4 Mistakes Parents Should Avoid While Using a Teen Monitoring App

Monitoring your teen’s phone activities is a good way to help them stay safe when navigating the online world. If you’ve got a small look into the way they use the internet, you can prevent them from talking to the wrong people, or visiting websites that could end up doing them harm.

However, many parents can make mistakes when using apps like these. It’s easy to think you can download monitoring software straight to your teen’s devices and call it a day, but the process often needs to be much more involved for both parties. As such, here are the top 4 mistakes parents tend to make when using a teen monitoring app:

Mistake 1: Being Discreet and Not Telling Your Child

If you download a monitoring app to your teen’s phone or tablet, not telling them can harm the bond of trust between you. Telling your teen opens up a dialogue about online and outside behaviors, and helps to put healthy expectations and boundaries in place.

Mistake 2: Not Setting a Strong Password to Protect Device Settings

If you don’t set a strong password on the app itself, your teen may be able to bypass all monitoring features without you even realizing. So if you’re someone who uses a significant date for every account you open, it’s a good idea to choose a different, mixed character password on this occasion.

Mistake 3: Not Reviewing Logs Regularly

Keeping up with what your child is doing and where they’ve been will be a lot harder if you don’t review data logs at least once a week. You may miss an inappropriate activity entirely, and your teen may be engaging in harmful behaviors without any guidance from you. If you find it difficult to remember to check your teen monitoring app, you can often set up notification reminders from within the app itself.

Mistake 4: Not Talking to Your Teen About Inappropriate Activities

Finally, a lot of parents don’t even talk to their teens when an inappropriate activity has taken place. Many parents can miss it, but many more parents can simply let it slide, whether they forget to bring it up or don’t think it’s all that serious. If you’ve set an alert for it, it’s potentially dangerous behavior and needs talking about! Sit your teen down and talk about what you’ve seen; mention why it was wrong, and how to avoid it in the future.

If you’re using a teen monitoring app in your household, it’s best to make sure you communicate this with your child. Then set a strong password to prevent tampering, check-in with the recorded logs regularly, and always bring up an inappropriate message, website, or visited area with your teen. Get started with an app like Family Orbit to make conversations like these easier; check out our website to download the free trial and see how our app can help your teen to establish trust and independence.