Holiday Smartphone Buying And Safety Tips For Parents

Smartphones are sure to top many teens’ and tweens’ holiday wish lists. According to Nielsen, American teenagers between 13 and 17 years old demonstrate the most dramatic increase in U.S. smartphone adoption, growing from 36 percent of teens who own mobile phones saying they owned a smartphone in July 2011 to 58 percent in July 2012 – a 61 percent increase.*

Parents may be concerned about the responsibility that comes along with owning a smartphone: How do I ensure my son or daughter makes wise decisions when using their smartphone? How do I keep it from disrupting school, sleep and family time? What happens if they lose it?

Applications within the Sprint Guardian family safety and security bundle can help give parents peace of mind by allowing them to:

• Monitor their child’s talk, text and app use habits.
• Browse their child’s contacts and apps.
• Lock their child’s phone during dinner, school, late at night or while driving.
• Quickly and easily locate family members on an interactive map.
• Set up automatic location checks to be notified when their child made it to school (or another destination) safely and on time.
• Protect smartphones from evolving mobile threats including malware, spyware, phishing and malicious websites.
• Find a family member’s lost phone on a map, sound an alarm, and lock or wipe the device to protect personal information.
• Easily protect and manage their family’s mobile devices, including backing up photos, contacts and call history.

“I encourage parents to have an open conversation with their children about how to use their mobile phone safely and responsibly but also to take advantage of technology available to them, such as these Sprint Guardian applications,” said parenting expert Amy McCready. “We can’t always control our kids, but we can try to control the environment and take away that temptation to use their phone at inappropriate times. Instead of physically taking the phone away, I have found the Sprint Guardian applications really helpful, convenient and affordable.”

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