“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” – Stacia
Smart phone, as the name suggests is one among the smartest invention of the modern era. In case of an emergency, smartphones help children to get in touch with their parents.
In addition to that, smartphone gifts children access to the outside world. They are free to download mobile applications, surf all sorts of websites, communicate with people all over the world, etc.
Smartphones have a lot of uses in the classroom too. For instance, Early Years Foundation Stage makes use of the technology to identify and groom young talents.
In spite of being so familiar with smartphones, it is easy for children to invite dangers unintentionally while they are online.
It is not wise to leave children alone with their smartphone. Parents should take the right precautions to keep children safe with their smartphone.
Check out some smart ways to keep your children safe on smart phones:
- Restrict in-app purchases
If your app accounts are linked with credit or debit cards, it becomes easy for children to purchase apps without the permission of the parents.
Apple had to refund $32.5m to parents of children who purchased apps without the consent of their parents. Never link your credit or debit card with the app store, it can be dangerous.
- Always check the downloaded apps
It’s important to check the mobile applications downloaded by children. There are dating apps available in market which allows underage people to access with a minimum age limit of 13.
Online predators are something your child must be kept away from. According to 2015 Tinder experiment, online predators are using the app to groom underage girls. Prevention is way better than cure.
- Set Location data to private
Certain apps help in accessing phones GPS and will transfer the location data to the third party. While using a family location service to monitor kids’, parents must make sure only they have got access. Location data can be disabled so that it would neither be available publicly nor be searchable.
- Make the phone secure
It’s important to maintain phone security. When a smartphone goes missing, people are worried not about the loss of a device, but the sensitive details in it. On an average, 1 out of 5 children in US have had their cell phones stolen.
So that means you should never store delicate information in the cell phone. Installing a tracking app in the phone can help locate the phone if it’s lost or stolen. Data erasing apps are available in the market along with tracking apps.
You can take a lot of precautions by installing some smart cyber-security apps as well.
Appropriate sharing
Teach your kids to share only appropriate content with others. Posting in-appropriate content can have negative effects which can be both immediate as well as long-lasting. Children must be taught about the emotional and social consequences of irresponsible sharing. With smartphones, sharing photos and videos is literally child’s play and happen within seconds too.
- 1 out of 10 teens have had embarrassing or damaging pictures taken of themselves without their consent.
- 1 out of 5 teens have either posted or sent sexually suggestive or nude pictures of themselves to others.
Greater responsibilities:
It’s almost impossible to keep children away from smartphone: they are getting addicted to the device day by day. A coin has two sides, so does a problem. It must not be ignored that smartphones help children in numerous ways. There are applications that help them to learn a lot of new things.