Ways to Secure Your Child’s Smartphone

The smartphone is at the center of daily life for about 80% of teens and young kids today. They use them for all their important apps, social media, internet, photos/videos, texts and a bunch of other everyday activities. Many people know this and unfortunately, the internet is crawling with individuals who are looking to take advantage of this.

For parents, making sure your child’s smartphone is secure should be a high priority to keep them safe and ensure no one takes advantage of the. Below are just a few tools parents can use to make sure their child’s smartphone is secure.

Keep Your Child’s Smartphone Updated

Some people may not like the sound of this one, as sometimes updating a smartphone OS can also come with a few bugs that developers haven’t worked out yet. When new OS updates are available, they come with security updates and other aspects that previous versions did not have. Smartphone hackers are constantly coming up with new and sophisticated methods to bypass smartphone security, this is the reason keeping the device updated is imperative.

Only Download Trusted Apps

We all know kids love to download apps; online predators, scammers, hackers, etc. also know this. Teens and young kids need to be taught only to download their apps from trusted app stores such the Apple App Store and Google Play. Apps from third party stores can sometimes come with hidden malicious software that kids will never know is there.

Keep the Smartphone Password Protected

Keeping your child’s smartphone secure with a password is only half the battle on this one. Parents must also make sure to use a strong password and not one that can be easily bypassed. It is suggested to use strong passwords that contain upper and lower case letters, numbers and also special characters. Make sure to stay away from obvious PIN numbers such as birthdays and favorite numbers. Using a pattern as a lock code is good as well, just make sure to use one that is not easy to figure out.

Install a Smartphone Anti-Virus

When first getting a smartphone, one of the first things to do is download an anti-virus app if one is not already installed, this will help tremendously to make your child’s smartphone less susceptible to malicious attacks. Installing an anti-virus app is one of the best ways to defend against malicious software and hackers. There are many apps and programs out there to choose from, some smartphones even come pre-loaded with apps such as Lookout.

Monitoring Apps

Installing a hidden spy app onto your child’s smartphone helps to keep you informed of where they are with the phone, who they’ve been talking to, what apps they’re using and more. Parental monitoring software also come in handy in the case of the phone ever being lost or stolen. Using the software and the GPS signal of the phone, parents can track the phone down and retrieve it for their kids.

These are just a few suggestions for parents to use when securing their child’s smartphone, there are many more tools for parents to utilize. All of these tools will be greatly beneficial not only securing the device, but also go a long way to ensure the device lasts longer down the line.