New phone for child Post Reply

[toadstool]

Hi just wondering if anyone can help? My daughter is about to start secondary school in September so I'm (reluctantly) planning to give her my old iPhone. Do you know of any way that I can monitor / block her app usage and also limit screen time. Or maybe even a big red button that I can turn her phone off if need be?

Also are there any good intro network providers that can give her a SIM card and a small amount of calls / data?

Thanks

[davinci2]

Most network providers will allow you to place a limit on usage. For example my children's limit is zero over and above their inclusive minutes. At the moment i would recommend checking out VOXI. They are a branch of the Vodafone network, and currently offer a no contract, cancel anytime deal for £10 per month which includes unlimited minutes and texts, 6gb of data and unlimited usage of social media. 

[mummo]

iPhones have quite a few inbuilt things you can do to set them up for a child - I googled it and followed the steps to set it up. Mine have app limits, downtime, content restrictions, only certain apps allowed etc and you can also set whether they are allowed to download new apps or need the ask for permission first, make in app purchases etc. I have to admit it took me quite a while to work through it all! If you have an iPhone too you can monitor usage and controls from your phone.

The other thing I’d look into is Life360 - allows you to see where they are, get notifications when they arrive at school etc - quite reassuring when they’re first starting to travel by themselves and be a bit more independent.

Regarding contracts, mine are tied to my EE contact. They have some very cheap SIM only options and I can gift data to them that way rather than paying more on their contracts. EE also have some safety features built in to protect children too.

Good luck!

[Normandymum2]

Mine are using giffgaff for their phones contracts/PAYG

In addition to the reco above, you could also use the access control function on your home router so that you can control access to the WiFi out of the hours you want!
There should be a sticky label at the back of your home routeur with the IP address of the router and the admin password (which should be changed at some point to something you are the only one to know) then you can set up respective access for the various devices that access the WiFi in your house.
I have found it quite useful and less exhausting than telling them x times to go off the box, the tablet etc

[AndrewMane]

On iPhone, there are a few programs to manage your child's phone but you can connect your iclouds and thus you can see his location and photos also his contacts