As soon as kids hit puberty and enter adolescence, they start demanding smartphones. Before handing them the phones, parents need to weigh down both positives and negatives of their kids using smartphones. Cell phones can really be helpful in times of emergency when kids want to reach out to their parents and seek their immediate help. In such cases, the positives are far greater than the negatives.
However, if you are giving them smartphones, you also need to be extremely vigilant when it comes to their phone usage. A recent survey suggested that few parents actually check the content that is stored on their kids’ phones. Some of them go on to confiscate their phones after realizing they have spent a little too much time in front of the screens but very few actually open them up to see what their kids are doing on it.
Many parenting and health experts have suggested that parents need to monitor their kids’ cell phone usage every day. They need to know what sort of activities their kids are doing on their phones. Monitoring can be done by installing a reliable parental control app as well as enabling default parental control features on kids’ phones.
Before you can go on to get the parental control app and enable the privacy features on your kids’ smartphones, you should know what to look for on their devices. Here are a few things that parents need to check on their kids’ phones regularly.
Social Media Apps
Contents
The first thing that you need to check on your kids’ smartphones is their social media apps. It’s very important that you stay aware of your kid’s activity on the internet, especially on social media. If you feel you are invading their privacy and do not want to keep them in the dark, you can be upfront and honest with your kid before you start monitoring their social media activity.
Social media apps should be constantly monitored because that’s the platform where your kids can be exposed to several online threats. Cyberbullying, pedophilia, sexting, and pornography; all of these threats start from social media. So, it’s imperative that you check your kids’ social media accounts.
Gaming Apps
Gaming platforms are another place that parents need to monitor for their kids’ online safety. It is true that your kids might be playing different gaming apps every day. Their choices in gaming apps change every other day because they like to try different games. As a parent, you must know what gaming apps have been installed on your kids’ phones and whether or not their accounts are private and if they have access to in-app messaging services.
While gaming platforms cannot be called social media, sometimes they do have similar functions. Strangers, bullies, and predators can easily reach out to your kids on gaming platforms the same way they can reach out to them on social media apps. Therefore, you need to monitor their gaming apps as well.
Text Messages
Monitoring kids’ text messages is vital in today’s digital age. A lot of harm can be caused by text messages. For instance, kids can indulge in sexting without knowing the consequences. They can even be bullied by others easily through text messages and instant messages. They receive threatening, abusive, and hurtful messages from the bully that makes them fall into depression.
The most frustrating part comes when the victims do not tell their parents about messages and choose to suffer in silence. Their erratic behavior is what makes parents suspicious and they are not left with any choice than to monitor their text messages because they are eager to find out the truth. By monitoring their messages, they can find out if they are being bullied or exchanging inappropriate messages with others.
Phone Usage
Another thing that every parent needs to look for on their kids’ smartphone is their phone usage. You need to check how many minutes or hours your kid has spent on their smartphone every day. By monitoring their phone usage, you will be surprised to know that some kids spend only as little as a few minutes on their phones while others use them for several hours.
Parents can consider installing parental control software that helps them track their kids’ phone usage and gives them detailed reports on how much time they have spent on each app or website. You can also set time limits on their devices and restrict them from not using devices at night time or during meals.
Photos and Videos
Going through all the photos and videos stored on your kid’s smartphone is also quite important. Sometimes, parents would be surprised to find out inappropriate photos and videos on their kids’ phones. In other instances, they might find their kids wasting their phone storage space by taking photos and making videos of almost everything.
They might have taken a funny or embarrassing picture of someone on their phone and then later post the same thing on their social media, allowing others to comment on it. This leads to shaming and cyberbullying that can be hurtful to the victim. Therefore, if you have found any such embarrassing content on your kid’s phone, ask them politely to take it down. Also, teach them the meaning of consent and that they should never take a photo of someone and post online without their consent.
Web Browsing Activity
We are sure to have put a lot of emphasis on monitoring social media and gaming apps. However, let’s not forget that monitoring your kid’s web browsing activity should be equally important. You should know what web browsers your kids have access to and what sort of content are they watching.
Kids are more likely to use multiple web browsers on their smartphones so parents should keep an eye on each of them. Also, parents should regularly check their web browsing history to find out what sort of sites are they visiting or what sort of content are they viewing. The best way to protect your kids from harmful content online is to monitor their internet activity with the help of a parental control solution.
Contact List
If you have handed your kid a smartphone with their own phone number, you must also check their contact list. Keep in mind that their phone number should only be known to their immediate family members and close friends and not anyone else. Their number should not be shared with someone who they do not know in real life.
As a parent, it is your responsibility to teach your kids to never give their cell number to people whom they have never met or to anyone who asks for it online. It’s also important that you know what contacts your kids have on their phone and whether you know those contacts in real life or not. In case you come across a mysterious contact, you can talk about it with your kid right away.
