Parental Control Apps vs Dumb Phones Which is better?

When buying a first phone for their kids many parents reasonably do not want that phone to have access to the whole internet. Parents who want their kids to have safe basic communication without everything else a smartphone has to offer have two primary options. They can purchase a smartphone (like an iPhone) for their kid and use parental control apps to try to restrict certain capabilities. Or parents can purchase a dumb phone which doesn’t have certain functionality to begin with.

Parental Control Apps

Parental control apps enable parents to set specific rules and restrictions on their child’s phone usage from the parent’s device. This provides parents flexibility in choosing what apps or categories of apps their kids do and don’t have access to and how long they can use each app each day. Parents can loosen (or tighten) controls over time and give kids access to additional apps as they get older. While the customizability of parental control apps is nice in theory, the endless optionality can make setting up parental controls somewhat complicated. Many parents purchase smartphones for their kids with the intention of restricting social media use via parental controls, but never actually get around to setting up the restrictions. If parents figure out how to set up parental controls, they can still become a source of constant fighting with kids. The changeable nature of the restrictions leaves the argument over cell phone usage in a constant state of flux.

More importantly, kids are quite clever at getting around smartphone parental restrictions and accessing all the things they’re not supposed to access. A few simple ways kids bypass restrictions:

• When parents set a restriction on use during a certain time of day, kids change the time on their phone and use it anyway. 

• When parents set time limits on a specific app, kids uninstall and reinstall the app to reset the time.

• And if all else fails, kids can do a hard (factory) reset, and create a new login ID, then use their phone for whatever they want for as long as they want.

Dumb Phones

As an alternative parents can give their kids dumb phones (aka feature phones) which have limited capabilities by default. Parents can choose between old flip phones or modern alternatives like Zalpha Phone which combine the limited functionality of a flip phone with the modern look and feel of a smartphone.

Dumb phones have extremely limited options and don’t provide the same apps and flexibility as smartphones. Since there are virtually no settings to customize the setup is relatively simple. Dumb phones do the couple things they do and nothing else; there’s no ability to add more functionality, so it’s easier to avoid the constant fighting with kids over what apps they’re allowed to use. Kids will likely still ask for a new smartphone, but it’s less of a day-to-day battle.

Summary

Parental controls provide more flexibility/options, but the setup is complicated, and kids often find ways to circumvent the restrictions. Dumb phones don’t have hundreds of options, but are far easier to set up and provide just the basics. If you’re in the market for a dumb phone that’s ready to use as soon as you take it out of the box, learn more about Zalpha Mobile’s dumb phones for kids.