Cell Phone Parental Controls

Yes, for sure okay, except many of us parents are envious. I had both wall and table top rotary growing up, the world was a safer place, and a teen's phone call to a friend didn't have preditors lurking in our conversations like chats do now.

Sure we could listen in when on party lines, but no preditors.

 

No worries J, I'm not obsessed with my kids location at all times, but I appreciate knowing she made to town safely after 3 busses, 30 miles and 1.5 hours later. God Blessed us with a baby after 17 years with this treasure and I won't take it for granted. No social media and no games, talking and texting with her parents and grandparents and best friend should not ruin her life, if it did we're in big trouble as a society. These days there are tools available so only phone numbers that a parent adds may be called and none not on that list can even call that phone. And you know these are different times than when we were kids.

Jeffrey Svoboda , don't worry, we're not helicopter parents either. Kids need bed times, there's too many reasons to list why sleep for kids is necessary. Lack of sleep is like as bad or worse than social media.

 

100% Larry. Grateful your granddaughter was ok. Too many lunatics these days to take the chance.

Oh boy, thank you Yes, I was losing tracking for kiddo on the bus ride home here and there 2 years ago, next year it was fine-turns out the same girl that did that back then is now on the same bus again that bypassed my parental controls at Christmas was also turning of location (which turns off most controls while borrowing kiddos phone on the bus) and I'm shocked how many other ways including "loading up youtube videos to loop" including others like your son and songs did with the music timer). I'll keep in mind the battery power, thank you for the tip

 

Thank you J, it was infact Verizon Smart Family. At first I worried it was my fault, she wanted to delete several of her 20 contacts and add different ones and I handed my phone over for her to do it. Turns out it happened after that, but holy cow there are so many ways to get around programs. I can't tell which method or methods that little trouble maker on the bus used but the download happened in early Jan. Other way I dropped the ball was I didn't check, all apps/social media etc. were blocked, and I'd get a notification if she tried/asked permission to do one (I always said no). No notification I didn't bother. Big mistake, between temptation/peer pressure/older kids on her bus it was like setting her up to fail. So, going to try again with layers

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MexZt_XBgWA?feature=share

 

So, I'm going to try again with the "layers" above.

New $99 android phone to replace that blasted Apple I let her choose a few years ago.

Experiment running Boomerang and Smart Family jointly.

 

My brains are scrambled doing this tech stuff. Ended up keeping Verizon Smart Family and adding Boomerang ontop of that.



She's doing Hunters Safety, study online and complete the in person part as they get scheduled (not enough people here for regular scheduled classes). WWW told her she could have her phone back after completing online, and she did. I'll be glad to see got to and from school safely and no more waiting for bus for like 35 minutes in the cold.

 

Boomerang did not work out, never ending spinning circle error too many times. I just quit Verizon Smart Family today too (when the new phone arrives for kid). The smart family map only works 1/2 the time and I ended up paying $143/month for just our two lines for Smart Family (prepaid does not offer Verizon Parental controls. Phew!, only $80/month for us now and whatever parental control I choose.

There's one that offers something like "vault lock" on Samsung. Yep, free Samsung phone coming the Holiday Sale I did this morning. Meaning, the older kids on the bus that "borrow" her phone or outright just tell her how to bypass parental controls will no longer work

I'll update after the phone comes next week and I get it up and running and use it in real life. Smart Family has been a thorn in my side since I first did it in 2021. good riddance! (in my rural/urban situation anyway)/

 

Mind if I ask which plan you are on? Also, are you Ios or Android?

 

Thank you, I appreciate your tip Unfortunately that is what I just left. It's unreliable after going to/from (school is in town), maybe the rural state I live in combined with living so far out of town, it's not able to switch towers automatically much of the time. Pretty funny, there is a leg of her bus ride with none or poor service, map throws her south east 50 miles/or some random Forest Service road in the mountains LOL. Anyway multiple calls and hours on tech help over the years without resolve.

Staying with Verizon (most reliable here), but with new plan it saves $66/month I can try a differen't add on Parental controls not dependent on Verizon Family Share VPN (which I think is the issue. And yes, not free, it was $9.99 when I started several years ago and is $14.99 currently.