Restricting Teenager's Phone

[micksarich]

Hi all, recently busted my 13 year old nephew using his phone in a manner which breaks the rules set when he got it. He requires a phone to use for communicating with family and sending photos to me of study and homework that has been completed. It's also a safety measure as he walks to and from school with only one other teenager.

I am wanting some apps or ways to do the following if anybody can help please.

1. Block access to the Play Store, Internet, Chrome and Settings.

2. Block incoming calls, SMS and MMS from any numbers apart from those belonging to family. (whitelisted numbers)

3. Block outgoing calls, SMS and MMS to any numbers apart from family. (whitelisted numbers)

I am prepared to root the phone if that is required.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[touringhaggis]

Hi Mick,

AppLock (with the associated Advanced Protection app) will take you most of the way, however, I don't know of anything that will let you whitelist incoming and outgoing calls. Perhaps your carrier can help you there, or someone else has an idea for you. AppLock, once installed, can only really be removed by performing a factory reset so it is as secure as it gets. But that is the major problem, one factory reset and all your protections will be gone. I know of one guy that even set up twrp recovery and has a complete backup to recover from when his dad tries to restrict his phone.

Good luck!

Regards,
Eric.

 

[micksarich]

Hi Mick,

AppLock (with the associated Advanced Protection app) will take you most of the way, however, I don't know of anything that will let you whitelist incoming and outgoing calls. Perhaps your carrier can help you there, or someone else has an idea for you. AppLock, once installed, can only really be removed by performing a factory reset so it is as secure as it gets. But that is the major problem, one factory reset and all your protections will be gone. I know of one guy that even set up twrp recovery and has a complete backup to recover from when his dad tries to restrict his phone.

Good luck!

Regards,
Eric.

Thanks Eric, I did stumble across Applock and have tested it on my work phone to see that is works well and restricts the settings also. Yes I realize anything I can do can easily be erased by a factory reset however this particular child is way too scared of me to even download a game from the app store without my permission. It's not so much an issue of him abusing the phone it's just web sites that shouldn't be accessed by a 13 year old being accessed and unsavory communications with girls from school which mean he needs to lose his access to Facebook, games, internet etc for a period of time so he can modify his behavior.

 

[zuben el genub]

Some call blockers do whitelist only. Either you add or they are in your contacts.