“6 Tips for Teaching Kids Responsible Smartphone Use: A Parent’s Guide”

Smartphone use is a major concern for parents as it requires balancing multiple responsibilities, especially when it comes to guiding your child on how to use it responsibly.

We need to accept the fact that with the changing time the kids and their mindset are also changing. In the olden days kids were satisfied and happy with the toys, games etc. but with the changing time their requirements and needs are also changing

How to Teach kids to use smartphone with responsibility

Set up password

Although it is a basic and simple step to set up a password, parents should encourage their child to do so on their smartphone as it prevents the child from a lot of things such as bullying, breaching private information etc. The password needs to be a unique and strong one with the combination of numbers and symbols which is not easy to break and should be changed often. The password has to be kept private and safe so as to prevent from unwanted access or going it from wrong hands

Set up emergency contacts

Setting up emergency contacts on your child’s smartphone is a must in kid’s phone as in case if kids are not able to reach out to parents, they can get in touch with emergency contacts and connect with them about any issues that they may have. This provides the kids an additional layer of security when they rely or bank on in case of an unwanted or emergency situation whenever it arises or they can also send an SOS alert.

Avoid unnecessary location sharing

Location sharing should only be done when required and with a known person only. Sharing the location with unknown person brings the risks of stalking and other things so teach your kids the importance of location sharing and be very careful about it. You can use the specific location tracking apps such as mobile location tracker, family locator etc.

Using a mobile phone tracker can help parents keep an eye on their child’s whereabouts, ensuring they are safe and where they are supposed to be or even parents can set up geofencing alerts, which notify them if their child leaves a designated safe area  so that they can use any location tracker to find out where they are.

Set rules for apps and games

Ensure that whatever apps or games your child has on their smartphone are suitable or appropriate. You have an app or game which may not be relevant ensure that whatever apps or game your child has on his/her phone are suitable or appropriate. Delete or uninstall any unwanted or inappropriate apps that you find on their phone.

Social Media

Social media can be an addiction for children if they don’t use their smartphone properly, resulting in hours of endless scrolling. The social media can open the kids to a lot of negative unwanted things such as cyberbullying, mental health issues etc.

Social media access for kids should be restricted or a parental lock can be added for it so that parents know when and for how much the kids are accessing the social media. Teach the kids the unknown dangers of the social media and thus the dos and don’ts of the social media safety

Parental Control

Parental control is a must on smartphones as it provides parents a way to monitor their child’s activities and access what they are doing on their phone and what all things they are accessing.  You can also restrict their access to the things or the content that is not suitable to them to be using or viewing

There a lot of parental control apps available in the app stores that offer built in parental control with various options to assist the parents