Parental Control: Types, Benefits, Challenges and How to Set Up

Published on: September 9, 2024

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14 min read

Simple guidelines like "don't talk to strangers" are no longer appropriate for child protection in today's environment. Instead, it has gained several layers, including digital, psychological, and physical.

Microsoft's Digital Civility Index shows that 64% of Indian youth are vulnerable to cyberbullying and harassment online, 75% are aware of a friend or family member who has experienced online harassment, and 44% have met the offender. However, only 50% are aware of where to turn for assistance in an emergency.

There are advantages to having internet-connected devices in your house. However, you need to be aware of the dangers these gadgets provide and how to keep your family and yourself safe.

By controlling access to hazardous information, limiting the amount of time spent online, and monitoring who your child interacts with, parental controls may help keep kids and teens safer online.

The ideal level of parental control depends only on the demands of your particular family. Certain families can manage with basic, free browser settings that weed out unwanted stuff. Certain families require assistance in limiting their screen time. Spot inspections on their children's electronics are acceptable to some people. Regardless of where you are in your search, you can get all the information you want concerning parental controls with the aid of this guide.

• What is Parental Control?

• How does Parenting Control Work?

• What are Different Types of Parental Control Tools?

• How to Set Up Parental Controls on Different Devices?

• What are the Benefits of Using Parental Controls?

• What are the Challenges of Using Parental Controls?

• How can Parental Controls Be Used to Monitor Internet Usage?

  • Are Parental Controls Effective?

  • Can Parental Controls Be Applied to Social Media?

• How to Choose the Right Parental Control Software?

• What are the Legal Considerations for Parental Controls?

• What are the Best Routers with Parental Controls?

  • Is Firewall Parenting Control Better than Web Filtering?

What is Parental Control?

Parental controls are a type of software programs that let you keep an eye on and restrict what your kids view and do online. With parental controls, parents can set time limits for using internet devices, filter and block specific websites and applications, limit screen time, and even keep a minute-by-minute log of their children's online activities. They function with all of your gadgets, applications, and phone networks in addition to WiFi.

Parental control tools are configured to do the following tasks:

• Prevent your child from utilizing particular websites, applications, or features (such as the camera or shopping features on a device).

• Sort through many types of information, including social networking pages, "adult" or sexual content, and anything that can encourage self-harm, eating disorders, violence, drugs, gambling, racism, or terrorism.

• Manage the applications your child may use to interact with others and set limits on who can speak with them.

• Let you keep an eye on how your kids use their connected devices by providing you with information on the websites and applications they use, as well as how often and how long they use them.

• Limit access by establishing time limitations that are followed.

• When several family members use the same program or device, you should be able to adjust the tool settings to suit the abilities and age of each user.

How does Parental Control Work?

There are several forms of parental control. The most popular method is having your youngster download an app and connect it to your device, where you may impose limitations. There are, nonetheless, a few more inventive methods to put it into practice. Parental control methods are as follows:

1. Apps for parental control: The market is flooded with options for parental control applications. WebWatcher, Safe Eyes, Net Nanny, and FamiSafe are a few examples.

   Both your mobile and your child's device need to download the same app. You will designate your device as the one in charge of the limits and your child as the one whose device is subject to them. You may thus restrict what they do on their smartphone.

2. SafeSearch: The entry points to the internet are search engines. Most children use it to search the internet for entertaining stuff. Therefore, it's important to make sure search engines don't provide kids with improper stuff, and SafeSearch can help with that.

   One option that Google, the most popular search engine, offers is called SafeSearch. As the name implies, it stops explicit content, such as pictures of violence and pornography, from appearing in the search results. While not perfect, it does a good job of removing objectionable stuff. Similar capabilities to SafeSearch are available from other well-known search engines including Yahoo and Bing.

3. Filtering on Routers: Parental controls are directly programmable from your router. You can, for instance, keep a list of websites that the router is unable to connect to. The list of websites your kid views, including those accessed in incognito mode, may be viewed on your Wi-Fi network.

   You may block whole categories of websites, such as chat rooms, pornographic material, and peer-to-peer file transfers, with routers. The downside is that a lot of router providers started charging for access after realizing how many parents used this program.

What are the Features of Parental Control?

