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While the invention of the Smartphone has advanced us in so many ways, especially our teenagers, the fact remains that they can be dangerous.
In fact, Smartphone technology flings your door wide open for everything from predators to hackers and gives them full access to your home.
When it comes to your teens, they only know that their Smartphones connect them to the world and the rest of their friends.
While many commercial businesses have access to intrusion detection and prevention systems, teens don’t. So, how do you keep your teenagers safe and still let them keep their Smartphones?
Here are a few tips to follow to ensure their safety and the safety of your home.
Start Simple
If you’re dealing with a preteen who has just started using a phone, then start simple. First, point out the features he needs, such as alarm, vibrate, and key lock.
Limit Usage
Whether you have a preteen or a teen, constantly letting them stay on the phone isn’t good for them physically or mentally. So don’t let constant calls and texts interrupt your family time, and don’t let them be on their phones when the lights go out for the night.
Even on a Smartphone, that’s usually when the predators come out to play.
Teach Responsibility
As a parent, you’re constantly teaching your kids about responsibility when cleaning, spending money, and doing well in school. Having a Smartphone is a responsibility as well. Make sure your teen knows that cell phone minutes cost money and teach them what your plan allows.
That’s not where teaching them Smartphone responsibility ends, however. Make sure you teach them how to set up a pin so no one can just pick up their phone and look at it.
Teach them how to put in a passcode or pin so that their lock screen is all anyone will see if their phone is stolen or if someone wants to be a snoop.
You have rules for the TV and socializing outside of school, right? Then you need rules for cell phone usage as well, not only to teach responsibility but also to keep your teenager safe from harm.
Reliable Protection is Key
While you might not own a commercial company and have those defense systems in place, there are reputable virus protection and malware companies out there that can help protect your teen’s phone from hackers.
You can get protection through your cable company or an outside source most of the time. Just make sure that you do your research, choose the best one, and enforce always having that internet safety on your child’s phone.
Teach the Consequences of Unsafe Use
If you want your teen to know that there are real-world consequences for unsafe cellphone use, you have to tell them what those consequences are. Just as you teach them not to text and drive, teaching them the other consequences is important as well.
For example, employers can access anything on their Facebook when they reach college age or after. Also, anything they put on their cellphones now, videos, pictures, posts, can be accessed years from now. Just because they delete something doesn’t mean it’s gone.
Once something is on the internet, it’s out there forever and can come back to haunt them years down the line.
Teaching your teenager the consequences of unsafe Smartphone usage, about predators, and that Smartphones can allow hackers into your home is essential if you want to keep them and your home safe from harm.
Following these tips will ensure that your teenager behaves responsibly with their Smartphones, whether it’s installing virus protection or keeping their lock screen enabled, or there will be consequences.
