All the bells and whistles won't matter if I can't do something as fundamental as blocking the Google app itself. My children have in the past searched for things like Sports Illustrated, cowgirl costumes for Halloween, modern art, and various sexual topics on Wikipedia, sometimes innocently, sometimes deliberately seeking pornography. Whatever filters we've had in the past (K9, Net Nanny, etc.) have been woefully inadequate in preventing such searches, and I now have zero confidence in "filters." It's not convenient for me to have to sit there for hours and monitor every mouse click for each child, in real time. My kids are minors, and I don't want them exposed to trashy images and videos, but I would love for them to still have access to some functionality. I installed Eset hoping it would allow me to truly block apps, but apparently it will only let me block apps which I installed myself, not the ones which came bundled with Android. I bought two tablets for my kids in December, intending to allow certain apps for them (ideally, hangouts and gmail, along with others, like familysearch, etc.), and I realize that I might not be able to run Google-based apps if Google itself is blocked, but it turns out that it isn't an issue, because there's no option to block Google. Even with the most restrictive settings, my kids can search for, and find, lewd images, whether deliberately or by accident. I've already disabled the Chrome browser, which does basically nothing. Google search is still just as accessible, and there's nothing that I can see in Eset to stop it. Is there no way, other than rooting my devices, to prevent Google searches? Super frustrating!
