, since it's a device-wide setting rather than a per-network one.
It's free and takes one screen to set up.
Where this stops. It lives in the same Settings menu a curious teenager already knows how to reach. Turning it off is a few taps, with nothing to stop them and no way for you to find out it happened.
Family Link is Google's free supervision app for Android. Its screen-time tools are genuinely good — app limits, bedtime schedules, location, approval requests for new app downloads. For content, it turns Google SafeSearch on or off and lets you block or allow specific sites in Chrome.
Where this stops. No category filtering, and nothing outside Chrome — a kid who opens Firefox or types a URL into an app is unscreened. Supervision also isn't permanent: from age 13 a child can ask to leave it, and once it's gone, so is every setting attached to it.
Most home routers ship with a parental-control panel, and some mobile carriers offer a family-safe browsing add-on. Both work by filtering traffic at the network level — the router for Wi-Fi in the house, the carrier for its own SIM.
Where this stops. They sit at the front door. Step onto a friend's Wi-Fi, a school network, or plain mobile data from a different provider, and the filtering doesn't come along. For a phone that leaves the house — which is most phones — this covers a fraction of where the browsing actually happens.
Zaksha is a paid app that installs on the phone itself rather than on a network, so the same block list applies on home Wi-Fi, a friend's Wi-Fi, or mobile data — anywhere the phone gets online. It blocks adult content, gambling and other categories with one switch per category, per child.
The standard install is tamper-evident: if a child finds the app and switches filtering off or removes it, you get a WhatsApp message and a push alert the moment it happens, not at the end of the day. Parents who want to close that gap entirely can set up the phone a different way — fresh out of the box or after a factory reset. That fresh-phone (device-owner) setup is tamper-proof: Zaksha can't be uninstalled from the phone. It's optional, and it only works on a phone set up before a child starts using it — a phone already in daily use would need a factory reset first.
₹199/month covers up to 5 devices for the household. There's a 14-day free trial, no card required.
Where this holds. Each free method leaves a gap — DNS filtering flips off in Settings with no alert, Family Link misses non-Chrome apps and ends at 13, router rules stop at your front door. Zaksha travels with the phone on any network and can't be switched off quietly: you're alerted the moment it stops, or with the fresh-phone setup it can't be removed at all.
| Method | Cost | Survives mobile data | Kid can undo it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zaksha | ₹199/month | Yes | Standard: alerted instantly. Fresh-phone setup: no |
| Private DNS | Free | Yes | Yes — no lock, no alert |
| Family Link | Free | Yes, but Chrome-only filtering | From age 13, with parent sign-off |
| Router / carrier | Free (included) | No — home Wi-Fi or one SIM only | Not applicable outside that network |
For a younger child who isn't looking to get around it, yes — it's a real filter for free. For an older kid who knows their way around Settings, it's a five-tap fix with nothing to alert you and nothing to stop them trying again.
It was built around Google's own apps — SafeSearch and Chrome's site lists — not general category filtering. A browser outside Chrome, or an app with its own browsing, isn't covered.
Nothing — they don't apply. Router rules only run on that router's Wi-Fi, so the moment a phone switches to mobile data or another network, filtering stops.
Only in one specific setup: a phone enrolled fresh, before a child uses it, through the device-owner install on the Get the app page — that one can't be uninstalled from the phone. The standard install on a phone already in use is tamper-evident: if it's switched off or removed, you're alerted on WhatsApp and push immediately, not tamper-proof.
One place for every device your child uses. Here's what you see at app.zaksha.com, in four screens.
One flat price for the whole household.
For teams, offices, schools and larger fleets.
All prices in INR, exclusive of applicable taxes. Home covers a single household under fair use.
Start a 14-day free trial — no card needed. Set up in minutes.