The whole arena of children and mobile phones is one of confusion and apprehension for many Parents. Knowing that there are no longer telephone boxes commonly available, a set of situations arise where a mobile phone is required for their safety, and wanting to avoid the pitfalls of a Smartphone, many turn to the ‘emergency phone’ route when starting out on this new journey.
Emergency Phone for child: what are they?
An emergency phone for a child is usually a basic feature, or ‘candy bar’ style phone with very basic capabilities and without access to the internet. They are usually supplied to children at an earlier age or with limited ability, or other cases where a smartphone simply isn’t appropriate.
The phone could be paired with a child’s PAYG SIM that has special safeguarding features or, for peace of mind, a child’s rolling monthly contract SIM that will have inclusive minutes and texts. With or without mobile data as needed.
What an Emergency Phone may be suitable for
- Pick ups drop offs and change in routine
- Communicating with parents when walking home if they need reassurance
- Communicating with friends and family If they get lost
- Where internet access via a mobile phone is forbidden
- Emergency situations
There are many reasons why a mobile phone can be a necessity in keeping your child safe and it can certainly give you the reassurance that if for any reason they need to contact you, they can.
At ParentShield, our live chat team talk to many parents that want to provide an emergency phones for kids and our team offer help and advice around this topic. As ParentShield is a special Mobile Network for Children, it empowers parents with the ability to make changes to their Child’s mobile phone service remotely from their online portal, essentially tailoring the way their child can use a mobile phone to their age or ability. This is a huge reassurance for Parents.
Make ANY phone an Emergency Phone for kids
With every ParentShield SIM Only plan, the parent receives access to a secure online portal linked to their Childs SIM card; from here they can make those changes and monitor activity remotely without touching the phone. The phone doesn’t even need a data connection to work.
Use ANY phone with a ParentShield SIM Card
- Turn mobile data OFF at the flick of a switch, and this cannot be circumvented by the child
- Create a closed user group, so their phone can only communicate with the contacts YOU add
- Be alerted by SMS to your own phone if certain words or phrases are used in text messages
- If their phone is offline, be alerted the second it reconnects to the network
- Monitor calls and texts remotely ( even the deleted ones )
- Know they can always contact you even if all allowances have been used
- Call the home numbers with a three-digit short dial number
But what about accessing the internet via Wifi?
The final part of the puzzle when making a Smartphone behave like an emergency phone is to remove the ability for the phone to connect to the internet or download applications via Wifi, personal hotspots etc. The ParentShield support team have created a step-by-step guide to help Parents turn any phone into an emergency phone for their child.
This can be found here
