Giving your kids a smartphone for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. At first, you’ll wonder if this is the right decision, whether your kids are at the proper age for a smartphone and whether or not they’ll listen to the rules. These days so many kids have smartphones that it’s unlikely you’ll walk down the street without seeing almost every kid with a smartphone in their hands. While all of society may have smartphones, there are some pros and cons of giving them to kids. Today we’ll dig into this topic a bit further so that you can review the list and make a parental decision as to whether or not your kids should have a smartphone yet.
Smartphone For Kids: The Pros and Cons
Pros
Great Way to Stay in Touch
Installing a location tracking app like iSharing is one way to make sure you use your kids’ smartphone as a tracking device. You can not only stay in touch with messaging and phone calls no matter where your kids are, but you can track their departure and arrival to any location when you install a tracking app. This helps ease the worries of parents everywhere.
Parents in Control
While you may hand your kids a smartphone, you’re still in control. Since it’s a prepaid plan or a contractual plan, the smartphone is technically under the parents’ name. This allows you to have complete control over when, where, why and how the kids use their smartphones on a day-to-day basis. This pro of smartphones for kids helps keep kids obeying the rules of said device.
Educational Component
There is a wide range of educational apps that parents can download to their kids’ smartphone to help them learn more. If your kids struggle with reading or math, there’s an educational app that could help tutor them in these ways with just a few clicks of a button. Kids who have smartphones can expand their learning tremendously when parents opt to install educational apps.
Cons
Unlimited Access to the Internet
You can put a time limit on when your kids use their smartphones, but in all reality, they have unlimited access to the internet when they’re away from home. This means they could be more vulnerable to predators online that stalk kids or peers who are bullies and want to be mean to their kids. It’s important to discuss safe online practices with your kids to minimize the impact of this con of smartphones.
High Data Costs
Some smartphone plans have data limits and will slow down the speed or cut data off completely once the limit is reached. Other smartphone plans may allow you to access the data at a higher rate. Parents must know how much data their smartphone plan covers when they hand a smartphone over to their kids. You can look into parental controls that limit data access for kids as a means to keep high data costs from hitting your smartphone bill.
Stranger Danger
Finally, the biggest concern many parents have when they hand a smartphone over to their kids is the risk of stranger dangers. It’s important to install a location tracking app like iSharing as a means to keep your kids safe from stranger danger at all times. Being able to track your kids’ location through GPS-enabled apps will help keep your kids safer than a kid who’s out there without a location tracker installed.
This list of pros and cons will help you figure out whether or not you feel you’re ready to hand a smartphone over to your kids. The decision falls upon every parent worldwide to know when the time is right to give their kids a smartphone. This list of pros and cons will help you determine what’s in the best interest of your family when it comes to smartphones for kids.
Download iSharing today!
- Download on Google Play Store (Android)
- Download on Apple App Store (Apple)
