Kairoo and Microsoft Family Safety: what each does

Where Microsoft Family Safety goes further

Microsoft Family Safety does several things Kairoo does not do. If you need any of them, Family Safety is the tool for it. Each point is from Microsoft’s own pages, checked on 26 October 2026.

• Xbox and Windows. You can set device limits on Windows and Xbox, with a different schedule each day if you want. You can also limit single apps and games on Windows, Xbox and Android. Kairoo is for phones, and the child’s app also runs on iPad.
• Content filters. Web and search filters work in Microsoft Edge, and other common browsers are blocked so the filters hold. App and game filters block inappropriate apps and games, and your child can ask for access. Kairoo does not filter content.
• Activity reports. With reporting on, you see which apps and games were used and for how long, websites visited, Bing searches and daily and weekly screen time. Kairoo shows time and apps only.
• Spending. You can add money to your child’s Microsoft account, set purchase permissions and see what was spent.
• No cost. The app is free on the UK App Store.

What Kairoo does differently

Kairoo is two free apps: Kairoo Parents on the grown-up’s phone and Kairoo on the child’s. Its job is the daily part of screen time, so that you no longer have to be the one who says no every evening.

• The rules are written together, and both of you sign. You and your child agree when screens start and stop, how long, which apps, and how extra time can be asked for. It takes about ten minutes. On Microsoft Family Safety the family organiser sets every rule, and there is no record both of you sign.
• A heads-up, then the agreed limit, with a reason. Kairoo gives a heads-up before time is up and then does what was agreed. Every no comes with a reason: what was asked for, what the agreement says, and how today’s time was spent.
• Your child asks Kairoo, with a reason. If the agreement has room, Kairoo says yes and nothing reaches your phone. A bigger ask is decided inside the ceiling you set, and you hear about it afterwards. A new app comes to you, with your child’s reason attached. Your child can also ask for the agreement itself to change.
• A choice at the limit. Your child can stop and bank the spare minutes in a jar, ask for more, or carry on and spend it.
• First things before screens. Homework and chores can come first. Your child ticks them off, you choose whether their word is enough, and games and other fun apps can stay locked until they are done.
• Ideas for when they are bored, and jobs that earn. An I’m bored button gives ideas away from the screen. Extra jobs earn coins. Coins buy Roo, the child app’s character, new looks, and can become pocket money if you switch that on.
• Time and apps, and nothing else. Kairoo never reads messages, looks through photos or tracks location. Your child knows what it can see, because they signed it.
• iPhone and Android, mixed. An iPhone parent can set up an Android child, and an Android parent can set up an iPhone child. The child’s app is also on iPad. Kairoo is free, no card needed.

Using both

Family Safety and Kairoo cover different devices, so some families with an Xbox or a Windows PC run both. Family Safety covers the console and the computer: limits there, Edge filters and purchases. Kairoo covers the phone and the evening: the agreement, the heads-up and the reason for every no.

Kairoo’s suggestion is to keep one set of time limits on each device. One way to split it: Family Safety holds the Xbox and Windows time, and the agreement in Kairoo holds the phone. If your child has an Android phone, turn off Family Safety’s mobile limits there, so your child is never unsure which one counts.

Microsoft says its mobile screen time applies only to Android. On a child’s iPhone, Kairoo would be the only one of the two holding the time.