First phone for child. iOS vs Android, & parental controls?

[Jonny_]

Our daughter will be 11 in a few months, and as she'll be moving up to high school this autumn we've decided it's time to finally relent and buy her a smartphone for her birthday.

As kids go she's pretty bright (definitely cleverer than l am...) and generally very sensible and well behaved, but even so I've got big reservations about the possibility of her being exposed to all the deeply unpleasant stuff that flies around on social media etc.

First question is whether to go for Android or iOS? Android means a greater choice of cheaper phones, whereas going with Apple would mean that the cheapest option is something like a refurbished iPhone SE 2020 at around £170. Any great advantage to either, from the perspective of keeping children as safe as possible online? (I use one of each, and personally I prefer the flexibility of my Android phone, but the iPhone I use for work does have its advantages in terms of simplicity, responsiveness, regular updates, camera quality etc.)

Then it's a matter of setting up some parental controls on the thing.

Realistically, though, how much control/visibility can we actually have as parents over what she sees? From what I've read about Google Family Link, for example, it doesn't actually offer much in the way of content filtering. Apple's Family Sharing seems similarly limited. It doesn't look like there's any way to shield her from classmates sending dodgy stuff via messaging apps (other than completely preventing her installing such apps).

Any advice appreciated, it feels like a big step with lots of potential pitfalls!

[BoRED S2upid]

When the time comes for us it will be an old iPhone that I just won’t trade in as everything else is Apple and we can track them lol.

[fat80b]

I’ve gone iOS for my eldest.

Both myself and the wife are apple users and the parental controls work quite well (and we can share apps that we’ve purchased as well)

[MYOB]

Parental control on Apple products are good. You can put screen time on, put age restrictions on apps, put internet on “safe mode”, time limits and so forth.

[Mammasaid]

There's very little difference in the 2 ecosystems nowadays.

I'll depend on 2 things, what your daughter wants, and what you have.

If you have an Android, and your daughter has Iphone or vice versa, then it's more difficult but not impossible.

However icloud is now accessible from Chrome, so that makes things easier.

[Mammasaid]

MYOB said:

Parental control on Apple products are good. You can put screen time on, put age restrictions on apps, put internet on “safe mode”, time limits and so forth.

Android does exactly the same FYI

https://families.google/familylink/

[MYOB]

Mammasaid said:

MYOB said:

Parental control on Apple products are good. You can put screen time on, put age restrictions on apps, put internet on “safe mode”, time limits and so forth.

Android does exactly the same FYI

https://families.google/familylink/

So I guess for the OP, he will probably need to get whatever ecosystem he has in order to operate the parental control.

[Your Dad]

MYOB said:

Mammasaid said:

MYOB said:

Parental control on Apple products are good. You can put screen time on, put age restrictions on apps, put internet on “safe mode”, time limits and so forth.

Android does exactly the same FYI

https://families.google/familylink/

So I guess for the OP, he will probably need to get whatever ecosystem he has in order to operate the parental control.

FamilyLink controls an Android phone, but parental control can be from iOS or Android.

Son has a Redmi handset running Android, we (parents) have both Android and iOS. We’ve set daily time limits, schedule when handset can be used, app installs need parental approval and web browsing is controlled via the app but parents can override if necessary.

[Shuff4]

I also went iOS with both my two.

They have had iPads since a young age so using iOS is straight forwards, hand me down iPhones for both of them.

[paulrockliffe]

The devil's in the detail on this though, no idea of Apple but I don't think Google really want your kids to miss the opportunity to be advertised at and do the bare minimum to make you think you're a step ahead.

The reality is stuff like if you put a time limit on YouTube when the time is up it doesn't actually stop YouTube playing, it just puts a message in theiddle of the screen. Don't press OK and it just carries on.

[Murph7355]

Been looking at this too.

Will likely be going Android as am used to it, and familiar with many parental control elements through Chromebooks etc.

One thing I'm struggling with is how to control who can call the kids, and who the kids can call...

Apps and content is pretty straightforward, but not calling/contacts.

[MYOB]

Personally I don’t use the parental control too much and would rather give them the responsibility and freedom to use their devices. I just ensure they can’t access unsuitable content on the website and put screen time on manually if they refuse to come off their devices at bedtime.

Works for us.