Supporting children’s smartphone use raises many questions today. Between autonomy, trust and the need for clear boundaries, parents are looking for guidance. The right tools can help them define a clear and reassuring environment.
For this reason, many child development professionals now recommend thinking not only in terms of prohibition, but in terms of an educational framework. With clear reference points and tools designed to support families, it becomes easier to set consistent boundaries and approach digital use in a calmer and more balanced way.
Many child development specialists, including the American psychotherapist Jonathan Haidt, who has written extensively about young people and digital technology, stress the importance of first giving meaning to the rules.
Before setting limits, it is helpful to answer a simple question:
What is this phone for today, for this child?
In most families, early uses are mainly practical:
Clarifying this role from the start helps prevent the phone from gradually becoming an all-purpose device used without clear reference points.
When children start moving around on their own, very concrete questions arise:
Have they reached their destination safely? Should a delay be a cause for concern?
In this context, location sharing can be part of the framework set from the start. When it is integrated directly into the mobile plan and parental tools, it more naturally fits into an approach focused on occasional safety rather than continuous monitoring.
Used occasionally, it can help to:
The issue is not the technology itself, but the transparency of how it is framed and the responsibility with which it is used.
Clearly explaining to young users when and why location sharing may be used helps make it a safety tool that is understood and accepted rather than a form of permanent surveillance.
Many parents make the same observation: it is not the limits themselves that cause problems, but having to renegotiate them all the time. In this context, rather than intervening continuously, it is better to define clear thresholds in advance. For example:
In this approach, parental controls mainly serve to apply these thresholds automatically, which avoids turning every situation into an emotional debate.
Time spent on a screen is only one indicator among many. What matters just as much is the nature of the content being viewed, how appropriate it is for the child’s age, and how it fits into their daily life.
Beyond visible content, some uses also expose young people to misleading links, advertising or unsuitable external pages, often without them fully realising it.
This is why it is recommended to:
These objective references make family discussions easier:
“this is not an arbitrary ban; it’s a recommendation suited to your age.”
Another important, often less visible aspect concerns the protection of digital use.
Apps, external links, integrated services and online content are quickly accessible, and not always appropriate for a child’s age or maturity.
That is why many parents now choose mobile plans that integrate parental control and online protection tools. These solutions make it possible to:
without having to monitor the child permanently.
The goal is not to block everything, but to set a protective, clear and evolving framework that supports children as their usage grows and changes.
Public debates around screens sometimes give the impression that everything comes down to total restriction or complete freedom. Supporting children’s digital use isn’t based on a single, immediate solution, but on a series of progressive choices, adjusted over time according to the child’s age, habits and family context.
It is in this spirit that some mobile offers dedicated to children, such as the GO)) kids Mobile plan from Tango, now integrate a blocked plan along with parental control and cybersecurity tools. This type of solution is not designed to encourage digital consumption, but to give parents simple and accessible tools to define for themselves a clear, safe and age-appropriate environment.
By offering tools designed for families, Tango positions itself as a trusted partner to help parents gradually set boundaries around digital use. A smartphone combined with clear rules and appropriate tools helps families stay in control, without excessive surveillance or repeated conflicts, and supports, step by step, the digital autonomy of young users.
