Articles on: Kid-Safe Experience

How to set up the Kid-Safe Phone (or Tablet)

Designed in collaboration with Samsung, our range of Kid-Safe devices are designed to provide your child with a remarkably safe and clean digital experience. This guide will take you through the full installation process as a parent/caregiver. If you're setting up a Kid-Safe device for the first time, it will take around 30 minutes for the full installation, or 45 minutes for the entire guide. Please read through each step carefully, as we'll take you through different protection features and tips.

Step 1: Device setup

Important: To simplify the setup process, if you have a SIM card for the device, you should insert it after you've finished this guide. The device might mention to "Add SIM to connect to a mobile network", which can be ignored. If you have a new SIM card for this device, you'll need to follow the instructions on the SIM packet to activate it later on. Monitoring the Kid-Safe device is performed through our online dashboard (My Safe Surfer). We'll show you how to create a shortcut to My Safe Surfer later on.

After taking the device out of the box, turn it on by holding down the Power button.

Once the device has turned on, tap the Start button.

If you're setting up a tablet, you might also have to select your languge and restart the device as instructed on the device.

Tap the checkboxes for the End User Licence Agreement and Privacy Policy, then tap the Agree button.

Tap the Set up manually button. If you need to transfer data from an old phone, you can do this later with the Samsung Smart Switch app. If you want to do this, we'll show you how to do so at the bottom of this guide.

Tap your Wi-Fi network.

Enter the password for your Wi-Fi network, then tap the Connect button.

You might need to tap the Next button after connecting to your Wi-Fi network. Once this has proceeded, the device will automatically run through some installation tasks for you. This will take a moment.

Once the automatic installation tasks have finished, you will land on the device's home screen. You'll need to wait a moment to continue the installation.

Tap the checkbox options labelled "I agree to Special Access" and "I agree to Device administrator".

Tap the Agree option at the lower-right corner.

In rare cases, you might end up seeing error code 11103 (which is caused by a network error). If you see this, you can usually resolve this by restarting the phone.

Tap the Agree button on the Samsung Knox Notice page.

If the Safe Surfer app automatically redirects you before you get a chance to tap the Agree button, the Knox Notice page will reappear in a minute or so. Simply tap the Agree button when it appears again.

The Safe Surfer app will let you know some starting information. Swipe up once you've read the information at the top.

Once you've read the rest of the information, tap the Get started button.

If you wish to use either Explorer or Empower mode on this device, you can do this on the online Safe Surfer dashboard later on.

Enter a name for this device, then tap the Next button.

There are two options for the next section.

IMPORTANT: Please note that you will be connecting this device to your Safe Surfer account as a parent/caregiver, rather than creating an account on behalf of the device user.

If you don't have a Safe Surfer account, enter your details (to create an account as a parent/caregiver), tap the checkbox to agree to the Safe Surfer Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and tap the Next button.
If you already have a Safe Surfer account, tap the Sign in option, enter your login details, and tap the Next button.

Once you've tapped the Next button, the Safe Surfer app might ask you where the device was purchased, along with asking about any applicable referrer. Once you've done this, you can continue with the instructions.

The Safe Surfer app will let you know if you need to add a payment method (and what the due date is) on the Safe Surfer dashboard.

IMPORTANT: If Safe Surfer mentions that you need to add a payment method to your Safe Surfer account (for example, if you've never paid for Safe Surfer before, or if it's been several years), we strongly recommend adding/updating your payment details in your account now to ensure that the device stays restricted as a Kid-Safe device. You can do this by clicking this link. Please note that later on you might receive an invoice for $0, which precedes the actual first year invoice/payment, which will be processed automatically.

Once you're ready, tap the Finish button.

Tap the checkbox found next to Set an admin PIN.

For this last section of setting up the device, the Safe Surfer app will automatically redirect you back to this page if you take more than a moment. If this happens, simply resume what you were last doing. If the device mentions how "Security policy prevents installation of this application", you can ignore this, as the device is doing work in the background.

Set a PIN for the Safe Surfer app, then tap the Confirm button.

Tap the checkbox found next to Enable internet filtering.

Tap the OK option on the Connection request prompt.

Tap the checkbox found next to Restrict app & settings access.

Tap the Installed apps menu.

Tap the Safe Surfer menu.

Tap the switch found next to Off. Ignore the second switch.

Tap the Allow option.

Enter your PIN for the Safe Surfer app, then tap the OK button.

Great work! We've finished the protection installation, but there are a few more things we need to do.

Hold down the Power button to open the Power off menu. On some devices, this is performed by holding down both the Volume down and Power buttons. Tap the Restart option.

Tap the Restart option again, then continue with step 2 as follows.

