They perhaps have quite a bit of measures they put in place in order to make sure that your experience as a consumer is as pleasurable as possible, but at the end of the day, mobile phone retailers are only really in it for the money, so it’s nothing but business for them. So if you’re buying a mobile device for your child for instance, the responsibility for their safe use of it ultimately falls on you. Only you can put measures in place to ensure your child’s safety and so your purchase of the mobile phone for them should come with some terms and conditions set forth by you.
Set clear boundaries and limits
Before you even go out and acquire a mobile device for your child, discuss with them exactly what they intend to do with it. There’s no doubting the importance and need for an internet connected mobile phone these days, but as with everything in life its use has to have some boundaries attached to it. You can have a look at the basic features of platforms such as KidGuard to get a good idea of the sort of boundaries to set, but it’s important to clearly establish boundaries and communicate with your child that something like this child monitoring software comes as part and parcel of the phone’s purchase and use.
Peace of mind for parents
If you have a teenager you especially know that kids particularly want to do what they’re told not to do, so you can bet your bottom penny that they might try to test the limits of the agreed upon boundaries once if not a few times. You cannot leave this up to chance as going beyond some boundaries is just way too risky and can have some dire consequences. It’s really uncomfortable to think about the worst that could happen, but it’s a necessary discomfort. If you know how to monitor your child’s text messages with the necessary tools for instance, it’s not a matter of merely spying on your kids for the fun of it as any parent will know that having such power only goes as far as your desire to protect your child from some dangers they many not know they’re exposing themselves to.
This portion of the terms and conditions maintains its efficiency through the fact that it’s only really known to you, so keep it to yourself. You can refer to it as the fine print if it’ll make you feel at all better about what can really feel like you’re infringing on your child’s privacy.
Regular feedback and updates
Every so often you should get together with your child and have a little feedback session. In line with the quintessential Parents’ Survival Guide to Online Safety, it’d basically be a matter of comparing what your child says they’re doing with their device with what your child monitoring tools tell you they’re actually doing, taking special note of any discrepancies which may be violating the terms and conditions you agreed upon, particularly with regards to some of the negative effects this could have.
Remember, the goal is to cater to the safety of your child and not to spy on them outright, so they should also know that all you care about is their safety and that you don’t want the use of their device to affect their quality of life in any way.