You’ve seen the apps drifting across the cityscape in the most recent commercial from Sprint. The one that ends with a cherubic kiddo, maybe 5 years old, playing with what we assume is his parent’s iPhone 4S as the voice over asks, “Why would anyone want to limit the iPhone?”
Did I hear that right?
What next? Disney touting parent-free cruises to Amsterdam?
Everyone that has kids wants to limit the iPhone. The fact that Sprint uses the image of a kid playing on a phone to promote their unlimited data plans tells me that they kind of don’t get it. A feeling that is only enhanced when I look at the parental controls they offer. While they do not charge for their suite of controls (props for that), they offer fewer features than the more robust offerings from ATT and Verizon. No time limits, no text budgeting. Sometimes limits are a good thing, or didn’t your parents teach you that, Sprint?
Some of the biggest challenges parents face when putting limits on kids with iPhones have nothing to do with the carrier. Let’s take the kid in the commercial as an example. He’s obviously playing with mom or dad’s (can’t really tell who has their back turned) iPhone 4S. What’s to stop him from crashing around, altering contacts, making international calls, editing documents and shooting a few videos all in an effort to launch Jetpack Joyride?
For many moms and dads, their phones are repositories, or at least gateways, to our most valuable and mission critical information. Yet, sooner or later, we all hand that thing over to the kid. How to keep your digital info safe and the kid occupied in the waiting room of the doctor’s office?
The good news is that there’s an app for that. When launched, Sandbox (from Austin’s own Famigo) creates a kid-safe environment of apps and content that simultaneously keeps the grown-up’s stuff safe.
The bad news is that it’s only available on Droid devices. Some API issue that is way over my head prevents them from offering an iPhone app. Hey, Apple! Free Famigo! (Watch our video profiling their app.)
And as long as we’re dreaming, why not allow the creation of multiple user accounts for each iPhone — the way you can with an iMac? One account could be unrestricted, the other would not screen YouTube, be allowed to change settings, to download inappropriate content, etc.
In the meanwhile, I’ve put all the games my kids can play in one folder. I ask them not to leave that folder without asking me. That keeps them from accidentally altering some essential setting — which they still somehow manage to do. Every time.
What issues have you encountered when handing back your iPhone?
We’ve been using Kid Mode for six months. It’s on Android and iOS as well as Chrome for computers. They recently added the ability to add phone apps to their “lockdown” so you can let the little ones play Angry Birds or whatever. I’m still not sure the lock works on the iOS devices since we mostly use the phones. But it does give you a report of the things your kids are doing (multiple IDs per device for tracking) and they rate the activities by skill and learning areas. It’s pretty killer. But Duncan just wants to watch Cars videos anymore, so we haven’t been pointing him that direction as much as we had wanted to.
Shoot. I meant to add that I’m not so sure that the onus is on the communication company. In the case of the iOS devices, it’s clearly an oversight by Apple. Getting an app to lock the phone down is free so it shouldn’t matter if it’s not preloaded. If a mobile company offered that kind of service, I’d expect them to charge something if it were totally up to the “utility”. Apple just needs to find a way to allow a lock down into an app that can have an alternate exit scheme.
As for managing a kid’s mobile usage, yeah, that’s on the company. No one else can cut or queue messages and calls.
We’re an iPhone house. My toddler son loves playing Peekaboo Barn / Safari / Forest. He also loves to press the Home button which exits the app. Which prompts him to hand the device back to us and say, “Peekaboo please!”
As I understand it from the iOS developer with whom I work, Apple doesn’t offer the functionality in their development environment to lock out the physical buttons.
However, Fisher Price released a product called the Laugh & Learn Apptivity Case to solve exactly the aforementioned problem. Not does it prevent your child from accessing the home buttons, it protects the phone from drool and from being damaged when dropped (or thrown).
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2341&e=product&pcat=bulnl&pid=64176
It doesn’t stop them from monkeying with the phone’s settings, but I guess that’s why Apple gave us restore mode.
A solution I’ve seen some friends fall back to is ponying up the money to buy their child an iPod Touch. You can share apps, music, videos, etc. from the same iTunes account, so you don’t have to repurchase everything. If you child doesn’t NEED an actual phone, the iPod Touch is a good option.
@Ben Thanks for the tip on Kid Mode. I’ll run that one down.
@jonfisher I’ll check out Peekaboo Barn. Sounds cute. I hear you in the iPod Touch. Santa may be bringing one here (shhhh). They are quite pricey, and we’ve lost one already — fortunately it was one that Apple sent me to test. I think it’s an excellent option, maybe the best for younger gamers. But there are always going to be times when all you have is your phone, and an antsy kid.
Also, I accidentally drank the high-octane coffee at the office this morning. Please forgive my glaring typos.
Just saw this on Yahoo! Spy apps running in the background… http://news.yahoo.com/smartphone-spying-204933867.html
Um, YIKES!