A privacy-focused, peer-to-peer parental control app. Child device on Android or Windows; parent device on Android or iOS.
PearGuard lets a parent device manage screen time and app access on a child device directly - no accounts, no servers, no subscriptions. Your family's data lives only on the devices you pair.
- Screen time limits - set daily time budgets and bedtime windows on the child device
- Per-app policies - allow, block or time-limit individual apps
- Activity view - see what's been used and when, directly from the parent device
- Time requests - child can request extra time; parent approves or denies from their device
- Fully offline-first - policies apply immediately on the child device; syncs whenever devices can reach each other
- No accounts - identity is a cryptographic key pair generated on your device; nothing is tied to an email or phone number
- No data collection - PeerLoom, Google and no third party ever sees your family's activity
PearGuard uses peer-to-peer technology powered by Hypercore Protocol to sync policies and activity directly between parent and child devices.
Most parental control apps route your child's activity through a central server. The app company can read your data, sell it, get hacked, go down or shut down. PearGuard has no central server. Your family's data never leaves your devices.
When the parent and child devices are online at the same time - whether on the same Wi-Fi network or anywhere on the internet - they find each other using a distributed hash table (DHT), a technology similar to how BitTorrent works. Once connected, they sync directly, device to device, with no middleman.
All data is encrypted in transit and every policy update is cryptographically signed by the parent device. The child device only applies policies it can verify came from a paired parent.
On Android child devices, PearGuard uses Android's Accessibility Service and Device Admin APIs to enforce app blocks, time limits and bedtime windows. These are standard Android parental-control surfaces - the child cannot disable them without the parent's approval.
On Windows child devices, enforcement runs in user space: a foreground-window monitor closes blocked apps and an overlay covers them when a time limit or schedule kicks in. A watchdog service and scheduled task relaunch the client if it stops. See the Windows Client section for details.
Parent and child pair via a one-time invite link or QR code. The link encodes the cryptographic address of the pairing - there's no server involved. After pairing, both devices remember each other; the invite link is single-use.
- No accounts or sign-up required
- No analytics, tracking or telemetry
- No third-party SDKs
- All sync traffic is encrypted end-to-end
- Activity data stays on the parent and child devices - never uploaded anywhere
In addition to the Android child app, PearGuard ships a Windows desktop child client. It runs the same P2P backend and UI as the mobile app, with user-space enforcement suited to younger kids.
Download the PearGuard-Setup-<version>.exe installer from the GitHub release page and run it with administrator privileges. The installer places PearGuard under Program Files, creates a Start Menu shortcut and registers a watchdog Windows Service plus a scheduled task so the client relaunches if it stops.
Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) and Windows 11, 64-bit.
Desktop machines have no camera, so Windows pairs via copy/paste:
- On the parent device, open Pair Device and tap Share Link to copy the invite URL. Send the URL to the Windows machine by email, chat or any channel you like.
- On Windows, copy the invite URL to the clipboard and click Pair. The client reads the clipboard and completes pairing.
- Unsigned installer - the
.exeis not yet code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen warns on first download. Click "More info" then "Run anyway" to proceed. - Soft enforcement - Windows enforcement runs in user space. A determined, technically savvy child with admin rights can bypass it by killing the PearGuard process. The Windows client is intended for younger children; for teens, use the Android child app.
- Child device must be Android or Windows - iOS does not expose the enforcement APIs required (Accessibility Service, Device Admin) and has no desktop equivalent. The parent device can run Android or iOS.
- Both devices must be online simultaneously to sync policy changes or activity in real time - changes made offline sync the next time devices connect
Please open an issue on GitHub. Include your platform (Android, iOS or Windows), OS version and a description of what happened.