iPhone for teens?
By Joshua Campbell
Tech Geek & Youth Pastor
Among the most popular phones to hit the market, the iPhone has evolved to be one of the favorite phones for teens. But is it the best option? In this “teen” review for the iPhone, I will discuss why I DO NOT think the iPhone is a great choice for teens, but if your teen already has one, I will discuss some of the ways to keep your teen safe on their Apple phone!
The iPhone is a smartphone that uses Apple’s iOS software. There are 2 (3 if you count the soon to be discontinued 3G, 4 if you include the original “2G” iPhone) models on the market including the 3GS and the new iPhone 4. The 3GS comes in 8 GB with a 3.5″ touchscreen, a 3 mp camera with video recording, wifi, gps, and a battery that (with constant internet or voice use) lasts about 5 hours. The iPhone 4 comes in 16 gb to 32 gb with a 3.5″ touchscreen that has a new retina display which has better color and image quality than most screens on the market. It boasts a 5 mp camera with HD video recording as well as a front facing camera for video chat, wifi, gps, and a battery life of 6-7 hours. Both models have media playback including movie, music, and both have access to the app store where you can purchase apps for games, news, photography, and just about everything else (“there’s an app for that”). The cost for the 3GS is $99 (with 2 yr contract with AT&T) and the iPhone 4 is $199 for the 16 gb and $299 for the 32gb (both with 2 yr contract with AT&T).
Now here is my thoughts on the software and why I don’t think this is a good phone for teens. In the software, because this is a smartphone, the user can access programs (apps) such as the internet, e-mail, and all sorts of apps. This means that anything someone can access on their computer, they can access on the phone. This sounds simple enough, but what this means is that a teen with an iPhone can access any website, including pornographical and other inappropriate websites, from anywhere they have signal or wifi. The internet is also not the only problem, the app store contains some adult type apps that teens can have access to just by touching the agree screen when it asks if they are 17. Now I will give Apple credit, they do have a process to filter out MOST of the pornographical or sexually explicit apps, but they don’t get rid of everything. Teens, with a credit card or iTunes gift card, can purchase any app they find whether its age appropriate or not. They can purchase and download movies that have nudity or sexually explicit parts, they can download explicit music, or they can just run up the credit card. One of the issues I discussed in my Teens and texting post was sexting. I feel that the new iPhone 4 (along with other new phones) brings on another issue in this sexting craze by adding a front facing camera and allowing for face to face “webcam” chat. While this is still a new technology, in the near future you can expect to see some chat apps that could connect the user to random video chats on their phone. Another problem that is becoming more popular is the process of “jailbreaking” the phone. This opens the phone up to be able to change software and more explicitly, be able to circumvent the app store process and be able to download costly apps for free. This is a new spin on music pirating in that we now have app pirating.
The GOODS about the iPhone for parents. Apple is the only smartphone creator who has built in and has any type of parental controls for the phone. As a parent, you can control SOME of the apps your teen has access to by disabling certain apps such as Safari (the internet app) and iTunes or the App Store. With Safari taken off, your student can’t surf the web or have access to inappropriate websites. However, you should know, there are other web surfing apps in the app store so you have to be diligent in knowing what you teen is doing and downloading. There are also some apps that provide for a more secure and limited filtering web surfing. These apps are not free but are worth it because they provide a safer web experience by filtering out inappropriate webpages or by sending web usage to an e-mail account. Here is a list of good apps to filter the web (AFTER you disable Safari): Mobicip Safe Browser, Safe Eyes, and X3 Watch (know that this is not a safe browser, but rather an accountability browser where any questionable websites will be sent to up to 3 different e-mails).
The iPhone is a great phone but it can also be a great detriment if we are not careful. The best way to help our teens with mobile devices will be to talk to our teens and tell them what the rules and limitations are for the phone usage. Be vigilant in watch over your teens phone usage, pick up and check their phone. Don’t give them your credit card number to use for apps if you don’t want them purchasing apps, you must have an iTunes account to activate your phone and download apps, but you can always put zeros in the credit card number. Aside from that, just keep watch over what you teen is using the phone for, check their photos, their texts, their history and just ask them questions about what’s going on.
If you have any specific questions about the iPhone and or if you just want to know more… e-mail, or facebook me!!