Why Consider Android for Your Kid’s First Smartphone?

We are a part of the digital world where our kids start asking for a smartphone as soon as they start talking. It is a dilemma for most parents when it comes to deciding which smartphone would be best for the kids.

Handing a smartphone to a kid as soon as you think they have become responsible can be a bit challenging for parents. On one hand, a phone lets you keep in touch with your kid whenever they are out and on the other, it’s a gateway to the darker side of the internet.

However, it has been seen that the pros of handing your kid a phone will always outweigh the cons, especially if you want to stay in touch with your kid who is about to head off to college or university. In our point of view, Android phones make a better choice for your kids compared to iPhones. The reason is, you can always install an Android spy app on their phone easily to monitor them.

Moreover, with the help of an Android device, you can control your kid’s screen time as well as the apps and sites they visit. Making your kid use an Android device is favourable because you can hand them the device after installing a parental control or monitoring app on it. This way you can let your kid access the phone and at the same time, monitor what they have been up to.

Below, we have listed a few reasons why you should consider an Android device for your kid. Read on:

Manage Screen Time

An Android phone makes a better option for your kid’s first smartphone as it lets you install a parental control app on it so you can manage screen time. You can review how much time your kid has spent on an app on their phone. If you think they have been spending too much time on Instagram, then don’t worry. You can limit the time to only 30 minutes every day.

If you find your kid spending too much time on their Android phone, then that’s not a problem because you can always set daily time allowances to see how much time your kids are spending on social media apps. You can also control your kid’s bedtime usage by not allowing them to use the phones in their bedrooms at night.

Better App Management

Android phones provide better app management with a parental control app. You can block any app installed on your kid’s device that you deem inappropriate. If you want to allow specific apps such as educational apps to work past any screen time limits, you can also do that on Android phones.

For instance, you can set a web browser as the default one and block all the others such as Chrome, Firefox, and the stock web browser. This will enable your kid to only access one web browser on their Android device.

Calls and Texts Management

When a parental control app is installed, you can monitor and manage the incoming and outgoing phone calls and text messages on your kid’s Android phone. The in-built dictionary in most parental control apps helps parents get notified when a bad word is used in any of the incoming and outgoing text messages.

On the other hand, all the unknown numbers your kid has been interacting with will also get flagged so you can reach out to them and find out who they are. With the call management feature, you can monitor who calls your kid and at what times. You can block and allow numbers on your kid’s phone after reviewing them.

Safe Web Browsing

Parental control apps help us block all web browsers on our kid’s Android devices so they cannot go around installing them. They can only use the one that has been set to be the default web browser on their device. This will help our kids stay away from inappropriate content that they may find on other web browsers.

It’s important to enable privacy settings on the default web browser on your kid’s phone so they cannot stumble upon explicit content on the internet. You need to block all the unsuitable sites on their phone that you do not want them to visit.  On Android devices, you can set one web browser as default and block the rest whereas with iOS devices you do not have any such option.

Monitoring YouTube

Another reason to hand your kid an Android phone instead of an iPhone is that you can monitor their YouTube activity if you have installed a reliable parental control app on it. You can monitor all the videos your kid has watched and look for all the searches they have made on the YouTube app. Also, you can enable privacy settings within the YouTube app and restrict your kid from watching inappropriate videos.

The inbuilt privacy settings on YouTube may seem enough to restrict your kid from viewing inappropriate videos but with the help of an Android spy app, you can add an extra layer of security for your kid’s safety.

Economical to Replace

Last but not least, considering Android phone as your kid’s first smartphone is a better option because it is economical than an iPhone device. There is a high chance that your kid might break their first smartphone. They could either drop the phone into the water at a river stream on a school trip, drop it on the floor resulting in a cracked screen or simply losing it somewhere.

Keeping that in mind, there is no point in handing them an expensive phone. Get them a cheap Android device so that in case it is lost or broken, you wouldn’t have to worry about spending a fortune on it.