In 2019 there are many reasons why parents should monitor their child’s cell phone use. If you have recently given your child a cell phone, you need to be mindful of the negative consequences that can occur. Here are some of the best practices for keeping tabs on your child’s cell phone use, keeping them safe and saving you money.
Three Ways to Monitor Your Kid’s Cell Phone
1. Start with your cell phone service tools
Most of the major carriers today have plenty of tools for parents that want to keep track of their child’s cell phone use. One great example that helps with both concerns of safety and finances is the pay-as-you-go service, Ting.
In the Ting Account Dashboard, parents can set alerts and caps to various functions of the phones within that line of service. Is your child using too much data? You will get an alert via text or email alerting you that they are approaching a data threshold that you set.
Is there a feature of the phone that you want disabled? Through your Ting dashboard, you are able to disable various functions of your phone. You can turn text messaging on or off, access to various applications, or shut off the data altogether.
This can be a great tool for redirecting child behavior and help prevent any shocks when the bill comes in. With a cap, you can specify the maximum allowance of minutes or data consumed thereby keeping cost consistent.
2. Try a Third Party App
There are plenty of third-party apps out there for keeping tabs on your children. Depending upon how intrusive you want to be into your child’s phone use, there is an app for you. Keeping things simple is generally the easiest approach to take. The ability to further create time limits, caps on usage and shut down phone functionality are some of the highlights of these applications.
One of the top phone tracking applications out there is mSpy. With this application, you are able to monitor who they are calling, whom they are texting, the number of contacts within their phone as well as geo-locating their position anywhere within the grid.
Another great application out there that is simplistic in its design, is The Phone Sheriff. This application allows you to set time limits and when that time limit is reached, the phone shuts down and is locked until you unlock it.
3. Open and honest parenting
Finally, the best cell phone monitor is you, the parents. You cannot be with your child 24/7, but through open and honest dialogue with your child explaining why you need to know certain information about their cell phone use, your child will better interpret and understand the reasons for your seemingly intrusive behavior. Honest and frank discussions with them about the dangers of the world and how criminals use cell phones can help them be more accepting. Through honest conversation and trustful relationships, we can all keep our children safe.