Nowadays, the use of mobile phones is no longer restricted to children. Mobile or cell phone is now an important means of communication among parents and their children. If you are getting your child his or her cell phone, you might then want to consider some parental controls available these days that are being widely used by most of the parents in monitoring the activities and safety of their child. Most of the major cellular providers do have their distinct levels and kinds of parental controls.
While inappropriate context has just been considered as among the perils that brace inexperienced mobile devices users today, random texting, unauthorized purchases of apps as well as malware and location tracking, it is no longer a surprise that parents tend to be reluctant about buying a smartphone for their children! However, there must be a starting point in dealing with it. So, why not start with filters.
Such so-called inappropriate content is not merely just about the violence and porn that could be acquired and accessed with while using a cell phone. One of the rampant trends nowadays is sexting; it is a very scary trend that influenced teens to send nude and unlikely photos via cell phone. While this is becoming a serious problem these days, any minor that will be caught with provocative pictures on their mobile phone can be prosecuted and considerable criminals for the rest of their lives. This usually comes mostly in many indirect ways like in Google search.
And if you are with the kids, sometimes there are these subjects that you just don’t want to discuss or explain, not when they are ready. This is where filters work well. It can be install in devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, e-readers, computers and gaming consoles. So, are you ever aware of what could have been your child doing online? Do you think they could have been participating in that elicit acts? To help you monitor and find out your child’s cell phone and Internet activity, here are the kinds of apps that you might need:
Blocking Website Access
While giving your children the corresponding access to the mobile internet, you may also want to block access to any malicious website that seems not appropriate for them. By setting up this type of apps, you will correspondingly receive notification / alerts when there are attempts in accessing an identified blocked site.
Application Blocking
This type of applications simply allows you blocking of new and already existing various mobile applications on your kid’s cell phone, including:
- Social Media Networking (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) Applications
- Mobile Games (Candy Crash, Angry Birds, Bejeweled)
- Instant Messaging Applications (MSN, YM, AIM)
- Web Browser and Camera
Time Blocking
Through this type of apps, you can designate a particular time frame that allows your child to use the phone. All through this allowed span of time, your child can only be allowed to make important calls like to 911 for an emergency call and some important numbers that parents duly designated by.
Regardless of what safeguards you opt to, just be sure that they suit best to your family. As the children got older and matured enough to manage well their devices, you can take back parental controls to give them freedom. However, always consider that when you hand your child her/his first phone, you may want it to have a net spy software to be sure that you are connected to him/her and that you always figure things that she/he’s been up to.