Kids are getting their first mobile phones at younger ages than ever before. As cell phones become increasingly common among children, a number of problems have cropped up. Using phones to cheat on tests in school, running up excessive text message charges and participating in sexting are all things that kids are doing which worry their parents. We’re beyond the point of simply refusing to let our kids get a cell phone until they turn eighteen so what should we do? Parents are starting to rely heavily on the options that are becoming available to them for setting parental controls on their children’s phones.

Here is a look at the major options that are available to parents for monitoring and limiting their kids’ mobile phone use.

Parental Control Programs for Cell Phones

The best way to monitor children’s mobile phone use is to use parental control programs that are similar to those that are used for Internet filtering in the home. These programs have only recently started to come on to the market but they’re likely to attract a lot of attention from parents very quickly. Most tech-savvy parents are already familiar with monitoring their kids’ use of technology using these programs because they do it on their home computers. Even those who aren’t using Internet filtering at home may take an interest in using these simple programs to monitor and control their kids’ cell phone use.

The best example of this type of option is a new software program called Mobile Nanny. Some of the things that parents can do using this new software include:

- View all of the child’s cell phone activities. Parents are able to access a history of all of the calls that are made and text messages that are exchanged. Parents can access this information through the mobile phone itself or through password-protected access to an Internet website. If the information is accessed through the web then the child doesn’t even know have to know that the parent is monitoring activity; the information will silently upload to the parents’ account without ever being noticeable to the child. In addition to viewing the activity that’s taken place on the phone, parents can also use the phone’s GPS logs to monitor where their children have been.
- Place blocks on the child’s phone to prevent certain activity. Parents can prohibit children from doing certain things by placing blocks on the cell phone. This includes blocking phone numbers so that kids can’t text or call certain people as well as blocking certain websites from mobile web access via the phone.
- Place restrictions on the child’s mobile phone use. Parents can also use the program to create restrictions for the child’s cell phone. For example, they can restrict the hours during which the child can use the phone (making it unusable during school hours or after curfew).

This is the type of parental control that is going to be most useful for parents on cell phones. (Two programs similar to this one are My Mobile Watchdog and RuleSpace.) This method of monitoring is likely to be the wave of the future in terms of kids, parents and mobile phones.

Cell Phone Plans with Built-in Parental Controls

Although we’re only beginning to see software-based services like Mobile Nanny hit the market with full force, the basic monitoring offered by these programs has been available to some parents for several years. That is because there are some phone companies that offer this exact type of monitoring and limitation as a service that can be added to the cost of your monthly mobile phone plan. For example, parents in the United States who use the carrier AT&T can pay approximately $5 per month for the AT&T Smart Limits for Wireless. This service allows parents to set limits on the total number of calls or messages allowed, the number of downloads allowed, the amount of time allowed for web browsing and when the phone can be used. Parents can also use the service to block specific phone numbers and to filter inappropriate web content. Several other carriers offer similar services for parents.

Mobile Phones Designed to Limit Kids’ Options

An option that many parents have used is to choose phones that are specifically designed for limited use by young children. Firefly is the most popular example of a phone for tweens and younger kids. This is a phone with very limited use that doesn’t access the web and can only call a few select numbers (such as the parents’ home and work numbers). Parents who are giving a first phone to their children may use this option to limit what the kids are able to do with their mobile phones. It’s not a solution that is going to last through the teen years but it’s a start.

The Old Fashioned Method of Monitoring Kids

Of course, there are some parents out there who are still using old school methods of monitoring or limiting their children’s cell phone use. Some of the tactics employed by these parents include:

- Refusing to get their child a mobile phone at all.
- Strictly monitoring mobile phone activity by reviewing the data on mobile phone bills each month.
- Taking the phone away as punishment when the child is caught doing things with the phone that he or she should not be doing.

Regardless of which method of parental control monitoring you use you need to make sure that you’re talking over the issues that concern you with your kids. In the end, the line of communication that matters most in this situation isn’t the one between your child and the person on the other end of the phone; it’s the one between you and your child!