Parental controls

His screen time was restricted.

She had a parenting control app on her phone.

She has set a time on every day, 6 p.m. His phone was supposed to lock automatically and he cannot see anything.

Imagine.

somebody is doing with you like this how would you feel the intention of mother was good because she want her child not to be mobile addicted but something else is happening and something else was happening in child's mind she thought I know what my child is doing but there was one problem she didn't completely trust him and she had a reason she had caught him lying before So somewhere in her mind, there was always this little voice saying, what if he's hiding something from me? So that was the reason she downloaded the app, Parenting Control app and controlling his phone.

It is really strange that parents think that if we are controlling our children, they will not do wrong things.

But dear parents, I just wanted to tell you, the more you control, the more you lose your children.

You know, I was talking to a parent yesterday and they talked about, yeah, you know, my eight-year-old was on drugs.

Roblox and I happened to see the comments along the side and said, here, I haven't activated these parental controls and I need to get in at the back and make sure that they are all activated.

Their very strong argument should be that by default, all of those parental controls for children are activated, but that's not happening.

And it is the case, back to that divide, some parents won't have the experience, the technical wherewithal to go and do that.

Others will.

There will be a divide in relation to that.

And that lends itself, in my opinion, to the argument that you need a far greater system of rules-based enforcement, but also education in terms of understanding the The nature of these platforms, how they operate, how you can switch on or switch off those parental controls, age verification.

And my argument as education spokesperson, and it's an argument that CyberSafe Kids and others have made, is that like Finland, digital literacy should be embedded in absolutely every facet of our education system from childhood preschool literally up to third level, that it's that this is, you know, it's literally the new communications.

These new guardrails are important.

How do you enforce restrictions, for instance, on how much time kids can scroll when they're more clever than we are about getting around some of these parameters, parental controls, using other devices or other logins? I'm sure you thought this through.

Yeah.

Look, there, there's no foolproof way to, to do this.

[upbeat music] I'm Leonora, founder of My Bubba, and you're listening to Parental Control, the monthly podcast from My Bubba where we discuss issues that affect mums and dads throughout parenthood, and tease out the solutions with the help of some brilliant guests and expert speakers.

Hi, my name's Ellie Thompson, and today I'm joined by Dr. Emily Crosbie, a child and educational psychologist with more than 13 years experience working with children, young people, and their families.

With the debate around banning social media for the under 16s gathering pace, we're looking at what social media is actually doing to our children, and whether a ban would really make them safer.

... you know, targeting young people on these platforms because they can.

Mm.

And it's tricky, isn't it? There are, like, parental controls, but you do need kind of a degree to get your head around what, what they are and how to set them up.

Oh, gosh.

I don't have a clue.

Simon, can we ban kids from social media or can we stop big tech targeting kids? I mean, it seems like the court cases have acknowledged that they have gone around parents.

In fact, we know, we heard in an interview that I did in Washington, D.C. a couple of weeks ago, that Google were actually emailing 13-year-olds when they turned 13, telling them how to get around parental controls.

So Erica is right in raising the issue that big tech has been this massive monster that has been getting around parents, sneaking around behind their backs, haven't they?

Well, their product is to sell more product.

Additionally, study hours can be set by teens or their parents, designating times when study mode is active by default.

Recognizing parental concerns, ChatGPT for Teens incorporates optional parental controls.

Parents can link their accounts to their teens, allowing them to manage settings such as quiet hours when ChatGPT cannot be used and to opt out of features like voice mode or image generation.

Parents can also receive safety notifications in limited high-risk situations, though they cannot directly read their teen's conversations.