Typical characteristics of applications for parental control are listed below:

• Filtering Content: It is within your power to shield your youngster from offensive online information. You can keep a blacklist of URLs that these apps are unable to access. Some even use blacklists that are category-wide, allowing you to ban websites belonging to a certain genre, including gambling and adult material. Your child's connection will not resolve if they try to access a website that has been blocked. Additionally, some applications may notify you if your youngster tries to access a website that has been blocked.

• App Surveillance: You may set up your child's phone to prevent it from downloading any apps without your specific permission. This will stop your children from installing potentially dangerous apps that they might not be aware of. Additionally, you may keep an eye on how much time kids spend on each app so you can intervene when it becomes excessive.

• Screen Time Restrictions: Your children's screen time on computers and smartphones may be restricted. For instance, you may program the gadget to lock automatically after a maximum of two hours each day. Additionally, you may turn off the gadget at specific periods of the day, such as before bed.

• Monitoring of Calls and SMS: Every phone number that makes a call or leaves a message on a child's device is under your surveillance. The precise timings at which each call and SMS were sent may be viewed. To avoid any potential danger, this will assist you in recognizing and blocking unfamiliar numbers.

• Tracking Location: You may turn on location monitoring for your child when they are not at home to make sure you always know where they are. Certain applications enable you to configure geofencing, which notifies you in advance if your child's smartphone is found at particular places.

What are Different Types of Parental Control Tools?

Parental controls function on three levels or tiers overall. Every level has unique advantages and limitations. The primary types of parental control tools are outlined below:

1. Device Parental Controls: The gadget that your child is using has these parental controls on it. The gadget under consideration may be a smart TV, a smartphone, or something completely different. These parental controls are either pre-loaded by the operating system (OS) or installed by the device's maker.

   On occasion, the company that makes the gadget and the one that develops the operating system are the same. If not, there's a chance that your child's gadget is running two different parental control schemes at once. At this point, parents have additional alternatives thanks to the parental control settings. However, you could only have general control after turning on the parental control settings, as you won't be able to manage the contents of individual applications.

2. Application Parental Controls: The app's settings are where you can discover the parental controls. For instance, you may control the material that your child sees in both the Google Play Store and the App Store using the settings. In recent years, parental control features have been added to other apps, particularly social networking services. Parental controls are available in most web browsers, and they include the ability to exclude explicit information from search engines.

   The functions of application parental controls are restricted since they are exclusive to the app. However, they are simple to use and are included in the app from the beginning.

3. OS Parental Controls: Operating systems with parental control options include Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS. Generally, these parental control settings remain the same regardless of the device on which they are set up. With the exception of extra features offered by manufacturers, parental control settings for Android phones are therefore comparable.

4. Software Parental Controls: Parental control solutions that rely on software are specialized software packages that are intended to regulate, oversee, and limit children's internet activity. Numerous capabilities, including time management, use tracking, content filtering, and more, are available with these systems.

   These systems' key benefits are their extensive coverage, adaptability, and ease of use. They give parents thorough information of their kids' internet activity and may be installed on a variety of devices.

5. Cloud-Based Parental Controls: Cloud-based parental control systems make it easy to keep an eye on your kids' online safety from any location, at any time. You may monitor and operate them in real-time from any device with an internet connection thanks to their accessibility.

6. Independent Parental Controls: Installing software straight onto a child's device is known as a standalone parental control app. They provide powerful tools for managing and keeping an eye on the device's usage.

   Even though standalone programs provide comprehensive management and monitoring, their ability to offer the same degree of flexibility and convenience as cloud-based solutions may be hampered by the requirement for device-level installation.

7. Default Parental Controls: Parental controls are installed on some manufacturers' products. Parents may be able to passcode-lock certain content on smart TVs, for instance. Even while they use the same operating system as phones without parental control settings, some mobile phones do have their own.

How Do You Set Up Parental Controls on Different Devices?

This is how to set parental controls on a variety of devices.

• WiFi network at home: Some wifi routers contain software that allows you to set parental controls for your entire family's wifi network. This has the benefit of allowing you to set restrictions that are automatically applied to all of your connected devices, including gaming consoles, smart TVs, laptops, and tablets. But you don't always have the same kind of oversight and control as you would with software that is installed on every device.

