It is absolutely wrong to assume that parenting becomes a bit easier when kids grow older. In fact, parenting becomes a whole lot more challenging and exhausting when kids enter the teenage years. The parenting job certainly doesn’t get easier with time. As soon as your kid hits puberty, you need to look for new ways for becoming an effective parent and also establish some ground rules for them.
Many parents are of the viewpoint that it is important to hand over smartphones to kids for the sole purpose of their safety. By handing them smartphones, parents can keep in touch with them whenever they want to. However, handing your kid a smartphone also makes them access all zones of the internet, including the bad ones. Through instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, they can get in touch with strangers and easily give them all their personal details such as home address and mobile number.
Instant messaging apps like WhatsApp opens doors for strangers, stalkers, predators, and even bullies to reach out to kids whenever they want to. As WhatsApp is free and open to everyone, it doesn’t take much time for a stranger to contact your kid once they have their mobile number. In such cases, parents can’t help but resort to WhatsApp spy Android or iPhone app to keep an eye on their kid’s instant messages.
When it comes to keeping a close check on your kid’s smartphone activities, including their WhatsApp conversations, the water turns murkier; it means the situation becomes unclear for parents. Many parents think monitoring kid’s messages is equivalent to invading their privacy. On the other hand, some parents think that it is completely okay to keep a check on kid’s online activities and chats because only then they can know if their kid is safe on the internet.
This topic might be debatable for parents but an open and honest conversation with your kids can help you come up with a solution. Monitoring shouldn’t be meant to invade your kid’s privacy; it is done only to ensure their safety from harmful online dangers.
There are a couple of things that you can do for your own peace of mind and to make sure that your kids understand why you need to monitor their online activity and how it will be helpful to them. Some of those things are as follows:
Have Open and Honest Conversations
Nothing beats having a heart-to-heart tête-à-tête with your kids. Every parent should make it a habit to have honest and open conversations with their kids every day. As a parent, it is important for you to know about your kid’s friend circle, where they go after school, who they hang out with on weekends, etc.
If you feel that your kid is experiencing something embarrassing online or is being threatened by someone, you should try asking them about it. That is one of the easiest ways to get to the root of the problem. Pay close attention to your kid’s body language, their facial expressions, and even the usage of smartphones and the internet.
Set Some Ground Rules
Once you decide to hand over a smartphone to your kid and give them access to the world of the internet and social media, you need to first set some ground rules for them. Teach your kids to never interact with a stranger online especially on messaging apps like WhatsApp. It is easier for a stranger to get your kid’s number through a random WhatsApp group and send them a private message there.
Make sure your kid tells you if someone outside of their friend’s circle tries to get in touch with them. In case someone does, teach them ways to ignore them. They can either block them and report their messages (if they sound inappropriate to them). You should also educate your kids to use the internet safely and responsibly. Also, set some limits on their smartphone and internet usage to prevent addiction.
Enable Privacy Settings
The good thing about most messaging apps including WhatsApp is that they come with a set of predefined privacy and safety settings. Enable all the necessary privacy settings on your kid’s WhatsApp so they can stay away from strangers and stalkers.
Settings such as Last seen, Profile photo, About, and status can be changed to keep your kids as safe as possible on WhatsApp. You can even enable settings for Groups and Live location. If someone tries to trouble your kid on the app, teach them to block them right away.
Observe Your Kid’s Behavior
Another way to know whether or not your kid is facing trouble on the internet is by closely observing your kid’s overall behavior. Nobody knows a kid better than their parents so you would instantly know if there is something off in your kid’s behavior.
If you think there is something amiss with your kid or they have turned secretive all of a sudden, it is high time you have a conversation with them to know what’s going on in their life. Looking for answers to questions like “how to track someone’s phone” on the internet may help you come across a way to monitor your kid’s smartphone activity but we would highly recommend having a word with them first. If you have a gut feeling that their smartphone needs to be monitored, you need to go for it then.
Use a Monitoring App
Last but not least, get your hands on an effective and trustworthy monitoring app to monitor all your kid’s smartphone activity including WhatsApp chats. Mobistealth is the best monitoring app that you can consider for remotely monitoring your kid’s WhatsApp messages.
All incoming and outgoing messages will be recorded and sent to your online dashboard from where you can remotely monitor them any time of the day. You just need to sign up to Mobistealth on its website, download the app, and have it installed on your kid’s smartphone. This is one of the easiest ways to know who your kid is talking to on WhatsApp and what sort of messages are they exchanging with others. Stop doubting about the use of monitoring apps and start monitoring your kid before it gets too late.
