Is Viewing Contacts on Your Child’s Phone Necessary?

Until 10 years ago, it was not common for children to have cell phones. Smartphones weren’t even widespread at the time, so parents didn’t have to worry about potential problems that could arise from their children using such devices.

But today the situation has changed significantly. Every child has a smart device when they are big enough to hold it. Children play games on them, watch various content, chat, and do practically everything that adults do. Although it is terrific on the one hand, because it develops their brains and prepares them for future life, it also brings a lot of dangers.

The danger is especially significant if the parent is unaware of what the child is doing while using a smart device. However, this raises an ethical concern: is it acceptable to spy on one's children and thereby violate their privacy? All this provokes many debates, and there is no single simple answer to whether you should spy on them. So, please read our article about whether viewing contacts on your child’s phone is necessary, as well as other related topics that are giving headaches to parents around the globe.

Is viewing contacts on your child’s phone necessary?

Parents are usually unsure whether they should spy on all or just certain parts, so it first occurs to them to have an insight into the contacts recorded in the child's phone. This can undoubtedly be useful, but only as part of a broader spying to gain insight into what the kid is doing. It is essential to know who he is talking to, but remember that today, conversations are primarily conducted through social networks like Facebook. As you probably know, to communicate with someone on Facebook or Instagram, you don't need their contact information. It is undoubtedly helpful and could be said necessary to have insight into contacts, thanks to apps like Viber and the phone calls themselves. However, don’t have a false sense of security because of it. We tell you that video and audio calls can be made through Facebook. Contacts are just one part you must spy on, but you must do the rest.

Please read below for instructions on how to proceed and what additional information you need to monitor.

How do you view contacts on your child’s phone?

Having an insight into what your child is doing on their phone has never been more straightforward. Even if you have a tech-savvy child, all it would take for you to monitor their activity and view their contacts is a phone-spying app.

Phone-spying apps have a bad reputation because people often associate them with privacy breaches and similar things, but that is not what we advise you to do. In the case of minors, betraying their trust can only lead to more serious problems, so you must be transparent with them about your intentions. Even though you don’t have any legal obligations to disclose to your children that you are monitoring their phone activity, if you are the device owner, we suggest that you do.

This will create a bond between you and your child, and even though you would have a complete overview of what they do on their phones, you would still do it in a way that doesn’t betray their trust.

In most cases, the spying/monitoring apps must be installed on the device you plan to keep tabs on. Those apps aren’t hidden. They will be visible to the device user. Furthermore, they can’t just magically appear out of thin air – you have to be the one to install them. From the outset, your child will be aware that their activity is being monitored, their location is tracked, and their contacts are being viewed.

The setup of these apps is remarkably easy. It doesn’t require rooting your device and works equally well on both iPhones and Android phones. It does not work on Linux phones, but we assume you wouldn’t use a Linux device to torture your child. All jokes aside, all it takes is for you to go to the App Store or the Play Store and download the app you plan on using, and that’s it. It’s just smooth sailing from there on.

The control panel will be on your mobile device or your computer, from which you’ll be able to see pretty much everything on your child’s device – who they talk to, what they browse on the internet, how much they use their phone, where they are at all times, etc.

Remember, these apps don’t come free and are often supported through some subscription. Rarely are they free, and if they are, they’re usually not as effective, or they require you to tamper with the monitored device, which we recommend you avoid. If you do, you will not only void the warranty but also make the phone more vulnerable to hacking, potentially allowing someone else to have the same monitoring privileges as you.

What Can You See or Control Through A Spying App?

As we’ve mentioned, these spying apps are compelling, allowing you to do more than keep an eye on your child's location. Here are only some of them.

Viewing Contacts

Some argue that the feature isn’t nearly as valuable as advertised, but we believe in preventing problems before they occur. At the same time, it is true that just looking at a contact list isn’t going to do much on its own, having an insight into who your child talks to will.

