AbbevilleMummy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:34 pmThe only plus I would say regarding an iPhone over any other brands is that if you have an iPhone you can create a child’s account linked to your account which means they can’t download any apps etc without your phone notifying you and asking permission. There are other controls too.
I imagine the other phone brands do similar so I would probably get whatever brand phone you have and linking them.
This is a really good point. Mrs Santa, if you do go for an (older!!) iphone, assuming you already have one yourself, there are a few things you should do:
Set up family sharing. This effectively gives your son his own Apple ID, but it is linked to the parent account and he has to 'ask' permission from the parent before he can download any apps etc. Once he clicks on 'buy' in app store you then get a message to ask permission.
Make sure that you enable 'find my iphone' so that you can track where he is (or at least where his phone is). I find this particularly useful to give me peace of mind when my kids are going to and from from school on their own.
There is a little known 'restrictions' password that you should also set. If something happens and the phone is stolen, or worst of all he is forced to open the phone to other kids so that they can take it, they can only do a limited number of things without the restrictions code. If someone steals a an unlocked phone the first thing they will do is disable find my iphone. The restrictions lock would prevent them from doing this. Obviously don't give this code to your son.
Lastly, there are a number of apps that allow parents visibility of their child's devices. A friend of mine has a son who was using his phone to browse the internet (nothing dodgy) when they had gone to bed. She had an app setup so that it notified her of this. There is also an app called Gallery Guardian which is an app which immediately notifies the parents if a suspicious image has been detected on their child's device.
I realise that some of this may seem over the top, however none of it is particularly invasive, and my kids are both fully aware of what is setup on their phones, which hopefully means that they also understand some of the responsibility of owning a phone. It's not a toy.
Jonny
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