Can My Kid Use My Old Phone Without Service

(Pocket-lint) - There comes a point when your child needs their own telephone. Every bit a parent, it'southward a fork in the road: on one hand a telephone provides a betoken of contact every bit your child becomes more independent, on the other it's a gateway to the darker side of online life.

For many, the pros will outweigh the cons, specially if you have a child who is virtually to caput off to secondary school. You want to know they arrive safely and you want them to be able to contact you if they need to.

You could get a characteristic phone - like the Nokia 3310 - just in reality, it's likely to be time for the first smartphone.

Why choose an Android phone?

The immediate reward that Android offers is toll. Let's be honest, while many children will desire the latest iPhone, sending them into the wild with a £900 phone is request for problem.

In reality, at that place's very little meaningful difference in functionality between iPhone and Android: they both offer almost exactly the same apps and services with merely a few Apple services yous won't go - similar iMessage or FaceTime.

What you can practice, however, is requite your child a powerful new phone that's perhaps a third of the price. There are lots of options for affordable phones, only nosotros highly rate the Moto G family, the Moto G9 Power has some distinct advantages over flagship phones, like the 2-day battery life.

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Of course, you lot can utilise an onetime handset (which many people choose to do), but the major downside at that place is that the battery is likely to be poor and there'south the adventure if it's over 3 years old that it won't be getting the latest security updates from Google.

Your business relationship or a new Google business relationship?

This is a big decision to brand: (a) do you set-up that child on a device with your account or (b) do you create an business relationship for them?

Standard Google accounts have a minimum historic period of thirteen (as do Facebook accounts), so if you're signing up a kid for an account, they need to be that old, or you have to tell a white lie to become that account registered. Retrieve that even a 13-year-quondam with a Google account gets full admission to services like YouTube.

The route yous accept makes a difference: whatever Android telephone tin accept a Google account, but not all phones accept multiple users. Devices in a fairly pure Android form practise, like Motorola or Nokia, which means y'all can sign in with your account, i.e., pick (a) and then setup a profile for your child as a rubber space.

Alternatively you lot tin sign in with your account and then disable features, although ultimately, information technology's your full developed account, with your payment details and and then on, which may cause bug later down the line when the child wants their ain phone.

Ultimately, nosotros suspect many will opt for option (b) to create a new Google account and the outset of that child'southward online independence. That'southward the option we'd recommend, particularly every bit Google offers tools to manage child accounts. The easiest manner to get started is to setup that business relationship in a web browser and setup a family unit group on families.google.com to link anybody together.

Use Google Family unit Link

Google Family Link provides an avenue for a parent to set-up a child account and so supervise it, which addresses many of the issues surrounding setting upward a telephone. Family unit Link volition set many of the elements detailed below to the appropriate settings, merely besides means that the parent then has a Google Family, something that tin can also be used to share purchased content and a payment methods, if you want. We'd advise confronting sharing a payment method - you're probably better using Google Play souvenir cards instead, although they tin can just be redeemed by those over thirteen.

In theory information technology resolves the above issue, giving you a controllable child account that a parent can manage. Google Family Link is not bachelor in all regions, in which instance we've detailed all the settings below that you should check and manage on your child's device.

To get started with Google Family Link, you'll need to download the app from Google Play. There are two versions of the app, the parent app that you'll need on your phone and the kid app and you lot'll need the correct app on each device and best of all it's a gratuitous service, included as part of Google's service.

Google Family Link is a good starting bespeak and offers elementary step-by-pace setup instructions, allowing you to gear up custom levels of control beyond devices, including things like Chromebooks and tablets too - and there'south also an iOS app if you lot want to take information technology on an Apple device.

What tin Google Family unit Link command?

Google family link gives you controls over:

Google Play purchases, content restrictions, approval for app installs
Filters on Chrome, including custom blackness and whitelisting for websites
SafeSearch to remove sexually explicit and violet results in Google Search
Google Assistant app access and vocalism matching
Android app activity and limits
Location tracking to find your child'southward device
Business relationship info
Google Photo sharing
Google account sign in controls beyond new devices
Activity control such as web and YouTube history
Usage limits, including private app limits

Once setup, you'll be able to apply the app on the parent phone to oversee those areas you desire to protect, granting permissions for apps, as well as being able to set fourth dimension limits - for the whole device or for particular apps. You lot can enforce bedtimes when the device tin can't be used besides and location tracking ways y'all can easily notice your child - as long as they take a information connection.

Reading the reviews of Family unit Link on Google Play shows that a lot of children aren't happy with the restrictions it imposes - simply these are governed by the parents. Some children claim it causes lag or battery drain, only this doesn't appear to be truthful from our own experience.

Ane of the most useful features is being able to exclude apps from daily use limits, meaning you can limit social media apps, but allow homework apps, for example.

Parental controls within Android

If y'all decide that you don't want to use Google Family unit Link - or if it's not available in your region for whatever reason, there'south a range of controls inside Android to look at to brand certain protections are in identify. These are likewise the protections you should be using if you determine to use an Android device that'due south signed into your account, rather than ane for the child themselves.

Information technology's worth noting that these areas put some controls in place, merely there'south nothing like keyword filtering in messaging, and nothing to finish a kid using things like Google Docs to share inappropriate content within seemingly innocuous documents.

Parental controls in Google Play

Despite not allowing accounts until you're thirteen, Google Play actually has parental controls which you lot need to enable. These govern all the Google Play backdrop - apps, movies, TV, magazines and music.

