It’s well-known that many adults can’t put their phones down. According to Dr Deborah Lee, around 6.3% of the population suffers from cell phone addiction – and this is just adults who have more knowledge and capability of managing technology use. Teenage cell phone addiction is, then, a real concern.
Teenage Cell Phone Addiction and Its Symptoms
Any addiction is worrying but one that people tend to worry less about is phone addiction. However, this is a serious issue that can cause further problems.
There are many different teenage cell phone addiction symptoms. Here are some signs that show your teen might be addicted to their device:
- Behavioral changes
- Difficulty regulating emotions
- Not putting phone away or down
- Poor sleep hygiene
- Extreme reactions when mobile access is prevented
- Switching between programs and devices (texting, gaming, social networking, etc.)
- Increased challenges socially
- Being impatient, restless or irritable in school when phones aren’t allowed.
How Parents Can Reduce Addiction
Knowing how to stop teenage phone addiction isn’t easy. This is a relatively new phenomenon that previous generations of parents haven’t had to worry about. Thankfully, there are some things that parents do to improve the problem.
Block Time-Consuming Apps
By installing an app like mSpy, parents can control how long their teenagers are spending on their phones or on particular apps. mSpy has a specific app blocker feature. This allows you to control which apps they can access directly from your own device. You can use mSpy as a spy app for ipad. With this app you can choose a range of different apps to block, including social networks like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and more.
mSpy allows you to control your child’s digital activity and help you to regain control of any potential addiction to the cell phone.
Set Screen Time Limits
Another option is to set screen time limits on your child’s device. You could also do this in addition to blocking specific apps too. Here is how you can do this for an iPhone:
- Go into the ‘settings’ app of your child’s iPhone and tap his/her profile.
- Next, choose ‘family sharing’.
- Then, choose ‘screen time’. You’ll be prompted to create a child account. Follow the on-screen instructions.
- Once created, open the screen time settings and turn on screen time. You’ll need to click on ‘this is my child’s iPhone’ before you can set schedules or limits.
- You can set individual app limits, schedule complete downtime, and customize what you want them to access and when! You can even choose whom they are allowed to communicate with (if anyone) during downtime.
Phone-Free Periods
There’s one more thing you can do to help reduce teenage phone addiction and that’s to schedule phone-free periods. Like any addiction, going ‘cold turkey’ might be a challenge so you could agree set periods of time where your teenager is not allowed to use or access their phone. There are plenty of times during every day when a phone is most definitely not needed so you can harness these opportunities to ensure the cell phone doesn’t make an appearance. For example, you can set rules like no phone allowed during meals or at night. Some parents, for instance, make their teens charge their phones downstairs at night time. You could also have dedicated phone-free activities when no family members are allowed to use their phones.
Final Thoughts
Phone addiction isn’t easy for anyone but teens need a lot more guidance and support. Using an app like mSpy allows parents to control their teenagers’ phone access to prevent addiction or stop it from becoming all-consuming.