AVG Family Safety alternative browser launches on Windows Phone, updates on iOS

Security software company AVG has taken an active role in providing security apps for the popular mobile platforms like iOS and Android, and has garnered approximately 114 million active users across them all.

Today, AVG has released its free alternative Web browser AVG Family Safety for Windows Phone, following yesterday's update to the software for iOS.

AVG Family Safety is a mobile browser built to protect its users against malicious and generally unsavory websites. If you're one of those parents who finds himself handing his smartphone over to his kid to keep them occupied on long trips or while waiting in line or suchlike, AVG had you in mind with this app.

Websites that are known to harbor malicious content, malware, phishing, pornography, or proxy and anonymizer web services are blocked using data provided by AVG’s LinkScanner technology. This feature rides on top of the built-in mobile security provided by the operating system.

On iOS devices, for example, you can password-protect Safari so your kids can only use AVG Family Safety. This feature does not exist on Windows Phone, but Internet Explorer can be buried in sub-menus and AVG Family Safety can be put front and center and set as the default so that parents can provide a comparable level of security.

AVG Family Safety is not quite a "freemium" app, because it can be a fully enclosed experience on its own. But it can also be paired with AVG's $20 per year Family Safety account, which allows users to set up user security profiles and apply them to up to three different mobile devices per household.