In addition to the usual parental concerns, there is one that gives a lot of headaches: when is the right time to give a cell phone to a child. Some parents have decided to give their 12-year-old daughter their first smartphone, with a series of conditions. These rules are so comprehensive that they have gone viral on social media.
What these parents have not taken into account is an element that may be key: the iPhone. Apple has always insisted that it offers parental controls for iphone simple to configure to help us in this difficult task.
The 10 viral rules for having a mobile phone
Giving our children a cell phone for the first time is a very difficult decision. It’s too early? Can you handle it? Will he waste too much time on nonsense and will reflect your performance school? Judge the Zipper must have thought something like this, the Twitter user who, along with his wife, came up with 10 rules for their 12-year-old daughter to use a smartphone.
While waiting for my 12-year-old daughter to achieve her goal (to have a telephone; that remains to be seen), and given her compliance with the rules (good for her), my wife and I are preparing this membership contract, totally leonin. Let’s see what you think and if you think we’re missing something. pic.twitter.com/NAO593iqBr
– Judge The Zipper 💚💙 (@JudgeTheZipper) May 8, 2022
As a good judge these rules are more of a bombproof contract. More specifically, they are the following:
- The phone is not yours, it belongs to mom and dad, who are the ones who buy it and pay for the internet.
- Therefore, at any time, we can ask for your phone and see what is in any application. And we need to know the passwords.
- The installation of social network applications can only be carried out with our prior authorization and, where applicable, under the conditions that we set, which may include the shared use of the account.
- Its use will be limited to the agreed times.
- You may not forward messages that are offensive to other children, or in bad taste, or that show people being hurt, to other friends. Always and in any case, if you receive any of these messages, you must tell us.
- The phone is not brought to school.
- The telephone is not used at the table during breakfast, lunch or dinner.
- The phone is left outside the bedroom at night. To wake up, an alarm clock.
- These rules apply to other devices.
- Failure to comply with any of these rules will result in the temporary loss of the phone. Repeated non-compliance will result in permanent loss of the phone.
The strictness of these rules is striking. But for the Apple user used to iPhone parental controls, it will be easy for you to identify areas for improvement. Let’s see how we can do it.
Apple Parental Controls for iPhone
iPhone parental controls can be a great help for parents. There are many parameters that can be limited and controlled, so that children use the device responsibly. And also, protect them from possible dangers.
Screen time on iphone is the most useful tool in these circumstances. From your iPhone or that of your children, you can go to Settings > Usage time and configure this system. You will need to enter a parent code
- Idle time.
- Set time limits for apps.
- Limit communications to certain contacts.
- Choose apps that are always allowed.
- Block inappropriate content.
With these settings, the parents of the Tweeter viral or could control many things: application usage time and rest schedule. Additionally, there is a setting to prevent the installation of apps from the App Store. In this way, we prevent them from accessing games or social network applications that we do not want. In fact, this control can be exercised because the App Store centralizes all application downloads and it would not be possible on the iPhone if Margrethe Vestager and the European Union had their say.
Other iPhone parental controls help protect children’s privacy, prevent explicit content in music, podcasts, and streaming (as long as they come from Apple apps) and block web content to varying degrees (no restrictions, adult content, or list of allowed websites). We are also waiting for the new content analysis measures against child abuse in iCloud and Messages to arrive in Europe. As we can see, parents have or will have a few tools to control the use of the iPhone by our children. We can configure these tools to be quieter.
