Kids are asking for cell phones at younger and younger ages. I always thought that I would wait until my kids were teens to allow a cell phone but I’ve changed my mind for a few reasons.
- My son is Type 1 Diabetic, he needs a phone for diabetes management at school – i.e. texting me his blood sugar #’s, googling carbs, or calling for help.
- I like to be able to get in touch with my son or daughter when they are at a friend’s house or after-school activities
- The pricing is finally affordable with Virgin Mobile Custom
We all have our reasons for giving cell phones to our kids. If you ask teens, they will say that it improves their quality of life and is vital for their social life. The truth is 78% of teens carry cell phones.
This is not without dangers that every parent needs to be aware of. Cyber bullying is a big issue that we never had to worry about when we were teens. In fact, 51% of teens have been bullied online and 49% have been a cyber bully! This is sad. What is worse is that 50% of teens don’t tell their parents.
So, there are great benefits to giving your child a cell phone yet, real dangers. This dilemma is what has kept me from even thinking about giving my kids cell phones until now.
I participated in an Influencer Activation Program on behalf of Influence-Central for Virgin Mobile. I received a sample device to facilitate my review and a thank you item for participating.
Best Cell Phone with Parental Controls for Kids and Teens
Virgin Mobile Custom offers no-contract smartphones that give parents complete control with parental features like nothing I’ve seen before. You determine when and what apps and services they can use. You can shut off or limit all apps, data, and text during school or during bedtime. You decide how much talk time, text, and data they have access to each month and you can change this whenever you want, daily even.
I received a Virgin Mobile Custom ZTE Emblem smartphone to review. This phone has everything my son and daughter could possibly want or need in a smartphone. Since my son has the medical needs and is older, he was the lucky recipient. He loves it!
I like that I can customize this phone as much and often as I want. Plans start at $6.98 a month, so everyone can afford it. It is a very small price for peace of mind. Now, I can get in touch with my son anytime and he can get in touch with me.
With Virgin Mobile Custom, you pay for what you need and can adjust as often as you want, while dialing back what you don’t need or dial up to add. You can even add up to 5 lines right from your home. You can select how many minutes, texts, and data you want your child to have. You can easily add or delete based on what you want to give your child or what they use so you never pay for minutes/texts/data that you aren’t using. I really like this as an option for my own phone too. This isn’t just a kids or teens phone, it is for anyone!
The parental controls with Virgin Mobile Custom are very easy to use and manage. This is important in protecting your child, reducing online time, and controlling who can call your child!
Using Parental Controls with Virgin Mobile Custom
I have set restrictions during school days and a curfew at night for my son. The phone gives you step by step instructions for the parental controls and are password protected so your kids can do it. During school, I allow my son to use the alarm (to remind him when to test his blood sugar levels), phone, calendar, and texting.
Yes, I allow him to text but only to me. I really like that the parental controls allow you to customize, customize, customize!! I just had to add my phone number to the below to allow him to text me during the school day. You can also do this for everyone on the contacts list 24/7 so you always know exactly who your child or teen is texting.
This is what the Virgin Mobile Custom ZTE Emblem smartphone looks like for my son during a restricted time period during school. It shows him exactly what he has access to. I can also restrict the amount of text and data he uses other times of the day.
If you are looking for a cell phone for child or teen that has awesome parental controls, affordable prices, and no contract, check out Virgin Mobile Custom at your local Walmart and Walmart.com. It would make an excellent Christmas gift too!
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