Setting Up a Child Friendly Android Phone

 

Setting Up a Child Friendly Android Phone is a fact of life these days, as these devices are ubiquitous
Photo by CC user George Hodan on publicdomainpictures.net

Android phones appear to be everywhere, and chances are your child is pleading you to buy them one as well. Of course, you may already be well-aware of the fact that web-enabled devices, especially smartphones, are not some harmless toy, On the contrary, they can wreak quite a bit of havoc if used irresponsibly or inappropriately. Unfortunately, kids aren’t interested in learning how dangerous it is, and they are certainly not willing to take no for an answer. Denying their request is likely to trigger tears, sulking, tantrums, and even declaration of a silent war.

Well, there’s really no need for you to ruin your relation with your child over this. Instead, get them an Android phone. Yes, you read that right. We just advised you to get your child an Android phone. When it comes to setting Up a child friendly Android phone, then there are a number of things that can be done to keep their smartphone use risk-free.

Install Parental Control App

Before you hand over an Android phone to your child, make sure you’ve already installed and configured a parental control app on it. With the help of an Android parental control, you can keep an eye on your child’s call history, log their text messages and MMS, monitor their web activity, block access to adult websites, and enable safe search option on their device. This enables you to ensure that your child can enjoy complete benefits of a smartphone while remaining protected from digital threats like porn, online predators, cyberbullying, etc.

Set Up Google Play Store Restrictions

Another essential measure to take for child-proofing an Android phone is to set up Google Play Store restrictions. The official store features millions of apps, many of which are not exactly suitable for kids. Fortunately, Google gives you the option to shield your kids from such apps without requiring any third-party tool. Simply launch the Play Store app, pull the navigation drawer from the left, open Settings, scroll down to User controls, tap Parental controls, activate them by creating a content PIN, and then set content restrictions for the phone. You can limit everything from games and apps to TV shows, movies, music, and books by age or rating. Once you’ve done that, you can sit back and relax as Google will take over the responsibility of protecting your child from apps and content you deem inappropriate.

Disable Downloads from Third-Party Stores

Google performs various quality and security checks on apps before allowing them on Play Store. However, apps on third-party digital distribution platforms may not have been subjected to any kind of scrutiny. Many of the apps present there may actually be Trojan, ready to inject malware into the device of whoever is unfortunate to download and install them. Being curious and impulsive, kids may ignore the risks of downloading apps from third-party stores, which Google identifies as “unknown sources”, and hence inadvertently allow malware into their phone. You can prevent this by restricting downloads from unofficial stores. To do this, simply head over to Settings, tap General, scroll down to Privacy, tap Security, scroll down to PHONE ADMINISTRATION, and make sure the box in front of Unknown sources is unchecked. This would ensure that your child is only able to download and install apps from Google Play Store.