Open the Google Play app
Tap the user image in the top correct-hand corner
Curl down to Settings and select
Tap Family to get to the parental controls

Within this area, you can fix age ratings - PEGI for games, the familiar U, 12, 15 for movies and Television set, likewise as restricting explicit content in magazines and music, which is a great starting point.

Annotation that YouTube and YouTube Music accept separate parental controls and restricted modes that y'all can as well notice in the settings of those apps.

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Controlling all these will hateful that you've taken some steps to protect your child from content they might stumble across when searching within Android's catalogue.

You, as parent, tin also gear up the PIN on this surface area so it can't be changed by the child and this Pin should exist separate to the PIN for the device or for your device, as kids will invariably acquire your Pivot.

Parental controls in Google search - SafeSearch

Controlling apps and accessible content is i thing, but mod devices provide admission to everything through search and the browser. There are some settings to lock these downwards, all the same.

Google SafeSearch aims to filter out explicit results similar pornography in search results - spanning images and video as well. Google admits that information technology's not 100 per cent accurate, however.

To turn on SafeSearch, you'll have to open up the Google app on your Android device. Depending on your telephone type, this might exist an app with the Grand icon, or accessible in the settings, or both. If you have the Google Search widget on your homepage, y'all can tap the One thousand at the left of that too.

This is what you're looking for:

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Here's how to get at that place:

Open the G app (Google Search app).
Tap the "More" menu in the bottom correct-hand corner.
Tap Settings, then General.
Toggle on SafeSearch filter.

It's too worth noting that Google does nothing to protect this setting, and anyone can turn it off over again, unless you lot utilise Family Link (higher up).

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Parental controls in YouTube

YouTube is catnip for the young. It's oft the virtually requested area, the starting point to solving problems, researching everything from make-up tutorials to recipes, cartoon episodes to Minecraft guides.

YouTube is besides a fleck similar the Wild West, in some ways unregulated and total of content you probably don't want your kid getting to. Yous could opt for YouTube Kids, but even that's not really safe.

To find the content controls in YouTube:

Open the YouTube app
Tap on your profile motion picture top right and tap Settings
Then tap on General
Then toggle on the Restricted Manner

Again, Google states that this isn't 100 per cent accurate, but it volition mean that some content flagged every bit inappropriate won't appear.

Also, similar search, in that location's cypher to cease this setting being turned off by the child user.

Parental control apps

While Android'due south specific controls essentially stop at that place, they merely provide a layer of protection. Trust plays a huge part in your kid'southward apply in this situation - and trust and educational activity in online safety should exist a large role of your role equally a parent.

Setting rules and boundaries, as well as monitoring what your child is doing online remains your responsibleness. It's here that parental control apps can assist. At that place are lot on offer ranging from full-on spying to lighter controls.

Screen Time, is 1 such option, although there are lots out there.

Screen Time features and benefits

Prepare usage limits and bedtimes
A reward system to grant more time for chores
Prevent and control the installation of new apps
Block admission to particular apps

At that place are lots of advantages to using something like Screen Time. Once installed on the child'south device, control is granted to the app on an adult'southward device (with Android and iPhone supported), and so yous get controls without constant physical intervention.

Information technology will let y'all control the apps that are installed, needing permission for new apps, meaning you can avoid spamware, spyware or anything inappropriate.

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You can closely govern times, choosing how long each day apps can be used - while also having granular control over the apps, and then you tin have no restriction on some if you lot choose. You lot can also just intermission the device so it tin can't be used, if you need to.

Beyond that yous become a log of Google searches and websites visited, giving you extra peace of listen that you know what'south going on, but Screen Time doesn't go to the extent of letting you read all of your child'southward messages. Yous may or may not cull to do that yourself.

Screen Time tin also be applied to other devices and other children. Pricing comes in diverse tiers, with optional extras costing more.

Network and Wi-Fi content blocking

It's not only on the device that y'all need to recall about content, it's off the device too and this is where networks can also provide some more protection.

Depending on the service you opt for, information technology's worth having the kid'due south phone business relationship in your proper noun, so that you run the account. You tin so investigate filtering offered by the network meaning that developed content is blocked. If it's your account, you stay in control of this setting. The shot below is from iD Mobile in the UK.

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Once again, information technology'due south not an absolute solution, but it tin go a long fashion to ensuring that adventitious or peer-pressured intentional searches for inappropriate content don't yield fruitful results.

Pulling this back into your own Wi-Fi network at domicile - where a lot of a child's device usage is - there are often protections that you can enable via your ISP or router. The below is from BT in the UK.

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Many ISPs will allow you set net-broad content filtering. BT, for case, will allow yous cull categories to block and the level of blocking you want - too as specific websites that you lot can black list or white lists, every bit well as times that filtering operates.

Summing upwards

There'due south a lot to consider when it comes to setting-up an Android phone for your child. The most important thing is that you lot are responsible and y'all are in command - keeping your child safe online falls to the parent to exist responsible and apply the necessary tools.

Children probably won't want these protections and volition e'er run across people who have no boundaries. Deciding whether your child needs WhatsApp - considering there are almost no privacy controls at all - when yourself or your child'south friends are using it is a determination yous'll have to make.

Banning smartphones outright isn't the respond to online concerns. While that might go on your child away from the dark side of the web, it will also alienate your child rather than educating them in how to stay safe online. Ultimately, they volition stop upwardly online sooner or later and it'southward better to enforce safe and responsible apply of devices.

Guiding your kid on how to be condom and responsible online is as much a part of mod parenting as encouraging them eat vegetables or the joys of reading a book. Apps and settings are just the tools, the real responsibility still lies in parenting.

Writing by Chris Hall.