I personally would like to see restrictions on the iphone devices. Such as text, phone and time restrictions. Im on FIDO in canada and I dont hink we have the restrictions like the ATT and verizon have.
I have removed data from my one child's iphone that has been super addicted to his phone (13yo boy)
However, if he gets a wifi hotspot he is free to surf the web and interact with his applications (you can remove apps and then lock the phone so that he cannot add any more apps though the RESTRICTIONS area of the iphone)
Here are a few things I have done at our home.
1. We have an apple extreme router in the house for just the kids. You can add a time block on the router so wifi gets shut down at certain times of the day. I highly recommend this. (the parents have a separate router for us and we password protect our ipads)
2. I have a virtual firewall that I have set up and is programed through the router. I imagine the kids could circumvent this if they were tech savey but it is somewhat technical to set up. Goto https://www.opendns.com/ to set up an account and you can manually set restrictions or you can use filter groups like ONLINE CHAT or **** or customize the URL that you want blocked etc. I think this is a must for all parents. At my work, I am restricted from certain websites and I dont see it being unreasonable to block website at our house. Remember, your kids bring friends over and share the wifi password and if they load somthing inappropriate on their device at your house, whom do you think will get the blame?
3. without a doubt there are other providers that have better parental control. Windows has time restrictions on their devices.
4. I often get, "Dad I need the wifi b/c im doing a project!". My older two children have laptops and they use them for their word or pages projects. To circumvent the wifi restrictions, they can plug the computers into the wall and get an ethernet connection. Since most kids today only know how to use ipads and iphones, they use the laptops only for their project.
While this isnt the best solution, it is a free solution and should filter 70% of what you want and is relatively simple to get set up.
As for all the people that want to give parenting advice. Every kids between the ages of 8 and up now has some sort of device that will connect to the internet. There is an age of curiousity that children reach or they can put a search term incorectly into google and get something that just isnt right. Also, teenages like independence and freedom and dont like parents pulling their device away and scanning throuhg the text messages or browser history. There are many battle to fight with teenagers, you want to pick your battles and help them turn into responsible young adults.
The internet is a big deal and it is like we have given our children keys to our car and haveing even showed them how to open the door to the car let allone make sure they know the rules of the road. Is that the parents fault? partially, but quite frankly, the internet is new to everybody including parents. And, there are no rules on the internet.
When I was a kid, having a TV or a phone in your room was a huge thing. My parents said no. probably 20% of the kids at school had a phone or TV. Now, 80-95% of kids have their own wifi device. Its very hard to say no,, As well, I want to make sure my children are able to navagate the internet as well as understand how to use these mini computers. In 10 years the destop will not exist but these devices will continue to evolve and I do not want my chidlren to be ignorant as to how they work and can be used.