Teaching Your Kids to Be Responsible in Using Mobile phones
You can teach your kids to be responsible, early on in their lives, through mobile phone technology. Social media networks are not the rage for nothing, and you might be depriving your kids the chance to be part of this revolutionary social technology by just simply deciding that having a smartphone is too early an acquisition for them to have.
Going Prepaid for Your Children
The simplest way is to get them a phone with a carrier, but that only gives them access to the technology, without carrying any sort of responsibility for it. The best way really is to look into prepaid phone plans as an alternative, and teach them to be responsible at the same time. Some of these
pay as you go phones can be smartphones – this gives your kid the same level of comfort with the social media networks with one big constraint – they have to pay for its use themselves.
The Added Responsibility
This might be too much responsibility for a child, but you can raise their allowance just a little bit to accommodate their phone usage. At the same time, you will be relieved of the burden of watching your mobile phone bill closely – it is always difficult to watch your usage when some else is using the phone. With prepaid plans, your kids can do as they please, but they have to watch how much they spend at the same time.
This decreases their exposure to risk – any tool that exposes your children to the world can be incredibly dangerous. However, if your kid is watching his Internet usage, his text messaging and calling through the mobile phone, less exploration is encouraged because of the financial constraint. Your child will learn the cost-benefit ratio early on, and at what level is most comfortable to him.
Staying Connected
If you really need to watch your child's Internet usage, you can get a prepaid plan with cheap prepaid
phones bundled with it. The cheap ones often have no 3g networks built in the phone, so there is no Internet risk to speak of. And still, you are able to get in touch with your child in case you are worried if he hasn't come home yet, or in case of emergency and you need to get in touch with the whole family, or in case you just want to spend some time with your child, even if it is just by phone.
Essentially, that is the reason one has mobile phones in the first place – to stay connected. Staying connected can be seen as a luxury – it is far more important that you can be reached at all times. As your child grows up, he or she will need more space to be connected with more and more people, and not just you. It can feel uncomfortable as a parent when you cease to be the most important person in their lives, but doing so helps you fulfill your dream, that your kids will be the most important person in other people's lives in the future.bile Phones
