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Giving a child their own mobile phone is becoming common practice these days for several reasons: a basic pay as you go phone can be bought for £10 or less – it doesn’t matter much if they lose it or drop it, but it does the job should you both need to be in contact.
Similarly, kids seem to want a mobile these days more than traditional toys. They generally want a smartphone too, so that games can be downloaded and played. It can hold its advantages but also its downfalls, the main one being a big concern for parents: in theory anybody can contact your child’s phone, and they can contact anybody with it.
There are parental controls on every mobile phone that can restrict certain aspects and the parent can check through bills and call records, but many feel it’s not enough control. In steps a new solution from UK company Bemilo: a mobile network with 24 hour full parental control of the SIM card in your child’s mobile phone.
With a Bemilo SIM and account, parents can control who their child can and can’t contact and vice versa, as well as exactly when their mobile can be used each day, which is bound to put an end to sneakily staying up late browsing the web and texting on school nights.
You can get a pay as you go Bemilo SIM card for £3.95 per month or alternatively pay a yearly subscription, which gives you access to the control centre, where you can control your child’s mobile usage.
From here you can also review all calls and text – both made and received – and block numbers with one or two clicks, either by logging in to the site on a PC or via your own phone. You can also put a cap on how much credit can be spent each month to prevent any over-the-top bills.
Bemilo shares its signal with the Vodafone UK network and prices are pretty reasonable: 10p per minute to UK mobiles and landlines as well as your voicemail, 10p per text and 25p per MB of internet data.
If you’re interested, you’ll be able to pick up a Bemilo SIM card from bemilo.com or from the Carphone Warehouse as of 28th May. It certainly seems like a good idea to us.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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