Step 2: Enable additional features (optional)

To find out how to install additional features, click this link.

Step 3: Transfer data from an old phone with Samsung Smart Switch (optional)

If you have an old phone that you would like to transfer data from (such as call logs and text messages), you can do this by downloading the Samsung Smart Switch app from the Google Play Store app. You'll do this as part of step 5.

Inside Samsung Smart Switch, once you've selected the direction of transfer, you'll need to select the Cable option, as the Wireless option will be unavailable if you attempt to use it. This is due to technical reasons surrounding device features that Safe Surfer uses to filter the device.

Step 4: Enable Data saver (optional)

If you wish to avoid consuming mobile data unnecessarily (especially if the device user will have a mobile plan with only a small amount of data), you can delay the sending of potential content detections with the Data saver feature (where Safe Surfer will wait for up to a day for a Wi-Fi network to send potential content detections). You can find out how to enable this by clicking this link.

Step 5: Switch to either Explorer or Empower mode (optional)

Once you're ready, you can provide your child with access to further apps either now or in the future. You can do this on the Safe Surfer dashboard by visiting the Devices menu and clicking the More info button on the applicable device listing. You can then switch to your preferred device mode. During this process, the device itself needs to be connected to the Internet (preferably Wi-Fi), and you'll also need the device on-hand to confirm the prompts on the phone during the mode switch. We will add a link to this step once we've curated guides on how to do this. If you switch the device into Explorer mode, you can find out how to approve apps on the Safe Surfer dashboard by clicking this link.

If you would like to allow specific apps in the default Essentials mode, a limited amount of apps (such as Gmail, Google Maps, and the full version of Spotify) can't be used due to how the Samsung Knox security technology works. Devices usually come with various built-in apps that we need to enforce blocking to provide the expected experience. All apps can be used in the Explorer and Empower modes. You can find out how to allow specific apps in Essentials mode by clicking this link.

Set up Google Play Store parental controls

If you choose to allow access to the Google Play Store in either Explorer or Empower mode, you can find out how to hide inappropriate content through the parental controls settings by clicking this link. Once you're done, return back to this guide.

Important notes

Monitor your Kid-Safe devices

All devices protected by Safe Surfer are monitored and managed through the online dashboard (My Safe Surfer). The dashboard lets you block, unblock, and approve apps. You can find out how to create a shortcut to My Safe Surfer on your own smartphone by clicking this link. Don't worry if you see traffic for devices in the default Essentials mode. They still talk to the Internet (otherwise things like device updates wouldn't work), but all web browsing features have been fully disabled by Safe Surfer.

You don't need to enter your PIN on the Kid-Safe device itself to approve apps (which will only allow access for one minute, by design). Rather, all controls can be accessed via the Devices menu on My Safe Surfer. Inside the Devices menu, click the "More info" button on the applicable device listing to see all the controls.

Using the screentime features

If you set any screentime rules on My Safe Surfer, your child can interact with these through the Safe Surfer app. For example, to start or stop a timer for having the internet blocked, your child can open the Safe Surfer app > tap the Screentime menu at the bottom (which doesn't need your PIN, by design). By default, Safe Surfer automatically starts and stops timers for specific apps. If you set a 30 minute rule for a specific app, your child won't need to manually start and stop the timer.

Photos via Messages

If your child would like to send photos via the texting app (that is, Google Messages by default), it's good to keep in mind that sending photos to iPhone devices (or any other phone in certain cases) can inadvertently consume top-up credit, which is separate to your SIM plan. In general, we suggest informing your child that it's best to avoid sending photos through the Messages app unless it mentions "RCS message" in the text field bubble, as shown below. (Most Samsung and other Android phones have RCS enabled by default, which uses the Internet rather than old texting technology.) This issue typically doesn't affect other photo messaging situations (such as Messenger Kids or WhatsApp).

Block spam texts with Google Messages

Google Messages, the default texting app for Kid-Safe devices, supports detecting and blocking spam texts. You can find out how to set this up by clicking this link.

Screen locks

It's good to keep in mind that your child has the ability to set their own screen lock for the device (for example, a PIN). This is normal behaviour due to how the device is designed to work. Now that Safe Surfer has been set up, most monitoring features can be remotely managed through the My Safe Surfer dashboard without knowing the screen lock PIN.

Please note that if your child sets a PIN lock and forgets the PIN, you might not be able to recover the device, since the Kid-Safe Experience (while it's active) blocks factory resets by design.

Protection complete

Great work! This device is now fully protected. To start monitoring protected devices, visit our easy-to-use online dashboard.

If you would like to set up another Kid-Safe device, simply scroll to the top of this guide. If you would like to protect a different kind of device, visit our Guides page.

Updated on: 06/06/2025

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