You cannot supervise what you cannot see

More than one family this year found out about a companion app only after a crisis. The pattern is the same. The child used it late. The parents had never heard the name. The transcripts were hundreds of pages long.

You do not need to read every line. You do need to know the app exists. Ask, once a month, what they used for homework and what they used when they were lonely. Those are often two different tools.

If the answer is a bot that has a name, a personality, and a memory of your child, treat it like a stranger in the house. You would not let that stranger in without meeting them.

Set a simple rule. New apps get named at dinner. No secret friends on the phone. The rule is easier than a recovery you cannot undo.