Reply With QuoteGet a basic, cheap phone because that iPhone will be broken within 2 weeks, mark my words.
I know, I know.
Against my better judgement, I'd be grateful for any tips (humorous or serious) you can offer in terms of restricting usage and controlling what a child (junior school age) can do with an iPhone6.
I'm not really one for social media (unless you count this place) so that's a bit of a blind spot already. Tempted to just lock everything down.
Ideally, I was thinking they could use What's App to message or call when in the house only, and I would like to be able to supervise that with a password that only I and Mrs AO know.
I'm aware that Kaspersky has a function that locks apps, which works well on Android. Not sure about Apple.
I was thinking that there would be no outside usage unless in emergencies. Sounds a bit draconian but there you go.
Now I write it all down, it sounds faintly ludicrous. Waaaaay back, I bought my first phone when I was in my 20s. Eee, those were't days. All this was fields...
Get a basic, cheap phone because that iPhone will be broken within 2 weeks, mark my words.
One word: OurPact
You don't need the paid version, the free one should give you the safety net you want.
I found it was easier to teach them the balance between being responsible and allowing them some freedom, with the use of this app.
It is easy to use, doesn't show up on their phone (so they won't get ribbed by their mates) and allows for either timed control (schedules) or shutting it down on the fly.
The premium version does even more but I haven't found it necessary.
Last edited by AM94; 25th June 2018 at 14:03.
Seven words : Google, social media, anxiety, depression and children.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I got my 11 year old his first phone earlier in the year (iPhone 6 too). This is in preparation for him starting secondary school in September. As I also have an iPhone, I was able to set up a Family Sharing Account and create his new id under that. It allows sharing various iCloud features like sharing apps, storage but more importantly location sharing. When I created his id and set up his phone, there were a number of parental control features I could configure but can't remember everything off the top of my head. He cannot be removed from the family group until he is 13.
I get notifications every time he tries to install an app and it only proceeds once I have authorised - tedious but good IMHO. Social media like WhatsApp and Facebook aren't allowed until he is 13 so he doesn't have accounts for them yet anyway. I had already created an email account for him a little while ago and that is one of the (if not the only) key requirements for Apple ID.
Initially I topped up a little amount to buy a Pay as You Go package which he hardly utilised as most of his usage was on WiFi at home, in the car or at friends & family homes. For a couple of months he was without any balance on his phone and there were no problems as the phone was essentially just an internet gadget (iMessage, Facetime etc. still worked). Only over the past weekend I have topped up again but purely PAYG as his usage doesn't warrant a monthly top-up to buy a package with generous allowances.
There are controls available in base iOS but as others have mentioned there are apps you can install on top too.
Last edited by FK77; 25th June 2018 at 14:09.
Thank you all.
That's exactly the info I need.
I can begin to set it up using those precautions.
@200m - yes I think you may be right.
@AM94 and FK77 - thanks for the detailed responses.
@Big Nose. I am worried about mental health concerns - that's what stopped me from using social media in all its brutal forms.
Perhaps the phone should be one hour a week max.
Exactly as above.Originally Posted by FK77
The only thing to be mindful of is that once you have downloaded an app on the main account, the family linked accounts can also download this app under the standard settings. You can disable this by going into the settings and turning restrictions on (no install of new apps) or via the Family Sharing tab (turn off share purchases).
We've refused our 11 year old his own iPhone because I can't seen any earthly reason why he needs access to 1000s of apps, games and the internet. He needs a phone to call and text us when he's at his friends' houses so we can pick him up or whatever, and that's it.
He's now the proud owner of my old Sony Ericsson k800i.
I seriously think kids expect too much and the parents who cave in and allow their pre-teens all the game and phone time they can shake a stick at are perpetuating the problem. There are kids in my boy's class who don't go out because it would mean leaving the PS4. It's tragic.
This is exactly what I did. Choosing at least one item was a pre-requisite to set up family sharing so afterwards I just went back and turned off everything I wanted to.
True, they don't need the full functionality but we wanted him to have a smartphone to be able to track his whereabouts for safety reasons. Haven't needed to do that yet but will do when he finally starts to take the phone out with him to secondary school. Seamless integration with a parent's phone/iCloud meant it made sense to buy a used iPhone (from this forum!).
@Onelasttime, that was my position last year.
But my position is changing.
I think there is room for a balance provided it's tightly controlled and there is a constant stream of outdoors activity and sports.
I was hoping that this would be a little like the French attitude to wine - which seems to result in fewer problems in later life. But if this thread proves to be very against it, I may reconsider.
It depends on the child as well. We ration his game time pretty severely but after seeing first hand his reaction when time's up, I wouldn't want him anywhere near a smart phone.
Another child might be calm and understand the need for rationing. It's a phase and while I don't want him to be singled out for not having what his peers have, I'm also not going to allow him anything that will mess with his head unless he can prove a certain level of responsibility. I might as well hand him the keys to the car
I probably sound like some kind of Victorian dad, but there have to be boundaries. We have a lot of liberal parenting round our way and I fear for those kids. And the parents are twats
Both my kids had them the term before they went to secondary school.
Both were put on contact with a cheap android phone and warned if they abused either the bill or the phone that was it.
When it's time to upgrade or we think there responsible enough they can get a better phone.
My lad has never used the full allowance in his contract and when travelling in Europe made sure he was only using what he could within his monthly allocation.
