Parental controls for smartphones
This is how parents make cell phones safe
Shooting selfies all day? Parents can restrict the functionality of smartphones for their children.
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Even small children are drawn to the spell of the screen. This is how parents make the smartphone safe for the little ones.
Whether children own a smartphone or are only allowed to play with their parents on the train journey: There are several ways to secure smartphones and tablets so that legal guardians can keep control of their children’s mobile phone use. These are the most popular methods.
Limit screen time
Both Android and iOS devices have had the option to limit screen time for yourself or your kids for a while. It is possible to allow individual apps for a certain time per day via the device settings before the smartphone denies further access to the application. If you set up this option for your children, you should also provide them with a four-digit PIN code.
As an additional option, Google offers the “Google Family Link” app, which can be used to remotely monitor the offspring’s cell phone. For Apple devices, this feature is available by default on iPhones starting with iOS 12. However, experts do not give an unqualified recommendation, after all, the monitoring data runs through the servers of the tech giants.
Open source solution respects the privacy of parents and children
Anyone who does not want to leave anything to chance when it comes to data security is well advised to use the “TimeLimit.io” app. This can be operated and set up locally, either on the child’s device itself or on a monitoring smartphone. If the latter is the case, parents even have the option of setting up their own server through which the usage data is encrypted.
In contrast to the offers from Google and Apple, “TimeLimit.io” is not free, but costs one euro a month or ten euros a year. The cell phone security experts at “Mobile safe” summed up with praise: “You pay the price for the app with money and not with your children’s data.”
Restrict smartphone functionality with a PIN code
Parents also have the option of restricting their children’s access to the App and Play stores. Via the store and parental control options, it is possible to only display applications or series and films that correspond to a certain age rating. In addition, parents can set up a PIN code to pay for apps.
Last but not least, the operating systems from Google and Apple offer the option to pin a specific app on the screen, so that despite all the tapping and swiping, for example, a video or an app just keeps running. On Android, the function can be found under Settings → “Security and Screen Fixing”. When activating, make sure that the option “Ask for PIN before exiting” is activated.
In the iOS operating system, you have to activate “Guided Access” in the options, which can be found under “General” and “Accessibility”. Anyone who then clicks the home button three times in a row in a certain app fixes the app until it can be closed again using a previously defined code.