Devices in rooms and Internet Control

[Cadbury]

Just wondering what suggestion people have for device control in bedrooms and internet control. 3 kids 15,14,10 the teens are always in their rooms with devices. We are trying to restrict / remove the devices from bedrooms 100% and they are only allowed to have them in a central open family area. We are turning the Wi-Fi off at 9pm now, with a lot of pushback and attitude from the kids. If they are in open areas studying on school laptops, they still seem to be on some form of social media and the study time ineffective..

Between snapchat, Instagram, FORTNITE and movies it's proving a hard battle to win.

Any suggestions or what have you found to work.

[Orbit64]

Hi @Cadbury

Look up parent power on the internet. Australian company, great support and excellent solution to your problem. I tried a whole lot of strategies that my son would always work around. This device gives you control of what they can access, from what device at what time. 

My only suggestion would be to let them all think it is a software system you have implemented, or put the device in a hard to get to or unknown location. 

best of luck

Orbit64

[Taylor-RO]

Hey @Cadbury, this is definitely a challenging topic to navigate with young people. It sounds like you have been very involved already but there may be helpful suggestions in this article here. I would suggest getting the kids involved in the decision making process by coming to an agreement together on what is fair and appropriate. Generally, if it is something they agree to then they are more likely to stick to it. Could it be related to other activities they like to do or don't like to do? Another user here says that the reasons we restrict technology use can effect how likely kids are to listen.



I will tag some other members for support @sunflowermom @Panda @Mitzi @softballmum @hippychick

[seekwisdom]

Hi, You seem to be doing all the right things.

Here at home we made clear that the devices are not a right, but a priviledge that can be paused/eliminated at any time by any of us parents.

We have what we call it “a contract” [actually we use this system for a lot of things, it works very well for us]. In this “contract” we wrote the rules for phone/computer use and the consequences of misuse. For instance, we use tracking and the day they change this setting the phone will be confiscated, another its that they must answer our calls/msg asap, they must turn phone in at night etc. 

I think that could maybe be an option for you? 

If you don’t want “confiscate” the device, there is an app that you can install on their phones that I could remotely disable their apps for an amount of time if they are not complying with your rules. 

They probably won’t like your rules, but you know you are looking out for them 😉