Thank you Verizon. I have been paying the $4.99 for this app. Just realized it hasn't been working - now thank you to these forums, b/c my daughter now has an Iphone. I'm really only irritated that any of the service/tech reps on the phone for the last hour couldn't just explain that.
Although I'd like to cancel the service now - I do still need it in order to restrict her data usage, is that correct? There is no other way - like there was to turn off mobile data on a Samsung??
really? what an ignorant answer pherson. I will take every precaution necessary in a world that has lots of temptation and outside influence, especially when "everyone's doing it" (and that includes all their friends having smartphones)...and when I choose Verizon as a service provider for other best-in-class reasons, I expect them to offer best-in-class services! They're a big player that should be able to get what they need at Apple's level.
aside from switching carriers (which is *always* an option, although not an easy one), we are also considering a separate solution. Check out Disney's "Circle" (http://meetcircle.com). The home network device is $99 with the Circle-Go companion app for $10/month. This looks promising in how to handle online safety with our teenage iPhone users!
Technical readers might be interested in the "how they do it" details:
https://meetcircle.com/media/documents/circle-go-technical-information.pdf
https://meetcircle.com/media/documents/circle-how-it-works.pdf
Kids don't need smartphones. A basic phone would do just fine.
I don't disagree pherson, but unfortunately, it's the world we live in...and that world was not encouraged or promoted by parents like you or me.
>>What specific function are you trying to do on the child device that you are having difficulty with?
I've been using FamilyBase now for about a month and it appears to do the basic function pretty well:
1) blocks all cell service based on the time restrictions I set and
2) notifies me when my child is approaching data usage limits also set by me.
The two missing features of FamilyBase (the part for parents) I would like are:
3) the ability to lock my child's phone on demand (but could live without) but more importantly,
4) the Activity log and Contacts list to show actual NAMES that my kid has associated with that contact number as it's stored in her phone. If a companion app for iPhones did even just this last feature, that would be great! Otherwise, we're just left to sort through a long string of phone numbers that doesn't really help monitor who's who in her iPhone's address book!
I added an iphone for my teenage son to my family plan based mostly on the apparent strength of the parental controls, and assurances from 3 different verizon representatives that I would be able to block the phone at will from my Parent Phone app. It wasn't till we got the phone home and tried to set it up that I found out, (not from verizon but from this forum) that the Companion App isn't available for our iphone, and consequently the few features I was sold on aren't available. Verizon's solution is to suggest that I exchange the iphone for an android. Great! I'll just convince my son that the phone that he so carefully selected, (and I vetted based on Verizon sales pitches) has to be returned so that Dad can shut the phone off anytime he wants. Seriously? (Every parental control solution I've ever dealt with seems to be designed by people who don't have kids)
Verizon ought to fix this,
so who has control? The parent or the child??
Kids do NOT NEED smartphones.
I just this week signed up for the Family Base plan for the free 1 month trial so I am by no means an expert. I looked at the mobile app tonight & somehow happened upon the ability to allow it to access my contacts which populated all the phone numbers that I have from my child's friends(and family, his work, etc.) , to populate into those fields. It can not, obviously, replace a number with a name on the list of #'s your child has been contacting unless you already have that name with a # in your contact list.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
