Parents need to weigh the positives and negatives when deciding to give their children smartphones. When your children has a smartphone it is easier to get in touch with them, track where they are, or gives them a way to contact someone in emergency situations. Screen time is also a major concern as Common Sense Media reports that on average teens use nearly nine hours of media a day.

To helps parents manage and monitor their children’s smartphone usage The Wirecutter has a few recommendations:

Parental controls allow adults to set limits on their kid’s app access and overall phone use and serve as “training wheels” to help kids and teens build healthy tech habits. We spent about 30 hours testing seven parental-control options on both iOS and Android devices, using them to manage our kids’ daily screen time, and concluded that Apple Screen Time is best for iOS households, while Google Family Link is best for Android households with kids under 13. Qustodio is the better choice for Android households with children 13 and older.

Source: The Wirecutter

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