Knowing, at all times, who and when your child is talking to can prevent more problems than we could imagine. Let’s say, for instance, your teenage daughter is talking to someone of age, a 21-year-old guy. From their perspective, it is only a few years between them, especially for the girl. She is conversing with a slightly older, seemingly more mature guy than the one in her school. The guy isn’t necessarily a predator or an ill-minded person – he could just be ignorant, but it is your job to ensure nothing bad comes out of it.

This is only one instance in which viewing contacts could positively affect every party involved. You see, we’re witnessing many negative things happening to our children and youngsters, both due to ignorance and ill intentions, and unless we take the necessary steps, nothing will change.

Control apps and content

Although most parents initially consider the dangers of communicating over the Internet, a significant problem, equal attention should also be paid to controlling the apps and content available to the child. With all the fantastic content found on the Internet, there is also much that a child should never encounter. Many malicious programs can steal data or damage devices; therefore, it is up to you to limit the apps that can be accessed. Also, the Internet is full of content like pornography and violence, which is something you don't want your kid to see. So, limit the apps to only the most popular ones with high security. It would be beneficial to gain insight into their activities on social networks, as their dangers are also often hidden.

Monitor location

It has never been easier to know where your child is than it is today, thanks to the help of apps and GPS. Know at all times that your child is safe and that he is where he told you he would be, not that he is lying to you. Once you have a trusting relationship with your child, deviating from the agreed route will be a red alert, and you can react in time. That is why it is necessary to have this option, especially for children under 12, because they are most susceptible to various dangers. There is an option to check the child's location, and you can also enable the app to send you a report every half hour or hour.

Reasons why it is justified to monitor their activity

It is crucial to keep track of your child’s smartphone for various reasons. Some of the most common dangers are:

-Cyberbullying - As our lives have moved mainly to a cyber environment, bullying has taken on a new form, called cyberbullying. Children are bullied in the same way as they live, except that physical violence is not usually involved, but only emotional violence. But it causes equal stress and negative consequences for the psyche. You can't miss activities when you monitor activities, which is important because kids don’t usually say things like that right away.

Kids often pent up their emotions and rarely ever talk about problems like cyberbullying, and that could cause an array of psychological issues. We all know how ruthless kids can be face-to-face, so you can only imagine how horrible they become when the screen protects them. They will say the most gruesome, meanest things to another kid, and if that kid is yours, you have to know about it.

-Sexting - Something that older children usually do in their teens. Then the sexual urge is more potent, and that is why it is not uncommon for them to send each other their nudes and the like. However, this can lead to abuse in the form of unauthorized publication of these photos on the Internet, which can be very dangerous. There are also many predators on the Internet, so it is necessary to be careful.

The disturbing statistic is that over 55% of teenage boys and girls have either sent or have received a nude photograph. Not only can this be seen as child pornography in the eyes of the law, but it could also have significant consequences on both the physical and psychological well-being of a teenager.

You see, once those photos are uploaded to the internet, they remain there permanently. Forever. More often than not, those photos end up in the wrong hands, we go back to cyberbullying, and the vicious circle continues.

-Information protection - Children are often very naive. Then people with bad intentions can extract various information from them, both about them and about your house, money, and much more. Until recently, even grown-up people have been helping Nigerian princes and falling for even less sophisticated scams, often resulting in the theft of their personal information and money. Therefore, protecting your child from unknowingly doing the same thing would be in your best interests.

-Limit screen time - Dependence on smart devices has become a big problem. Many claim that over 60% of modern-day society is downright addicted to their phones. We may not see it, but it is apparent just how attached we are to these things. The first thing we do when we open our eyes in the morning is grab our phones and scroll through social media.

Kids and youngsters are even more vulnerable to becoming addicted to phones. Prolonged use could affect every aspect of their life, almost exclusively negatively. However, when you closely monitor your children's activities, you will gain insight into their screen time and be able to limit it as needed.

Conclusion

As much as all these options bring peace to the parents and as much as they are justified, as you could read in the article, they often cause great dissatisfaction among children. Also, many experts state that this is too much of an invasion of privacy and that it can have counterproductive consequences for your relationship with the child. That is why the child needs to know that you are using such apps and not hide them from them, so that they discover them in the end. That would be disastrous for his trust in you.