Disclosure: I am part of the PTPA Brand Ambassador Program with TeenLimit and I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group to share Tips for Your Teen’s First Smartphone. The opinions on this blog are my own.
We live in a very digital world these days and it doesn’t end with us grown ups. Are kids tend to be even more tech savvy than we are and they all want smartphones. But as parents, it’s our job to decide when they’re ready for their first smartphone. We thought that Lil Man was ready about a year or so ago but then he took his smartphone to school, dropped it and shattered the screen. With a month to month plan with no insurance options, the smartphone was a total loss and a lessen learned by my husband and I. Lil Man wasn’t ready for the responsibility of a smartphone.
Well he’s grown up quite a bit in the last year and much more mature than he was a year ago so we decided a new smartphone (on our plan with full insurance) would make a perfect Christmas gift for him. But with this gift came rules and stipulations and I’m going to share some tips for your teen’s first smartphone in the hopes that you don’t make some of the same mistakes that we did.
Tips for Your Teen’s First Smartphone
- Get a screen protector and case for it right away! These items will help to protect the phone in case it’s dropped and should hopefully save you from forking out money for a new phone or an insurance deductible.
- Purchase the insurance plan! It’s a few bucks each month, but totally worth the expense! Insurance covers the phone if it;s lost, stolen, broken or damaged and is much cheaper than a replacement.
- Set screen time limits. It’s so easy to stay glued to a device; playing games, chatting and searching the web so it’s important to set limits.
- Discuss rules and restrictions. Kids need rules, especially when it comes to the internet and devices. The world can be dangerous so make sure that you discuss what sites and apps are restricted and set rules fro their smartphone usage.
Luckily there are tools to help parents mike you and I, like the Teen Limit app that allows you to monitor your teen’s screen time usage right through your own smartphone. You can manage the time they spend on the device and also block apps in the free version. The premium version offers many other great features for just $3.29/month such as internet filtering, activity report and so much more.
Available for Android and iOS devices, I personally love that Teen Limit gives me peace of mind as a parent; letting me know that Lil Man isn’t staying up playing around on his phone through all hours of the night, or heaven forbid, accessing sites that he most definitely shouldn’t be! It helps us both to ensure that he doesn’t get addicted to screen time and that he’s safely surfing the web.