topic Re: Phone over usage in Get Support

Phone over usage

JKMoma — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:23:39 GMT

My teenager is becoming a total phone addict. Is there a way to control that? Temporarily shut off his phone or service? He is not ready to part with it come what may and I am a single parent. Thanks

Re: Phone over usage

hTideGnow — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:08:33 GMT

HI @JKMoma

it is something you need to educate your kid

not sure if your teenager is a very smart one, if he has an Android, you can try to change the APN to something wrong so he cannot get data. Or you can download some app to lock the settings menu. Withat that, you can then disable data and lock the settings

Re: Phone over usage

kb_mv — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:12:14 GMT

@JKMoma A friend of mine has an app on their kid's phones that control when they are allowed to access the internet and messaging apps. Not sure what it is but if google "program to control kids phone time" a number of possibilities pop up.

Re: Phone over usage

JKMoma — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:15:25 GMT

Been educating but he's a headstrong defiant teenager who knows everything lol

Re: Phone over usage

dust2dust — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:26:16 GMT

Be the parent. Not his friend. Is he paying for it from his own earnings?
Isn't there a parental controls system on the phone? I played with that once upon a time and it was a bear to get back to normal. I just wanted to back out of it but it was not easy.

Re: Phone over usage

Gwanzi — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:35:26 GMT

You can set a parental model of your kid’s phone, it will relax your life but stress your kid.

Re: Phone over usage

JKMoma — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:38:43 GMT

How plz

Re: Phone over usage

Chalupa_Batman — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:40:36 GMT

Change their plan to the 100 minutes $15 plan with only 100mb of data. This will teach him to pay attention to the time he uses. He doesn't like that, take the phone away. You are the parent, not his friend.

EDIT: Go out and purchase a flip phone. Place the SIM card in the flip phone and take away the smartphone.

Re: Phone over usage

hTideGnow — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:40:59 GMT

@Chalupa_Batman wrote:
Change their plan to the 100 minutes $15 plan with only 100mb of data. This will teach him to pay attention to the time he uses. He doesn't like that, take the phone away. You are the parent, not his friend.

HI @Chalupa_Batman

$15 plan has 250Mb data 🙂

Re: Phone over usage

Chalupa_Batman — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:01:33 GMT

See, this is what I get for my first day of not drinking coffee! 😋

Re: Phone over usage

hTideGnow — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:03:08 GMT

haha @Chalupa_Batman

not sure you are good parent, you thought giving them 100Mb but they have more than double to use.. LoL

Re: Phone over usage

Meow — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:06:52 GMT

@Chalupa_Batman wrote:
Change their plan to the 100 minutes $15 plan with only 100mb of data. This will teach him to pay attention to the time he uses. He doesn't like that, take the phone away. You are the parent, not his friend.

It will not help if they have WiFi at home. Even though they could block his MAC on WiFi.

And free WiFi is everywhere. So it is a matter of going to Walmart or McDon, etc. and spend all time on the phone.

Lowering plan to $15 would not stop him to purchase add-ons all the time and run mobile bill sky high...

Re: Phone over usage

Chalupa_Batman — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:20:17 GMT

Tend to disagree on that.

Change to a flip phone.

Do not give son password for account so purchases can't be made. Kids are smart so don't autosave password on your browser.

Have fun surfing the internet at McDonald's on a flip phone. You'd be the coolest kid there. LOL.

Re: Phone over usage

dust2dust — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:33:33 GMT

@Chalupa_Batman- I like the flip phone idea. But the hipster/privacy freak/anti-tracking folks are going back to flip phones. And then @Meow is right about the text add-on offers that the kid could just say yes to.