  Use keywords such as "child-friendly routers," "child-friendly wi-fi," "family friendly routers," and "child-safe wi-fi" while doing an online search for kid-friendly wi-fi equipment. Alternatively, have a look at the goods approved by the Family Friendly Filters program (external link).

  Parental control-equipped routers are a part of several internet service providers' (ISPs) broadband packages.

• Laptops and desktop computers: With the Microsoft Family, you can monitor and control your kids' online behavior on Windows devices by banning websites, keeping an eye on their online activities at all times, and seeing activity reports on the websites, applications, and games they've played. It is necessary to create a family group consisting of a minimum of one parent and one child, each having a separate Microsoft account.

• Mac OS: You may create profiles for each kid using the OSX Parental Controls. These profiles can be used to restrict access to websites or applications, disable features like Siri or the iTunes store, set time restrictions for specific days of the week and bedtimes, and conceal offensive language from the dictionary and other sources.

• Mobile devices: Starting with iOS 12, you may limit access to certain browsers and apps, in-app purchases, social media, adult-only content on the internet, data sharing (including location and photo sharing), media streaming, and online gaming.

  Take into consideration using the 'Sensitive Content Warning' feature on your child's Apple device if you are worried about them viewing inappropriate photos and videos of nudity. Any age group of users can access it. You may find it by going into settings and looking for "sensitive content" or "communication safety."

• Android smartphones and tablets: Google Family may be used to govern Android devices even though Android does not have any basic built-in parental control tools. Take a look at employing outside software. You may limit the content your child can download or buy by using parental controls on Google Play.

• Other mobile devices: Although they might not be the first gadgets that spring to mind when thinking about internet safety, it's crucial to take into account any gadgets that your kids might use, such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, and sound systems with wifi capabilities. Fitbits and Garmin fitness trackers allow parents and caregivers to oversee their children's accounts, and both include parental settings. Settings on smartwatches are linked to user accounts, like Google or Apple. Parental controls are included with some e-readers, such as the Kindle.

  Recall that these and other gadgets need you to configure your parental controls; they are often not automated. In the event that the device software has been upgraded, you should periodically verify that your settings haven't changed.

• Smart televisions and game consoles: Parental control features are available on all major gaming consoles to assist parents in monitoring their children's gaming habits.

  All of the thrilling possibilities and hazards that come with being online are available with smart TVs. Even if it's simply PIN-locking-specific capabilities, the majority offer some kind of parental control.

• Other online video games: Online games that are played on mobile devices or via web browsers seldom have parental controls or safety measures integrated in, in contrast to games played on gaming consoles like the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo. Certain controls might be available at the app or device management level, as well as through Apple's "Game Center" for Apple devices.

What are the Benefits of Using Parental Controls?

Parental control software has a plethora of advantages, some of which are listed below:

• They let you keep an eye on your child's social media usage: With parental control tools, you can keep an eye on what your children are doing on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and other social media platforms. You can keep an eye on your children's friends and conversation partners by using this software. With the help of these resources, parents can determine whether or not their child is on the correct path and have a better understanding of what their child wants.

  In most cases, a parent has the ability to restrict the number of connections and choose which applications to allow. The most significant advantage of parental control is that it will teach your kids the importance of personal autonomy via the establishment of reasonable boundaries. Additionally, parents learn more about their kids.

  These programs, when used with the proper settings, can let kids use digital devices within established parameters and browse the internet safely.

• They let you control what searches your children do on the internet: You can find out what kinds of websites your children are accessing. A timestamp, the website's title, the URL, and the number of visits are among the details. You can tell whether your children are using improper applications for extended periods of time or sporadically browsing ones that might be harmful. This allows you to control unsuitable URLs or websites by banning them and granting access to just authorized users.

• You may set screen time limitations with them: Due to their inability to separate themselves from their favorite game or program, kids are always likely to spend the majority of their time on their digital devices. As a result, if one spends most of their time in front of a computer, they may develop poor posture, weak vision, irregular sleep patterns, and laziness from inactivity. Therefore, parents may enforce a healthy lifestyle on their children and establish screen time restrictions with the use of parental control applications in order to stop this harmful way of living.

• Putting a stop to unsuitable content: Keeping an eye on your child's online activities will help them stay away from pornographic websites, sexting, and cyberbullying. You must keep an eye on your child's electronic gadgets if you want to protect them from the digital world. With parental controls, you can monitor the applications your kids use and block those that you decide aren't needed. To shield kids from exposure, parental control applications can filter out graphic, violent, or otherwise unsuitable information.

