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Monitoring your child’s screen time may feel like a mild invasion of privacy to some parents. However, no matter their parenting style, everyone wants to keep their children safe and protected at all times.
In certain scenarios, a parental control app is the only way you can ensure your child isn’t exposed to inappropriate content on the internet.
Here’s why and when you should start using it.
You’re concerned about your child’s safety
Is your teenager behaving a little odd? Are they always trying to sneak out? Are they suddenly mentioning some people you’ve never even met? Do they try to hide their phones? Are they avoiding talking to you?
While all of this could be attributed to normal teenage outbursts, what if there’s something else making your child anxious or aggressive? The content and people they’re exposed to online can both be triggers for a person at such a vulnerable age.
Monitoring your child’s online activity is the only way you can keep them from encountering disturbing, inappropriate content of all kinds. The internet is filled with such things – from pornography to violence, there’s no telling what your child may be looking at when you’re not paying attention.
You want to set screentime limits.
A 7-year-old owning a phone at such a young age is not unheard of nowadays. Children love playing mobile games and watching their favorite cartoons on YouTube from time to time. Older kids may even feel alienated from their peers if they don’t have access to messaging apps and social media, so there’s nothing unusual about providing your child with a smartphone of their own.
However, if your child spends all of their time browsing the internet or playing games on their phone, then you probably have a problem. Depending on their age, 1-3 hours of daily screentime should be enough.
So, how do you limit your children’s screentime while you’re away at work or not able to monitor them? You could go through the trouble of hiding their phones, but your kids will eventually find a way to retrieve them when you’re not looking. The solution is, you’ve guessed it, in installing a parental control app. Using one of these apps, you’ll be able to control your child’s screen time remotely and do so in a matter of seconds.
You’ve caught your child communicating with strangers.
Children are curious, and sometimes that curiosity leads them to dangerous places AND people. If your child is old enough to use messaging apps and social media, they’ll probably try to meet new people online.
Even though this can end up being okay most of the time, if you’re not there to monitor your child’s activity, they might end up talking to someone who’s not as well-intentioned as they seem. Your child doesn’t know the dangers of sharing their personal data with the internet, which can ultimately put them in some serious trouble.
It’s your duty, as a parent, to protect your children from these types of dangers – both in real life and online. So, look for a spy phone app such as Spyphone to help you keep tabs on your children’s online activities. Make sure you talk to your kids about it before downloading it to their phones – don’t be sneaky about it. You don’t want to break their trust, therefore you should be as honest and upfront as possible.
You want to make backups of your children’s data
Your children will often use their phones to do their homework and capture moments that they’ll cherish for the rest of their life. Unfortunately, no smartphone lasts forever. Phones break over time, and the data stored on them gets lost forever.
Parental control apps allow you to prevent these scenarios from happening. You’ll be able to make backups of your child’s data using cloud-based services and storage drives.
Now, of course, as we’ve already mentioned before, you have to make sure you talk to your children first. Older teens may consider this to be an invasion of their privacy, which is something they’re entitled to at their age. Explain your reasons for deciding to set up the app and promise you won’t overstep your child’s boundaries (unless they’re too young to make these decisions for themselves).
You want to track your child’s location.
Knowing where your family members are at all times doesn’t only give you peace of mind, it can help you save them from all kinds of dangers. Most parental control apps have GPS tracking systems that provide you with a way to ensure your loved one’s safety when they’re not home. It may seem like an extreme measure to some, but the dangers of your child getting lost (or worse) are always better prevented than cured.
Besides that, GPS tracking allows you to find your kid’s phone if it gets lost or stolen, which is a great reassurance to have in any case.
Your child is being cyberbullied
Cyberbullying is a serious issue that affects young children and teenagers all over the world. With a parental control application, you can monitor the content your child shares with the internet and ensure their privacy settings are up to par. You can also block unwanted comments and messages coming from bullies to protect your kid’s well-being.
Again, cyberbullying can be devastating for your child’s self-esteem – it could lead to depression, anxiety, and many other issues standing in the way of your children’s happiness. As a parent, you’re the only one who can protect your youngest family members from these terrible experiences many of us have gone through in the early days of social media.
The bottom line
Parental control apps can help you protect your children in more ways than one. You’ll be able to monitor the content they’re watching and sharing, keep them away from malicious strangers on the internet, and keep track of their location to ensure their safety.
Make sure you choose a trustworthy app above all else – it needs to be accurate, safe, and reliable. Read up on every review and rating you can find online until you’ve decided on something that suits your needs and requirements properly.