Most months my daughter gets close to the allocation on hers but had not gone over it at any point.
The wife on the other hand.......
our kids have phones the cheapest nastiest android ones ever - they're so embarrassed to use them that they only take them out when they need to call for a ride home
great for location tracking - plenty of silent apps out there
they want a £900 phone ? - get a paper round
My daughter (12 1/2) is now the proud owner of my 6S.
She has a £10 a month allowance (Tesco so O2 network)
She had(and still has) an iPod Touch so she’s quite familiar with the environment. The only difference is that she can now use it when there is no wifi.
If she wants an App she selects it, and I receive a prompt. I can authorise, or not.
I have stressed that I was likely to refuse most apps that had in-app purchases (I don’t mind buying an app outright).
The phone is in a Mous case.
She is very good with it. As a matter of fact, for their revisions for a mock-up exam, with her classmates she instigated a multiple FaceTime so they all worked together. It was a bit slow as FaceTime will only do conference calls in the next system upgrade but it worked well enough.
BTW, she dips her lips every time I open a good bottle
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
OP - my kids have an iPad for set periods of screen time but I was still concerned about what they might get up to when we weren’t able to keep a close eye on things.
I found this info graphic very helpful and full of tips and tricks I wasn’t aware of in terms of providing additional safeguards on iOS.
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How do you prevent children using them while cycling? I see plenty where I live so expecting a funeral in due course.
iOS has great parental controls built in so it is easy to setup a phone with restrictions. It will get even better in September when iOS 12 is released. That introduces per app limits on child accounts, meaning you can limit a child’s WhatsApp or YouTube activity to 30 minutes per day each for example.
All really good advice above. I would also add that you should speak with them about the dangers of social media and the internet.
We spoke openly with our daughter about this and set our expectations. We also laid out clearly that she should consider that she loses control of anything and everything she posts, as soon as it is released. Therefore she should only share what she would be happy with the whole world, friends, family and potential employers seeing.
We also haven’t gone down the Snapchat route. My jaded opinion is that this is he app that contains the most ‘danger’ of bullying and coercion. I could be wrong, but my daughter has no desire to get it because that is what she sees from conversations with her social group.
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Thanks for asking as this information is also very useful for my two and their iPads to control content etc.
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Some very good advice on this thread.
Dont have kids, but cant help but notice that kids nowadays can walk along a country road, and not even look around them, taking in scenery. They walk, glued to the screen - but the more worrying aspect, is - that they don't generally have a happy or even neutral expression on their face............ it's a glum look.
So - they are tripping through life, glued to that screen - and not even enjoying it.
Not sure if mentioned yet, but I use an app called Kidslox. It’s great. It allows you to block unwanted content, set age restrictions etc., and even set a daily usage time limit before the device locks up. All controllable remotely from your own phone/tablet. It’s amazing how granting a limited amount of time on the iPad has changed the way my kids use it. Very useful.
You may also want to consider physical controls. My kids are too young yet for this to be an issue, but I am aware of a dad from a community were there have tragically been some young suicides with the internet implicated to some degree, and his response was to limit screen use to the living room, with the parents in proximity. It seems to be quite sensible, paired with device restrictions.
JG, yes.
Physical controls are definitely part of my repertoire.
The girls started off with iPads, they made all the difference to long stays in hospital and are stipulated for secondary school here. Any apps had to be authorised through my account so I regularly received requests in the middle of the night when we were on a six hour time difference, and of course I always woke up to authorise them. Most of the requests were fine but occasionally they asked for something with a high age rating or a social media aspect that would bring about a discussion about risks and so on.
Our oldest progressed to a hand-me-down iPhone 5 when she turned thirteen, primarily so that she had something at least vaguely similar to her group of friends. Again, it is quite controlled.
We don't mind them using the devices to unwind and watch television on in the early evenings but we keep all of the chargers on the hall table and at 7pm everything has to be on charge for the following morning.
^Hadn't thought about chargers!
Noted.
The charger thing is a good idea and way to ensure no use at night when it would have the worst influence through impacting on sleep
google has a family app and you can choose whcih apps get enabled or not and authorise any new installations
also restricts adult content etc...
Hello all
I should have mentioned that the phone is a reward for meeting some homework targets that I thought were impossible. As they have been achieved, I'm reluctant to break a promise.
I've read more about the connection between social media and depression though...
Sounds like overall it's a bad idea.
The thing is AO is what i believe is termed in military circles 'mission creep'.
Once the cat is out the bag, it will never go back in.
Don't think that you're going to be able to stay ahead of the game for any length of time.
Peer pressure is massive also, something that can be hard to deal with depending on the school environment etc.
Having said that, all this infotech shnizz is a big part of modern life, and unless everything goes dramatically tits up in this next generation, for which i am currently taking odds of 1 in 17, then it will increasingly be part of our kids life.
Nurse! I think i need a lie down.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Think you're spot on, D.
It's quite likely that I think I have it all tied down when in reality any safeguards have been circumvented.
There really is some quite nasty stuff on the net.
Back to the drawing board...
Nurse, over here again!
You may or may not download Hollie Guard on the child’s phone. If you do, make sure they know how to use it first.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
^Thanks, that's new to me as well.
Security - another aspect for me to consider (and another rabbit hole for me to disappear down!)
Eeeeee i remember when it were all green fields around here
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
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