Suppose, after much thought, you decided to buy your child an Apple smartphone. However, before putting it in the hands of a young user, it is worth discussing with him which applications and sites cannot be used, as well as how to behave on the Internet. But that’s not all, because there are a few simple things that need to be done with the device itself to increase the safety of the child. We will talk about them in this article.
We protect the iPhone from theft and other unpleasant situations
Help the child choose the password for the iPhone and make sure he remembers it. In addition, it will not hurt to enable the unlock function using his biometric data – this can help a lot in some dangerous situations. Also, don’t forget about Locator-type apps for iOS that simplify the search for lost or stolen devices.
Create your child’s own Apple ID
This will enable useful features such as two-factor authentication, which will provide an additional layer of security, ensuring that it will be very difficult to hack your child’s account. In addition, we highly recommend setting up the “Family Access” function on the device. With its help, you can not only manually select the content that you plan to share with your child, but also get the opportunity to control the purchase and download of games, e-books and applications.
Disable those functions that you consider dangerous or unnecessary for the child
The iPhone has many functions that both adults and children can use, so you need to be able to control what your child interacts with until he becomes old enough. To do this, there is a “Screen Time” function that allows you to control the following:
Access to specific content in Safari;
iTunes and App Store Purchases;
The work of Siri;
Privacy settings.
However, we don’t need children to have access to the function, so you should create a unique code to access it.
The most difficult thing is to limit what the child actively uses
Yes, this will really become the most difficult part, because your child will have his own point of view about what he has the right to do on his phone. For example, when it comes to creating an account in social networks, you may want to temporarily postpone it so as not to put the child at risk – there are a lot of dangerous people on social networks, and content filtering leaves much to be desired. Also, do not forget that children who have been sitting in social networks since early childhood often form a different or unhealthy view of the real world, and young TikTok users begin to develop tics and seizures caused by anxiety and stress.
So feel free to limit in any way to control, restrict and configure the following things:
The child’s working time with the screen. To create restrictions, use the “Family Sharing” function;
Game Center application parameters. By selecting the appropriate settings, you can protect your child from unwanted communication in games and, in general, control how much time your child spends in games.
The iPhone also has a feature called “Guide Access”, which can be configured to set additional restrictions, for example, to limit the time of use of a certain application.
Do you have an old iPhone that you want to give to your child instead of buying a new one? Then make sure that your important files are saved correctly in iCloud, and then you will erase unnecessary data from your phone by resetting to factory settings.
Let’s summarize the results
If you give your child a new smartphone, it does not mean that you allow the child to do whatever he wants with it. Therefore, it is very important to show the child the whole setup process and talk to him about which restrictions are acceptable and which are not.