Academics Plus, Inc. realizes that, as technology is becoming more prevalent in our lives, this means that it is also becoming more prevalent in the lives of children. As such, parents may wish to ensure there are adequate parental controls on their devices to safeguard their children so they can be free to use these technologies safely.
We have launched a blog series on Parental Controls for varying technologies in hopes it will aid parents in making choices in how to monitor their children.
Cell Phones
Many parents understand the importance of giving their children cell phones for safety and communication. There are a few steps you can take to help your child use a cell phone safely:
Speak to your phone service provider and see if there are any special offers or deals on ways to monitor the phone. Some phone companies offer plans or phones specifically for child or young adult use. Some offer the ability to restrict the amount of texts or calls made, while some offer the ability to track the numbers called or texted on the phone, etc.
- Call your child’s school to find out the rules for cell phone usage. Make sure it is acceptable for your child to carry a cell phone in school.
- Make sure key phone numbers are not only put into your child’s cell phone but are also written on a piece of paper and put in your child’s backpack. Help your child memorize your phone number so that they can reach you even without the cell phone.
- Make sure you talk to your child about the importance of using items on the cell phone like cameras and texts wisely, and make sure your child can feel safe coming to you if others are using the cell phone to bully or harass them.
- Depending on your child’s age, consider purchasing a phone that’s designed specifically for kids. Some of them don’t include items like cameras, internet access, and other potentially unsafe technology, or they come with parental controls already enabled. A few of these options are:
- You can also invest in a few software options that allow for parental monitoring of texts, calls, and other information. A few of these are:
- As far as the link between cell phones and brain cancer, the National Cancer Institute has found no link between cell phone use and brain cancer in adults. There have not been any extensive studies on children, but they do recommend in general that, if cell phone users want to reduce their risk of exposure to any electromagnetic radiation from cell phones, they should use their phones for short calls or purchase a Bluetooth headset. You can read more about this at the NCI website.
Reader Question: Do you know of any other ways of keeping your children safe? .