It's easy to focus on the desktop or laptop computer in our child's life and forget that the Internet is just as accessible from the cell phone hidden in their pocket. Previously we mentioned 4 reasons to monitor your child´s cell phone. Internet dangers don't become less prevalent or less serious because our kids are on a phone instead of a computer.
This week, take some time to evaluate whether you're allowing things on the smartphone that you wouldn't on the Internet, or vice versa. It's the same Internet, and the same rules should apply no matter how your child is accessing it.
If you've got a teenager with a phone, do you talk about how they're using it to go online? If you are guilty of monitoring computer usage more than phone usage, you're not alone.
Most of us limit computer time, checkour desktop's browser history, install parental controls, and put the computer in a public area of the house – but are we spending as much effort on limiting phone time, checking the phone's inbox, installing parental monitoring software, or restricting phone use in the teen's bedroom?
Part of the problem is that we just don't realize how frequently our kids are using alternative devices like phones, music players, and gaming consoles to go online.
1 in 5 teens use a phone to access the Internet, but only 20% of those who do say that their parents limit or control online time on their phones and only half say their parents talk to them about Internet safety on their phone.
-Article Contributed by Jenny Evans
