Ministry Monday: Parental Controls, iPod Touch, and Preteens

Over the last month I have had more parents ask me how to control the iPod Touch that they bought for their preteen. The fear of course is that the preteen will be able to access music, websites, and video that is not appropriate for them or really anyone else for that matter.

So your preteen wants an iPod Touch, how do you protect them?

1. There are parental controls on the device. Simply go to the settings of the iPod Touch and click on the General Settings. From there you go to Restrictions and decide what you want to turn off or turn on. While this is helpful it doesn't solve all of the problems of course. A techy preteen can hook the device up to iTunes again and set everything back to default which would wipe these settings out. So you go to step 2.

2. There are parental controls in iTunes. Simply go to Edit and click on Preferences. Pick the Parental Controls tab and set your restrictions there. Here is one of the simplest ways to keep your kid safe. Set up the iTunes account in your name with your user name and your password. Don't give your password to your child for any reason. This way if your child wants to put Apps, music, and videos on the iPod Touch then they have to come to you. Could this be a hassle? Only if you don't want to know what your kid is looking at, listening to, and watching. It also lets you into your kids world and makes you talk to your child. That is a wonderful thing and not a bad thing.

3. Safe Eyes Mobile- finally you have set all of your restrictions, parental controls, and you think that you want your child to be able to go to sites like Disney.com or other family friendly sites but you don't want them to use Safari. If this is you then you are a very smart parent in my book. There is another web browser in the App store for the iPod Touch that restricts all adult content and is very good. It is called Safe Eyes Mobile and was created for you and this instance. It is well worth the $20 and can be found easily in the App store by searching for Safe Eyes. Why buy a device that does all kinds of cool things and not use it? This gives your child a little freedom and lets you rest a little easier.

4. Talk to your child and check the device- I know that I already said this above but it is well worth a mention again. The best thing that you can do as a parent is talking to your kid. Let them know your expectations, thoughts, and wisdom. Let them know that you love them. Let them know why boundaries are put into place.

I am all for giving kids technology, but someone has to be the adult and we can't count on the kid to do that. The iPod Touch is a great, and I mean a great device. If you can get one for your child I would reccommend it but please make sure and keep them safe.