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. 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. Parents should know about the outcomes of taking teen’s cellphones away. Now the question arises, should parents come between a teenager and her smartphone?
Social Media Has Replaced The Real-life Activities Of Teens
We used to see our kids spending too much time on phones and taping 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 networks 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 teen” is a book written by Dr. Boyd. The book explains the digital social lives of young people. The 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.
Social Media Is Replacing Real-lives Relationships – The Study Says
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 networks, Like Facebook, SnapChat, and many more.
What Happens When You Come Between A Teenagers And Their Phone?
The first and foremost outcome between parents and teenagers is that sudden and massive emotional backlash. Taking your teen phone away could break down the level of trust in the parent’s child relationship. Taking the cell phone away could result in the kid’s withdrawal from the parents. Most parents take teens’ phones away as punishment due to excessive screen time and inappropriate activities on social media and phone browsers. 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.
Confiscating Your Teen’s Phone Without Alternatives Could Result In The Following:
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
- Your teens will not trust you anymore
- Most of the teens become violent and seems to lost all the time
- 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.
Are You Double-minded? To Take The Cellphone Or Not To Take From Teens!
Most of the parents become punishers when teens are violating ground roles. 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 with your kid. 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 teen’s access to their cellphone device by using the parental wellbeing option. You can custom browsing activities, social media access, live calls, and text messages conversations of your teen.
You don’t take the phone away, but you can limit the phone usage by using cellphone installed parental controls. Suppose your teen is involved in sexting and sharing explicit images on Snapchat, and you can remove the application manually for a limited period. It will help you out 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.
When Should You Come In Between The Teenagers & Their Phone?
Parents should keep an eye on kids how they are using digital phones when kids are walking away from real-life communication all the time. Moreover, teens get involves 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 trap 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 cellphone secretly you can come between the teenager and her phone.
Social media communication makes your kid lacking proper listening, hearing, and emotions in real –life conversations. When you see your child is no more acting on real-life emotion. You have to take quick action to make sure teens safety. Parents should make ground roles to avoid online bullying, online dating, and sharing explicit images on social media using cellphone 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, then go for the nuclear options.
How Should Parents Opt For Nuclear Options?
Rather than snatching their cellphones to make sure the safety of teens, use phone parental monitoring apps. It is the best nuclear option for parents to catch their teen red-handedly. You have to install a cellphone parental control app on their digital phones. It will empower you to monitor every activity on digital phones connected to cyberspace. Not only it monitors social network 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. You can remotely block inappropriate activity. You can filter social networking apps, online dating apps and you can stay updated. There is no need to taking a teen’s cellphone away, but keeping an eye on every activity would be a handy option for you.
Commonly Asked Questions By Parents
Why Do Parents Take Away Phones For No Reason?
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.
Why Is It Important For A Teenager To Have A Phone?
Cellphone devices 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 already have installed a cellphone GPS tracker. Moreover, teens can interact with their parents all day long while at school or coming from school.
Why Is My Daughter Always On Her Phone?
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.
Why Taking Your Child's Phone Is Bad?
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 a phone tracker app. It will enable you to look into the activities secretly without them knowing.
What Is The Solution Instead Of Taking A Teenager's Phone?
You can get your hands on the cellphone parental monitoring apps, and you can get it by searching on the web. You can install it on your phone and iPad and track every activity on your cellphone device remotely. If you are unaware about any cellphone spy app, then you should go for TheOneSpy. It is an application that is pack with multiple mobile parental solutions for android, iPhone, iPads and tablet devices. It is the best iPhone monitoring software for parental control on the web and has swept the web on dozens of occasions.
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 cellphone parental control 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.
