It is very tough for parents to take away screen time and access to digital devices from teens. Parents don’t realize that suddenly snatching the cellphones connected to cyberspace would create unacceptable behavior among teens. From toddlers to teens, electronic devices have become part of their lives. Parents should know about the outcomes of taking the child’s phone away. Now the question arises, should parents come between a teenager and her smartphone?
Cutting your teens off from cellphones and iPads could be full of arguments because you are cutting them off from their friends. Your teens could become violent and aggressive when you confiscate their phones or try to search their mobile phones. The socially networked teens have their virtual world to meet friends similar to real–life.
Why Should Parents Take Away your Child’s Phone?
We used to see our kids spending too much time on phones and tapping all the time on the screen. Finally, we realize that teens are missing real-life communication and meetings. Though virtual communication has its benefits, at the same time, it could make your teens introvert. The social media activities of teens are similar to hanging out on playgrounds because social networks do provide such privileges virtually, according to Alice Marwick, principal research at Microsoft New England. She has spent almost a decade studying youth social media usage.
Social media apps on phones are the modern time’s movie theaters and playgrounds where teens used to go and hang out with friends virtually by using cellphones, Alice Marwick further added.
Social networking platforms enable teens to interact with each other, like messaging, voice and video calls, and media sharing without adult oversight. Adult supervision in real–life is a hindrance between teenagers, but cellphones connected to the internet provide complete privacy. Limits communication on social networks makes teenagers comfortable while having a conversation with known and unknown virtual friends.
“The Social Lives of Networked Teens” is a book written by Dr. Boyd. The book explains the digital social lives of young people. Popular social communication channels, like Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and many more enable teenagers to express themselves fully and get their digital citizenship. Young teenagers are doing experiments with an identity in terms of selfies, slang, and by sharing media on social networks.
The Study Says- Social Media Is Replacing Real-lives Relationships
A new study finds that internet addiction among teenagers is a serious issue. A poll revealed that adolescents have weak control over time spent online, over their activity timelines, and priority setting.
The cellphone and social media addicted teenagers are replacing real-life relationships, according to study findings. It further says that teenager cyberspace obsession has become an issue for parents. A study has published that most teenagers have less control over excessive time spending on cellphones connected to cyberspace.
They cannot resist the internet and social media activities. More than 95% of teenagers have access to cellphones, and more than 75% remain online all day long on social Apps, Like Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, Tiktok and many more.
Why Do Parents Take Away Child’s Phones
The first and foremost outcome between parents and teenagers is that sudden and massive emotional backlash. Taking your teen’s phone away could break down the level of trust in the parent’s child relationship. Most parents take teens’ phones away as punishment due to excessive screen time and inappropriate activities on social media and phone browsers. Taking the cell phone away could result in the kid’s withdrawal from the parents. Teens become violent and unwilling to resolve their issues and stay away from their parents. Moreover, sneaky behavior may occur in teens, and they do their best to have a cell phone in secret to interact with friends and perform online activities they used to.
The cellphone has become a lifeline between the teenager and her phone. Beth Porters, a clinical psychologist in Westminster, Colorado, said that. Removing teen’s cellphones from their lives could exchange heated arguments, he added.
Pros and Cons of taking your Child’s Phone Away
Most of the parents become punishers when teens are violating ground rules. Authoritative parenting can come out with good results, but snatching the phone all the time is not a solution. You might have seen that your teens are up to something inappropriate, and you should discuss it with your kids. You can ask for an explanation, and you can guide your child about the consequences of the activities. You have to connect with your kids on social media and their every online search.
Parents can use a trick that can limit teens’ access to their cell phone devices by using the parental control option. You can customize browsing activities, social media access, live calls, and text message conversations of your teen.
You don’t take the phone away, but you can limit the usage by using parental controls. Suppose your teen is involved in sexting and sharing explicit images on Snapchat. You can block the unwanted applications for a limited period. It will help you to train your child how he/she can use social media appropriately.
Let your teens do every kind of activity on cellphone installed social networks to learn about the trial and error, says Dr. Steiner-Adair. It will enable you to teach your child about how to manage the relationship with technology.
Before You Take That Phone—Consider These Outcomes First
There are the following mentioned responses every parent could face after taking a teen phone away.
- The teenager could take it as an invasion of privacy when you snatch their phones away.
