AI tutors with parent controls, compared

If you want to read your child's AI conversations, pick Khanmigo (US only) or Ask Poppy. ChatGPT's parental controls give you settings and quiet hours but deliberately no access to chats, and Gemini for under-13s is mostly an on/off switch through Family Link.

Try Ask Poppy free

Ask Poppy is voice-first homework help for kids around 7 to 10, and teens and adults too: it asks what you have tried and gives one hint at a time, so you learn how to find the answer. Free with 30 messages a day, then $3.99/week or $9.99/month (US App Store) · iPhone, iPad, Mac

Disclosure: this page is written by the Ask Poppy team, and Ask Poppy is one of the options. Competitor facts come from each company's own pages or its US App Store listing (checked Oct 2026) and are linked so you can verify them. We haven't run a controlled test of any of these tools, ours included.

The short version

"Parent controls" means very different things. ChatGPT gives a parent switches but no window into the chats. Khanmigo gives the most oversight but only in the US. Gemini's controls are mostly an on/off switch for younger children. Ask Poppy sits between: a parent can read conversations and set memory per child, but there are fewer switches than ChatGPT.

	ChatGPT (linked teen)	Gemini (under 13)	Khanmigo (parent)	Ask Poppy
Who it is for	Teens 13 to 17 linked to a parent	Under-13s via Family Link (not EEA, CH or UK)	Children under 18 on a parent account (US only)	Kids, teens and families, up to 3 child profiles
Parent can read chats	No, by design	Not described by Google	Yes, plus a chat-history summary	Yes, and children are told
Alerts	Safety notifications for serious risk, reviewed by people, no transcripts	Email when a child first uses Gemini	Alerts for flagged content	No automated alerts; parents review conversations
Settings a parent controls	Sensitive content, memory, training, voice, images, study mode default, quiet hours	Turn Gemini on or off	20+ parent tools, assign work, track progress	Memory on/off, voice and language per child
Time limits	Quiet hours and study hours	Through Family Link	Not described	Use Apple Screen Time
Price	ChatGPT Free or paid plans	Free	$4/month or $44/year for up to 10 children	Free with 30 messages a day, then $3.99/week or $9.99/month

Which to pick

You want to read what your child asks

Khanmigo if you are in the US and want a full course library with it (Khanmigo for parents). Ask Poppy if you want a voice-first app outside the US too.

Your teen already uses ChatGPT

Link their account and set study mode as the default and quiet hours for school nights (OpenAI Help: parental controls). Accept that you won't see the chats, and talk about it instead.

Your child is under 13 and on Android or a Google account

Gemini with Family Link, where available (Gemini Help: children).

You want the fewest settings to manage

Ask Poppy lets a parent add up to three child profiles, open each child's conversations (children are told a parent can see them), and set memory, voice and language per child, including switching memory off.

Where others beat Ask Poppy

ChatGPT has quiet hours, study hours and human-reviewed safety notifications, which Ask Poppy doesn't. Khanmigo has many more parent tools, assigned work and progress tracking. Claude isn't an option here at all: Anthropic's consumer terms require users to be 18 or older (Anthropic consumer terms).

Sources (checked Oct 2026): OpenAI Help: parental controls · Gemini Help: children · Khanmigo for parents · Anthropic consumer terms · Ask Poppy on the App Store. Ask Poppy facts are from the current app (version 1.8.3) and its App Store listing. US prices; they vary by country and platform. Spot something out of date? Email [email protected].

Want parent oversight without a dozen settings? Ask Poppy is voice-first homework help, built first for kids around 7 to 10 and their parents. Your child talks the question through, and Poppy asks what they've tried and gives one hint at a time instead of handing over the answer, so they learn how to find it. Parents set up each child's profile and can see their conversations, and memory can be turned off per child. Teens and adults use it too. A one-button, screen-free Poppy device is in development.

Free with 30 messages a day, then $3.99/week or $9.99/month (US App Store prices) on iPhone, iPad and Mac. (Disclosure: this site is made by the Ask Poppy team.)

Try Ask Poppy free See the screen-free device

Questions

Which AI tutor lets parents read their child's chats?

Of the big options we checked on 28 Oct 2026, Khanmigo (parent account, US only) and Ask Poppy let a parent view a child's conversations. ChatGPT's parental controls deliberately do not give parents access to a teen's conversations. Google's help page for children using Gemini does not describe chat viewing.

Does ChatGPT have parental controls?

Yes. A parent can link to a teen's account (13 to 17) and manage settings such as reducing sensitive content, memory, voice mode, image generation, a study mode default and quiet hours. The parent cannot read the teen's chats, the teen can unlink (the parent is notified), and controls end at 18.

Can children under 13 use Gemini?

In many countries, yes, through a Google account managed with Family Link, where a parent can turn Gemini on or off. Google says it isn't available for supervised accounts in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK.

Can I limit when my child uses an AI tutor?

ChatGPT has quiet hours for linked teen accounts. For other apps on iPhone and iPad, Apple's Screen Time can set app limits and downtime for any app, including Ask Poppy.

Is any AI tutor fully safe for kids?

No AI tool is risk-free. Controls reduce risk but don't replace an adult who knows what the child is using it for and talks to them about it.

By Simon Dreyer, founder of Ask Poppy · Last updated 28 October 2026 · How we write these pages