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How to set up a phone or tablet for a child
The days of simply remembering to buy some AA batteries are over. Parents now spend more time in the lead-up to Christmas and birthdays performing system updates and charging controllers than wrapping boxes or installing batteries. But there's another wrinkle in gifting electronics to children that, if you don't get right, will make your life way more difficult than it needs to be: family controls. While it's not for me, or anyone, to dictate your parenting style, I am constantly surprised at how poor a grasp my friends have on their children's electronic lives. Every horror story about a kid racking up hundreds of dollars of in-app purchases is absolutely preventable, and, when used correctly, family plans and controls can serve as a solid way to educate your family on online safety, controlled spending, the power of advertisements and other aspects of digital wellbeing. My family uses iPhones and iPads, so this article will largely focus on those devices, but Google has a similar suite of options for Android, which I'll briefly touch on and link out to for more information.