- Your teens could become a barbarian and got mood swings
- Most of the teens become violent and seems to lost all the time
- Your teens will not trust you anymore
- They could use borrowed cellphone devices from friends
- Your child could face peer pressure & their friends could make fun of him/her.
Asking your teen to give up a cellphone during exams is logically correct, but getting the phone back out of no way could result in an alarming situation. Most of the teens start spending nights with friends without the consent of the parents and parents have to find them out by using police help. On the other hand, you can do promise your child that you will not make a search into their phone. Suddenly taking the kid’s phone away makes the teen think she is not trustworthy.
Should Parents Come In Between Teenagers & Their Phone?
Parents should keep an eye on their kids’ phones and how they are using phones when kids are walking away from real-life communication. Moreover, teens get involved in online dating and online bullying. Social media can damage your child’s well-being if they are obsessed with social media fantasies.
Teens are more likely to be trapped by online predators, like stalkers, sexual predators, and child traffickers. Your teens are using a cellphone device during breakfast and sleeping, and then you need to worry. If your teens are using cellphones secretly, you can come between the teenager and her phone.
Social media communication makes your kid lack proper listening, hearing, and emotions in real–life conversations. When you see that your child is no more acting on real-life emotions. You have to take quick action to ensure the teen’s safety.
Parents should make ground rules to avoid online bullying, online dating, and sharing explicit images on social media using devices connected to cyberspace. Teach your child not to use a cellphone while eating, while having conversations with parents, and when they are walking on the roads and riding in vehicles. If all the precautions and ground roles are worthless and your child has gone beyond the limits.
Use TheOneSpy Parental Control as the Best Options
Rather than snatching their cellphones to ensure the safety of teens, use parental monitoring apps like TheOneSpy. It is the best option for parents to catch their teen red-handedly. You have to install TheOneSpy parental control app on their kids’ devices. It will empower you to monitor every activity on digital devices connected to cyberspace. Not only does it monitor social apps logs, like text messages, conversations, voice, and video calls. You can remotely block apps, live incoming calls, and text messages.
Having a cellphone monitoring app on your teen’s phone can benefit you a lot and enable you to monitor cellphone activity. You can snoop into the teen’s phone and prevent teens from inappropriate activity. Furthermore, you can filter social networking apps, online dating apps, and you can stay updated. You can remotely block inappropriate activity. There is no need to take a teen’s cellphone away, but keeping an eye on every activity would be a handy option for you.
Conclusion:
Taking a teenager’s phone away is not a solution for their online safety. However, keeping an eye on their digital phones, social media activities, browsing activities, call logs, GPS location, and to know about inappropriate activities, use TheOneSpy app. You cannot make your child vulnerable to inappropriate activity by snatching phones. You can set parental control on cellphones secretly by using parental monitoring software.
Commonly Asked Questions By Parents
The overprotective nature of parents sometimes leads parents to take away the phones of teens for no reason. Online dangers are on the rise. Parents can examine all the activities of teenagers secretly and remotely by using a cellphone tracking app. The instinct of parents can make kids barbarian by coming between a teenager and her phone.
Cell phones are necessary these days. It enables teens to make phone calls, send and receive text messages in a critical situation, like kidnapping and abduction. Parents can track their GPS location if they have already installed a cell phone GPS tracker app. Moreover, teens can interact with their parents all day long while at school or coming from school.
Your daughter could be a social media addict and also get involved in digital fantasies. Online dating, hookups, and watching inappropriate content are the signs that make your daughter spend too much time on cellphone devices. You can have adult oversight without taking her phone away. You can set a parental control on social media to know why she is always on her phone.
As we have discussed in this post that taking phones away would create a trust deficit. Your child could become violent, aggressive, and could borrow a cellphone to fulfill their social media fantasies. Your child could take it as a potential breach of privacy. You cannot snatch your child’s cellphone. However, you can install the TheOneSpy phone tracker app. It will enable you to look into the activities secretly without them knowing.
You can get your hands on the cellphone parental monitoring apps, and you can get them by searching on the web. You can install it on your phone and track every activity on your cellphone device remotely. You should go for TheOneSpy. It is an application that is packed with multiple mobile parental solutions for Android and tablet devices. It is the best Phone monitoring software for parental control on the web and has swept the web on dozens of occasions.
