The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
If your child has a smart phone, you may think of the phone as a tool for safety. Your children can get in touch with you in case of emergency, update you about changed plans and alert you if they’re not feeling well.
But having a smart phone also means that a child can be in constant contact with the outside world, download inappropriate apps, and run up big bills for in-app purchases. Smart phones come complete with cameras — sharing photos and videos with others can happen within seconds.
If your children have smart phones be sure to take precautions to keep your children safe, your bank account from being drained and their phones from being lost. By educating your children about the proper use of their phones, you can help keep them safer. If your children are about to get their first smart phone, you can take these steps as part of the process of setting up their new phones.
This infographic illustrates steps you can take to make your children’s use of a smart phone safer:
Infographic courtesy of Pumpic
1. Restrict In-App Purchases
Many apps, especially gaming apps, are free to download but offer in-app purchases that make spending money deceptively easy. These often make the game easier, or help the player to level up faster but can add up to big bills.
Many children don’t realize that when they’re making in-app purchases they’re actually spending real money. Or they don’t care. Either way you want to be able to prevent in-app purchases from happening (without your permission) on your child’s phone.
Check out Apple’s website that tells you how to prevent your child from spending your money on their iDevice:
Use restrictions to prevent purchasing on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
For Android phones, check out Laptop Mag:
How to Stop In-App Purchases on Android
2. Monitor Which Apps Are on the Phone
Check your children’s phones to see which apps they’re using. Open the apps to see what the apps are about and how your children are using them. Ask your children about their apps to see their reaction. Look at the list in the infographic above and do a Google search of any apps you’re unsure of.
3. Secure the Phone
Make sure your children use passcodes for their phones and advise them not to share their passcodes with their friends. Even better, make sure you know their passcodes. If their phones are lost or stolen, you don’t want your children’s information available to others nor give people the ability to post on your children’s social media accounts.
Even adults frequently lose their phones, children are bound to misplace their phones more often. Learn about how you can help your child find their phones.
For your child’s iPhone, make sure that Find My iPhone has been set up. Check out Find My iPhone – The Very First App You Should Get to learn how to enable this feature to find a lost iPhone.
Also be sure that you can find your child’s iPhone even after the battery has died. Take a minute to set up the Send Last Location feature. See, How to Find Your iPhone Even After the Battery Dies.
Make sure that your children know they can find their Android phones by doing a Google search. Don’t miss Lost Your Android Phone? Find It on Google! and make sure your children’s Android phones have the latest Google App update.
4. Make Location Services Private
You can use tracking apps such as Find My Friends to monitor your child’s location. But make sure that your children aren’t allowing others access to tracking apps that share their location. Warn your child about using apps such as Facebook to check into place. Check Settings to see which apps have permission to track your child’s location.
5. Talk About Appropriate Sharing
Discuss with your child the impact of sharing photos and videos with others. Posting a silly picture of a best friend on Facebook or Instagram may result in humiliation and retaliation. Make sure your child understands that once a photo has been shared, deleting it permanently may be impossible.
Your Thoughts
Have you thought about keeping your children safe with smart phones? What steps have you taken to keep your children safe on their smart phones? Do you have any tips you’d like to share with others to keep children safe on smart phones? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
This is one post I need to share! I don’t have kids, but nieces, and some step grandchildren. Also many friends who have kids and worry about them using their phones.
This infographic is so great and all the apps you mentioned are a need to know!
Thanks so much for doing this. I’m not only sharing this on social media, but sending it to the many parents I know that don’t understand how things work.
-Donna
Hi Donna, Thanks so much for sharing this article widely. Information in here may help keep children safer and educate parents about what to look for with their kids’ smart phones. You’re right parents do worry but often are unsure about what to do or which apps might cause trouble.
When I found this infographic, I knew that I wanted to share it with Wonder of Tech readers to help parents understand how they can help their children stay safer on smart phones.
Hi Carolyn,
Informative post indeed 🙂
I’d be forwarding this to my kids for sure, as there are great lessons for them in here, especially the infographic which says it all. Yes, as parents we need to be extra careful and take timely action by educating our kids about being safe online.
I have no idea about so many apps being downloaded that could cause harm! Even Snapchat – must tell my kiddos about it, as they use this one, though to make calls mainly and messaging sometimes.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
BTW – Didn’t get the notification this time 🙂
Hi Harleena, Great point! Yes, even innocent apps, such as email and messages, can be put to bad use if a child doesn’t understand their power. That silly photo of your friend your child shared with someone via text message? That can be spread over social media in an instant.
Sometimes kids think that can’t happen with apps like Snapchat because the messages disappear quickly. But you can keep Snapchat messages easily by taking a screenshot and capturing an image of the message. That message your kid thought would evaporate could boil over instead!
I’m so glad you’re sharing this information with your children, Harleena. Even if they know most of it, the information can be a reminder to stay safe on their smart phones!
Dear Carolyn,
I haven’t got any children yet , but I am interested in this question. In the future I do not want to buy a smart phone to my 7-10 year old children. This article is very useful, every parents have to be read it.
Thank you for sharing,
Dan
Hi Dan, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You bring up a great point. Many people ask me the best age to give a child a cell phone. My answer is: the age when you need your child to have a phone.
When your kid starts making plans and becoming more independent, you may not be sure where he is. Having him call you on a cell phone can help give you peace of mind that you’re still in touch and he can reach you in case of emergency.
You also have to be comfortable that your child won’t lose or break his phone easily. Maybe the first phone your child gets isn’t a smart phone, but a flip phone until he proves he’s responsible enough for a smart phone.
Dear Carolyn Nicander Mohr
the first of all, thanks for sharing this useful article for me and other people.
My Son so small, so i worry for his safe when i working
thanks and more good luck!
Hi Nick, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, your son may be small now but trust me, these children do grow up and become teenagers. I’ve seen it happen before my very eyes!
So you should begin educating your son about smart phone use while he’s young and gets his first phone. By taking a few steps you may be keeping him much safer.
This is a great Infographic!
I have two young daughters and I worry about things like this!
Thanks for sharing this
-Nestor
Hi Nestor, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, if you have kids, you can’t help but worry about their use of cell phones. I hope this gives you ideas to make them safer on their phones, Nestor.
Hi Carolyn,
My daughter and my oldest son are both using iPhones. I have thought that I had control of the apps they are using, and the costs, but I didn’t know about restrict in-app purchases.
Thank you.
Hi Jens, Yes, I’m so glad you found this article to be helpful. I hope you never have to worry about your children making in-app purchases on their iPhones.
Hi Carolyn,
What a timely post to me!
My son Mattphil just finished his 10th grade and this year he will be going to college, and presently he is using a windows phone and i had a check and found that lot of games apps and music apps are downloaded in it. But those i thought its ok to have, in fact music apps (especially guitar connected connected ones) are good since he is very much interested in music, and he learned a good number of songs by himself not anybody’s instructions but by using these apps and YouTube videos. But after reading this post i have decided to have a word with him about this post and will have a follow up with his phone.
Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful tips in relation to our children’s usage of phone! A timely and informative post. I really like the connected links along with it.
May you have a great day.
Best Regards
~ Philip
Hi Phil, You bring up a great point. Yes, you can show this article to your son to begin the conversation. So often it’s difficult to bring up subject with our kids but you can use this article as the starting point for a conversation.
I’m so glad this article was helpful to you, Phil. Thanks for taking the time to let us know.