So here's the situation... caught my 10 year old son chatting with someone online at 2am last night and it scared me half to death. Turns out it was just his cousin in another timezone playing games together, but it made me realize I have no idea what he's doing on his tablet. I'm not trying to helicopter parent but this was a serious wake up call. Can anyone suggest reliable parental control programs that could help me set time limits and see who he's talking to? Would really appreciate some guidance here!

Oh man, that 2am heart attack feeling - I've been there! Last spring I walked past my daughter's room at midnight and saw the screen glow. Turned out she was in a Roblox chat with kids from school working on some project, but yeah... instant panic mode.
After that scare I did a bunch of research and ended up checking out mSpy Review which had honest breakdowns of different options. What really helped was finding something that shows contact lists AND lets you set app schedules - so games auto-lock at bedtime basically.
The time limit thing was a game changer for us. Now her tablet just... stops working at 9pm on school nights, 10pm weekends. No arguments, no sneaking around because she knows the rules upfront. I can also peek at who she's messaging without reading every single word (because honestly who has time for that).
Fair warning though - have the conversation BEFORE you install anything. I explained why after the midnight incident and she got it. Makes the whole thing less Big Brother-ish and more about safety. Kids are surprisingly reasonable when you're honest with them!