• Encouraging digital responsibility: Parental restrictions can help kids learn good digital habits and how to use technology responsibly.

• They let you know where your child is at all times: You can track your children's full trip history and pinpoint their exact location at any given time with the use of parental control applications. Children with autism may find this feature more accommodating. This is due to the fact that it allows their parents to always be precisely aware of the children's location.

• You may monitor your child's phone history with them: With parental applications, you may record every call you make and receive, including the call's date, time, and duration. This gives you a clear picture of your child's call patterns and lets you know, for example, who your child is speaking to or whether they are receiving bothersome calls. Similarly, you may use these apps to ban someone your child seems to be interacting with if you think they are unsuitable or needless.

What are the Challenges of Using Parental Controls?

Using parental control applications has the following drawbacks:

• They might make the bond between parents and children worse: Most kids, especially teenagers, resist being watched and monitored. As a result, parent-child interactions are undoubtedly strained. Regrettably, some parents may become overly dependent on eavesdropping applications and neglect their regular responsibilities as parents, like spending time with their kids on a daily basis. Furthermore, snooping on your child and putting parental software on their personal device might make them feel betrayed. Your youngster may become insecure and dissatisfied as a result of this. The mental and emotional pressure between you and your child may grow if they sense that you no longer trust them. This is a very dangerous situation.

• Possibility of over-restricting: These applications have the potential to severely restrict kids' access to the internet and digital activities if they are not utilized carefully, which might impair their capacity to learn and explore on their own. When utilizing these apps, striking a balance between liberty and protection is essential. In order to promote their children's digital well-being while also encouraging their independence and responsibility, parents should take into account their children's age, maturity, and unique requirements.

• Undermining trust: As kids become older and want more freedom, parental supervision and monitoring too much can damage the bond between parents and their kids.

• Children who are tech-savvy circumvent: These days, parental control apps might potentially include malware, which puts your computer or phone in danger. Children in the digital era are more likely to figure out how to remove apps; thus, their usefulness can be limited. Resolved kids may figure out how to turn off or circumvent the parental restrictions, which would decrease their usefulness.

• Having trouble keeping up with technology: Parents may find it difficult to maintain the most recent versions of their parental control settings as new applications and internet platforms appear.

• They might get expensive: Appropriately feature-rich parental control programs are not inexpensive. Since they are premium programs, using their services will cost money. However, the cost is dependent on a monthly or annual membership, so using its advantages will cost you a reasonable amount of money. If this money is used for the child's intellectual growth in other ways, it might be more beneficial.

How Can Zenarmor Help Parental Control?

Zenarmor is an appliance-free, all-in-one, lightweight, and simple next-generation firewall. Zenarmor supports the most common open-source router and firewall platforms, such as FreeBSD, OPNsense, and pfSense software. You may install it on a poupular Linux distributions, like Ubuntu, and Debian. Zenarmor is a powerful parental control solution that every parent need at their home to protect their kids against harmful Internet content. You may easily deploy parental control on your home network using Zenarmor. It has the following parental control features:

• Safe Search

• Content Filtering

• Time-based policies

Zenarmor enables the activation of Safe Search Enforcement for each policy and network user. This feature is ideal for home and school networks, where Safe Search is disabled by default for parents, faculty, and staff members but enabled for students and children. You may quickly enable or disable the Zenarmor Safe Search feature.

Zenarmor® offers AI-based threat intelligence to protect your network from over 300 million websites and domains. It is a remarkable standard feature that is included in all Zenarmor subscriptions, from the Free Edition to the Business Edition, and it provides sophisticated protection. You can easily prevent your children from accessing detrimental web categories, such as Drugs, Adult, Pornography, Violence, Alcohol, Gambling, Dating, Games, Weapons, Military, Tobacco, and Warez Sites.

Additionally, you have the ability to establish and designate schedules to your policy in order to ensure that it remains active during a specific time frame. Either a new schedule can be generated for the policy, or the existing schedule can be managed (added or removed). For instance, you may establish a policy that permits your children to access online gaming sites exclusively on weekends.

How can Parental Controls Be Used to Monitor Internet Usage?

