Lookout and The Online Mom Release a Smartphone Guide for Parents

Owning a cellular phone is no longer just about making phone calls and sending the occasional text. Today’s smartphones are powerful handheld computers, which come with HD cameras, sophisticated built-in apps, and completely unfiltered access to the Web. All of this presents enormous challenges to parents, who carefully installed controls on the home computer only to be confronted by a world that has suddenly gone mobile.

In order to better prepare parents for this next stage of the digital revolution, The Online Mom has partnered with leading mobile security and safety company Lookout to produce Generation Smartphone: A Guide for Parents of Tweens + Teens. The Guide takes a real-world view of today’s popular handheld devices and suggests ways in which parents can create a safer and more rewarding mobile experience.

Addressing issues such as How To Decide If Your Child Is Ready For a Mobile Phone and How To Spot & Handle Bad Phone Behavior, the Guide is an invaluable go-to manual for parents and caregivers everywhere. Featuring a series of easy-to-understand ‘infographics’ and quotes from real parents, the Guide offers step-by-step help in explaining the dangers of smartphone misuse and how parents can address potential smartphone problems before they arise.

“This new mobile age presents both challenges and opportunities for today’s parents,” said Monica Vila, Founder and President of The Online Mom. “With the Generation Smartphone Guide, Lookout is helping parents take steps to understand how to keep the smartphone experience safe for everyone in the family.”

Additional topics covered by Guide include ways to build responsibility and good judgment, good smartphone care and “feeding,” and what to discuss at a smartphone family meeting. There is even a sample Phone Rules Agreement, which both a child and his parents can sign and which will govern the use of a new smartphone.

For the complete Generation Smartphone: A Guide for Parents, please click here. For more information on Lookout, please visit www.mylookout.com. To download Lookout for free to your smartphone, visit the Google Play or App Store.