Frequently asked questions

Ark Parental Control is a family-safety app. It gives parents the controls to keep a child's screen time healthy and safe — daily limits, app and web filtering, location safe zones, activity insights and smart alerts, all from one dashboard.

Install the parent app and create a free account, then add a profile for each child. On your child's phone or tablet, install the app and enter the single-use 6-digit pairing code we show you. Grant the permissions during the short walkthrough and you're protected — the whole process takes just a few minutes.

Yes. You use the parent app on your own phone, and the app is set up on each child device you want to protect. The two are linked securely with a pairing code, and changes you make as a parent reach the child device within seconds.

You can add multiple children, and each child can have more than one device. Each device is paired individually so its rules and activity stay separate.

Yes. Ark Parental Control works on iOS and Android, using each platform's own safety technology. A few capabilities differ because Apple and Google design their systems differently — see the full iOS vs Android comparison.

Apple intentionally does not let any app read per-app usage details, browsing history, or screen contents on iPhone and iPad, for privacy reasons. Rather than work around those protections, we respect them. So on iOS we focus on Screen Time shields, schedules, web filtering and location, while features like detailed web history and screen snapshots are Android-only.

Absolutely. You can create recurring schedules — like school hours and bedtime — and set separate daily limits. Schedules handle overnight windows correctly, so a bedtime block that crosses midnight works as you'd expect.

Apps pause and your child sees a friendly block screen rather than an error. They can tap to ask you for more time, and you'll get a request you can approve or decline from your phone — no arguments needed.

You can see your child's most recent location and create safe zones for places like home and school. You'll get an alert when they arrive at or leave a safe zone. We show a recent location for reassurance rather than a constant live trail.

No — and we designed it that way on purpose. Ark Parental Control is a parenting tool, meant to be used openly with your child's awareness. We encourage age-appropriate conversations about screen time, and you can pause monitoring at any time. It's protection, not surveillance.

Never. We do not sell or rent personal data, we don't share it with data brokers, and we never show advertising to children or build advertising profiles. We collect only what the safety features need. Read the details in our Privacy Policy.

We design to meet COPPA in the United States, the EU and UK GDPR (including children's provisions, sometimes called GDPR-K), and comparable laws worldwide. A parent provides consent during setup, and you can access, export or delete your child's data at any time.

On Android, the accessibility service lets the app detect which app is open and the website address in the browser, so it can apply your limits and web filtering and show the block screen. Location powers safe-zone alerts. We request each permission only for its stated safety purpose and never for advertising. The full list is in our Privacy Policy.

Data is encrypted in transit, passwords and PINs are stored only as irreversible hashes, device tokens are hashed, and every request is checked so a parent can only ever reach their own family's data. See the security section of our policy.

You can get started for free. Some advanced features may be offered through a subscription. Any paid plan is billed through the Apple App Store or Google Play, which you manage in your store account.

Subscriptions purchased through the App Store or Google Play are cancelled in your store account's subscription settings. Cancelling stops future renewals; your plan stays active until the end of the current period.

You can delete a child's data or your entire account from within the app at any time. When you do, the associated data is removed from our active systems promptly. Unpairing a device also makes that device erase its local copy of monitoring data on its next connection.

Rules normally arrive within seconds. If they don't, check that the child device has an internet connection and that the app's permissions are still granted. If a permission was turned off, the related feature pauses until it's restored. Still stuck? Contact support.

Yes. The Android protection is built to restart itself after reboots and app-switching, and a parent PIN guards attempts to change settings or remove the app. You'll be alerted if monitoring is disabled.

We're happy to help. Reach our team through the contact page or email happieapartment@gmail.com.