With the use of parental control software, parents can keep an eye on their children's online activities, filter out objectionable information, and impose time limitations on device use. Utilize them to teach your child how to balance their online and offline activities, rather than as a tool for censorship. Together, you should create explicit guidelines for internet usage and realistic time restrictions for device use.

You may prevent access to whole website categories, such as gambling and adult material, with a parental control program. To stop access to the new, improper websites that appear every day, the blocklists are updated continuously. You can be certain that your youngster is shielded from inappropriate material in this way.

These programs let you establish time limitations for your browsing. The gadget automatically locks when the allocated time has passed. This function keeps your kids from becoming sidetracked and spending too much time online.

As is the case with everything tech-related, parental control software is not infallible. There is a chance that a tech-savvy youngster may try to get around the limitations, thus, alternative approaches are required.

Parental control tools can be configured to do tasks such as:

• Prevent your child from utilizing particular websites, applications, or features (such as the camera or shopping features on a device).

• Sort through many types of information, including social networking pages, "adult" or sexual content, and anything that can encourage self-harm, eating disorders, violence, drugs, gambling, racism, or terrorism.

• Manage the applications your child may use to interact with others and set limits on who can speak with them.

• Let you keep an eye on how your kids use their connected devices by providing you with information on the websites and applications they use, as well as how often and how long they use them.

• Limit access by establishing time limitations that are followed.

• When several family members use the same program or device, you should be able to adjust the tool settings to suit the abilities and age of each user.

Are Parental Controls Effective?

Yes, by limiting access to improper information and imposing usage restrictions, parental controls effectively shield kids from hazardous materials. Among other things, content filtering, screen time limitations, and app usage tracking are quite helpful in controlling your child's internet habits. The development of a safer online environment for kids has been greatly aided by these technologies. It encourages prompt action to improve communication about safe internet use.

However, regular updates, appropriate parental settings, and honest communication between parents and kids are all necessary for them to be effective. Although helpful, they are not infallible and ought to be included in a more comprehensive plan that involves active parental engagement and education. Additionally, it's critical that you regularly monitor your child's online activities and maturity levels so that you may modify the app's settings to better meet their requirements as they become older. As they grew older or their needs for digital content changed, it could be necessary to modify what had previously worked.

Can Parental Controls Be Applied to Social Media?

Yes, you can disable features on most social media apps that could be dangerous for children in addition to blocking specific users. You might be able to disable chat, limit communication to friends only, and make your child's profile invisible so that it doesn't appear in search results, for instance. Certain apps take things a step further by giving users autonomy over how they utilize them. For instance, Instagram's Your Activity feature allows you to set personal time limits and displays the amount of time you've spent using the app. A similar feature that prompts users to take a break is available on YouTube. With its Family Pairing feature, TikTok even enables parents to remotely manage their children's accounts, set limits, and post content from their phones. Go to the settings area (often indicated by the gear symbol) of the app your kids love to see if there are any limits available. Apps that don't (and most don't) offer password security for their settings are readily reversed by your child.

Which Social Media platforms offer Parental Control?

Several platforms that are often utilized for parental control are listed below:

• Facebook: Tools for parental supervision Since late 2023, the external link has been accessible worldwide on Facebook. The Settings menu provides access to these features. They may help parents and caregivers plan breaks, identify further information regarding online time management for their kids, and offer insights on things like Facebook usage.

• Instagram: You may access supervision tools on the Instagram mobile app. Since Instagram is mostly meant to be used on mobile devices, some monitoring features might not be available while surfing on a desktop computer.

  Teens might be invited to link their accounts for supervision by parents and caregivers. The usage of supervision tools is contingent upon the teen's consent. Parents and guardians may use the tools to monitor who their kid is linked to and who they have blocked on Instagram, as well as to establish time and date limitations for their child's usage. They can see their privacy and security settings. Parents and caregivers cannot view their child's search history, messages, or posts using supervision tools; however, you may view their public posts and those shared with followers if you follow them.

  When a youngster reaches the age of 18, supervision is immediately deleted from their account.

• Messenger: The Meta Family Center External link provides access to supervisory tools for caregivers and parents. You can examine your child's contacts list, safety/security settings, who may message them, and how much time they spend on Messenger, in addition to seeing their Messenger tales. Additionally, teens have the option to let their guardians and parents know who they have blocked on Messenger. Another tool for managing internet use is the scheduling of breaks by caregivers and parents.

