Should you track your child’s phone? This a question that a lot of parents struggle with. As a parent, you are liable for your child’s behaviour and well-being. But you can’t supervise them all the time. Even if you’re in the same room, it can be hard to know what they’re doing on their phone. There are some legitimate reasons to track your child’s smartphone, without breaking their trust. 

Online harassment and bullying

Children are often too embarrassed to tell their parents that they are being cyberbullied. In other cases, you might not want to think about it, but your child might be the one doing the bullying. Monitoring social media can help you stay informed about their online activities.

Speeding

Driving is a gift to teenagers. However their lack of experience can get them into trouble. There are apps you can install that will monitor how fast the phone is moving. They will send you alerts if a certain limit is being exceeded. These apps that track your child’s phone can also lock the phone from being used over a certain speed, so your teen can’t text and drive. 

Addiction

A lot of parents worry about their teen getting into drugs or alcohol. But you should also think about limiting their screen time or schedule your child’s screen time. Especially if you think they aren’t getting enough sleep! If your children are spending more time on their phones than they are playing or doing their homework, you should be aware of it. When you spot the signs of being hooked on social media, you can use apps to block or set time limits on their devices. Browse this site to see how you can track the phone’s location to make sure they’re getting out, and not just sitting at home on their phone. 

Spending real money on virtual things

Some children will need to have apps blocked that connect to their bank accounts or your credit cards. Mobile games can be fine to play, but there are many with micro-transactions built-in that allow kids to buy items for gameplay through the app store. These apps are often very manipulative to get people to spend real money, and it can be easy to accidentally spend a lot of money.

Online predators

This is probably the biggest fear of most parents who have children online. Children meet a lot of people at school, after school, and online. They can easily have hundreds of contacts, but do all these people have good intentions? Most will do, but the threat does exist. Tracking tools can let you know what apps your child is using, and for how long, so you know when to be concerned. 

Oversharing

Children and teenagers sometimes don’t have the same privacy filters that we do when they talk to their friends and sometimes even with strangers. Make sure they know that this could be dangerous. Predators will often try to seek out the most vulnerable online users, so it is a good idea to check in with them and monitor the conversations they are having online.