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If you have finally decided to let your kid own a cell phone, here are a few rules you need to make sure your child follows. (See also: Smartphone Use among Teens: The Good and the Bad)
1. Establish a Smartphone Plan
Since this is the first phone your child is getting, you have the leverage to get them to agree on your very own set of terms and conditions. Formulate a cell phone plan for them which can be comprised of the following points.
- Give them a limitation, stating they can only use their mobile devices for certain hours of the day. State it clearly that they will have to face punishment for running over the decided period of time.
- Restrict them from exploring adult content on the internet. Have a conversation about sensitive topics including cyberbullying, sexting and online predators. Warn them about the consequences of sexting so that they can comprehend the severity of the matter.
- Allow them only a certain healthy number of downloads. Most kids develop Internet gaming addiction pretty quickly, which is not easy to eradicate.
2. Instill Positive Smartphone Etiquettes
Cellphone etiquettes are not something that you need to teach your kids only when they are getting their first phone. But, a parent needs to instill good cell phone manners since their kid is just a preschooler. Mirror proper cell phone manners in your own conduct and your child will automatically learn those manners. Focus on the following tips to teach cell phone etiquettes to your children.
- Strictly prohibit cell phone usage during meal times. Let your kids know when it is considered inappropriate to use their cell phones.
- Ask them to put their phone down whenever you or another individual is trying to communicate with them in person.
- Restrict them to use their phones in school or during their study time at home.
- Make sure that your kid doesn’t use the cell phone while driving.
3. Install Smartphone Parental Controls
Being a parent, you cannot be completely sure that your child is not going to make a digital slip-up while using his/her smartphone, which is why it is a smart move to get your child’s agreement on installing a reliable parental control app before getting them a smartphone. Cell phone parental control apps allow parents to monitor their child’s use of the mobile device. You can easily install a parental control app on your child’s mobile device like FamilyTime:
Using FamilyTime, parents can take advantage of various thoughtful features. A few of them are written below.
- You can control your child’s use of the screen and can even simply lock their phones with a single swipe if you want your kids to be detached from their phones for a while.
- You can review the list of installed apps on your kid’s phone and can prohibit them from using inappropriate apps by simply blocking that app from their phones.
- Parents can view the list of visited URLs in their kid’s phone along with the complete details of the date and time.
- You can apply internet filters to keep them away from unwanted content
- You can enable safe search option for their safe browsing experience
- FamilyTime even allows you to track the location of your kid. Parents can create virtual Geo-fences using this cell phone parental control app.
- You can keep your kid protected from the speech, cyberbullying and even sexting because FamilyTime lets you monitor your child’s text messages which are sent or received on the mobile device.
And the list of FamilyTime features does not end here. There are bundles of other features too that help parents instill cell phone etiquettes in kids such as Watchlisting contacts, monitoring contact books, scheduling auto screen locks, remotely locking devices, etc. You can easily download the FamilyTime app from the app store i.e. Google play store or iTunes.
About The Author:
Logan Ethan is a digital marketer with 10 years of experience and a proven track of success in almost every niche. Apart from offering digital marketing services to clients globally, he is also a full-time blogger, writer, and traveler.