• Snapchat: Snapchat's Family Center, which can be accessed through the mobile app, offers parental settings. With the help of these controls, parents and guardians can monitor who their child is chatting with, check their child's privacy and safety settings (which include restricting the kind of content that can be viewed), control the parental controls for My AI, Snapchat's AI chatbot, and report any issues to the company's Trust and Safety team. Only parents and caregivers who are over 25 years old can use Snapchat's parental settings.

• TikTok: TikTok supports caregiver and parent supervision with a function called Family Pairing. With the use of this tool, caregivers and parents may regulate their child's screen time, block certain content and persons from searches and the feed, and modify discoverability and privacy settings, including who can suggest and comment on their videos, as well as whether or not they can send and receive direct messages. The use of direct messaging is restricted to minors who are 16 years old or older.

• X, the former Twitter: Although X does not offer parental controls, if your children have an X account, you can encourage them to use basic safety measures. These include reporting offensive information, muting specific terms from the feed to steer clear of certain kinds of content, and banning other users' accounts.

  Only accounts that they follow will be allowed to send direct messages to X accounts in Australia that are known to belong to minors. The ability of accounts belonging to children to view "sensitive content," including pornography, will be limited.

How to Choose the Right Parental Control Software?

Your unique demands will determine which parental control software is best for you. Think about things like pricing and value, technical support and customer care, trial periods and refund policies, flexibility, privacy and data protection, simplicity of use, and setting up and optimizing the app.

It's important to consider a number of important features that align with your parenting goals and digital concerns when selecting the finest parental control software for your family.

Important factors to consider when selecting the best parental control app for your family are as follows:

• Adaptability and User-Friendliness: Verify whether the app is compatible with the laptops, tablets, or smartphones that your family uses. To use the app's features and set up limitations without confusion, an intuitive interface is necessary.

• Personalization and Adaptability: Seek out an app that lets you adjust settings according to each family member's age and level of maturity. Creating rules and changing them as needed enables a customized and efficient method of digital surveillance.

• Data security and privacy: Your family's privacy should be valued by a competent parental control tool. Select an app that has robust data security measures in place to ensure that private and sensitive information is kept safe.

• Configuring and Enhancing the Application: Establishing a safe and responsible digital environment for your family requires that you use and enhance a parental control program. Install the chosen app on your child's smartphone first, and make sure you both comprehend how it works. Information filters and limitations may be customized based on your child's age and interests to shield them from inappropriate content.

• Trial Times and Refund Guidelines: Select applications that provide return policies or trial periods. This lets you assess how well the software works and if it's suitable for your family before buying it.

  You can make an informed decision about which parental control program will safeguard your family's digital health and provide a safe online environment by carefully weighing these crucial factors.

• User Feedback and Image: Analyze user feedback and the app's reputation in the market. Feedback from other parents may shed light on the app's usability, reliability, and effectiveness in practical situations.

• Customer service and technical support: Reliable technical assistance and timely customer service are essential features of high-quality software that address any issues or challenges you may have.

• Value and Cost: Consider the value and cost of the app. Achieving a balance between the amenities your family needs and the cost is crucial.

What are the Legal Considerations for Parental Controls?

If a kid is underage, a parent is legally entitled to restrict how they use a phone, tablet, or any other gadget, even if they purchased it with their own money. This indicates that there is nothing stopping parents from setting up parental controls on it. Naturally, things are different with regard to minors who are regarded as legal adults (in the United States, this refers to anyone who is older than 18). If that's the case, you would need their permission before setting up any parental controls.

When parental control software is used on someone who is deemed an adult by law, it enters difficult territory. Here, the software's monitoring features raise the possibility that it may be misused and become "spyware" or "stalkerware." It makes sense: parental control software allows you to access extremely sensitive information such as who someone is talking to, what they're saying, and where they are in real-time. Some people are even capable of turning on a device's camera or microphone without the owner's awareness.

It is forbidden to install parental control software on an adult's device without that adult's consent. It functions similarly to wiretapping. Although state-specific penalties differ, it is generally regarded as a felony in the United States, with a maximum five-year prison sentence and a hefty fine of up to $250,000.