The benefits of the internet for every member of the family are obvious — whether that's a child accessing online resources for their homework, parents jumping on public wi-fi when needed, or teens streaming and gaming.
However, there is also plenty of risk lurking online, making it crucial for families to take advantage of the tools available to them that are designed to help them stay safe online.
Strength in numbers
A feature that can sometimes be overlooked is just how many devices are supported by a VPN — the amount of laptops, smartphones, tablets and streaming devices that you can use the app on at any one time.
In the case of Norton VPN, there are a few options that range from serving an individual right up to covering an entire family.
Its Standard and Plus plans will get you between one and five devices covered simultaneously (depending on your location when you sign up).
While the premium Ultimate plan give you simultaneous cover across 10 devices.
So, for a family, that can mean two parental phones, a tablet or two for kids, perhaps a shared family device like a laptop — you're already up to four or five devices. If you're likely to want to connect more devices than that at the same time, it would be worth investing in Ultimate.
It's worth noting that there are other VPN providers that offer unlimited connections. So if that's something you think you'll end up needing, it's worth considering that as an option.
Parental controls
If child safety and digital monitoring are areas of concern to you, then having access to a suite of parental controls will prove invaluable.
Norton's Ultimate plan bundles in such tools, letting parents manage their children's web and app use with restrictions that can be set to limit screen time, control types of content access and even supervise what they're doing online.
This means a safer browsing experience for kids while giving parents peace of mind. Plus, it supports an easier way to ensure homework is done before social media access and, crucially, blocks content that could be inappropriate.
So, if privacy is important for you as a VPN user but you also want to ensure child safety in their digital worlds, then this tool could be a useful addition to your other online protections.
Location supervision
Another child-focused feature for parents included in the Norton VPN Ultimate plan is location supervision, also known as location tracking.
This allows parents to monitor the location of a child's device so they can check in on them and know where they are, live, in real-time.
Usefully, it's also possible to set up geo-fenced areas so you receive an alert if your child goes outside of that space. So that might be if they leave school or a friend's house when they're supposed to be there, for example.
This could take away another layer of potential pestering where you previously text your kids, or made them message you so you know they are where they said they would be.
It also takes away the potential not-knowing, ensuring you can quite literally see where they are at any moment you need to.
Password management
If you go for Norton VPN Plus or Ultimate packages you get an included password manager as part of the bundle.
This allows you to store and manage complex and, ultimately, strong passwords to be used across your various logins. By using better passwords, this should make for a more secure online presence, while at the same time giving you ease by remembering them all and allowing you to manage that simply.
For a family, this offers a great way to manage multiple accounts all from a central point.
That allows everyone to have a good password without the need to remember lots of them and, potentially with kids, misplace those.
Dark Web Monitoring
Dark web monitoring is offered as part of the Plus and Ultimate plans and uses Norton's web security experience and tools to monitor dark-web marketplaces, as well as scanning databases, to see if your personal information is being used or traded without your knowledge or consent.
This ranges from email addresses to login credentials and beyond. If that data has been compromised and appears online, you will get notified so you can freeze accounts, change passwords or whatever else you need to do to stay safe and secure.
Since this risk is multiplied for families with many accounts, it makes sense to have this tool keeping you all secure so you can act fast if the need were ever to occur.
Scams, phishing and malware protection
Norton VPN also offers layers of protection for your online activity that keep you insulated from scams, phishing attempts, ransomware, malware and other threats.
Since this protection is AI-powered, it is able to adapt and scan websites, links and downloads in real-time to ensure you are flagged if there is anything malicious found.
When it comes to your family, one person's risky click can put everyone at risk and so having an additional veneer of protection is really important. It lowers the chance of children or older adults accidentally downloading something dangerous or falling for phishing emails.
It's like a family-wide safety net and is available with the Norton VPN Plus plan and above.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
