The 1 Thing You Shouldn't Rely On When Giving Your Child A Cellphone

LOADING ERROR LOADING If you have a child who’s learned how to speak, it’s only a matter of time before they ask for their own cellphone. To do so, you should rely less on monitoring what your child is doing and more on mentoring them in the safe use of technology, according to Devorah Heitner, author of “Growing Up In Public: Coming Of Age In A Digital World.” Heitner spoke with numerous experts, educators and teens themselves to understand what life is like for kids who’ve grown up as digital natives. We can imagine this trajectory as a sort of “graded pool” in which gradually “you’re going deeper and deeper,” Heitner said, rather than suddenly throwing kids into the deep end by handing them a smartphone. “Kids really resent” parents monitoring everything they say, Heitner said, adding that it “doesn’t give you what you think it is going to yield in terms of understanding what’s going on with your kids.” If you are using any monitoring services for location or content, you should let your teen know about these upfront. “Some parental controls can be installed without your kids knowing, but Common Sense Media doesn’t recommend it,” writes Knorr.