Need tips on how to controlling phone data usage

[Anonymous]

What is a reasonable amount of data for a teen to use? Mine are going over 4GB each pretty consistently. I really can't afford to increase the plan again and I can't figure out why they are using so much data.

[Anonymous]

Are they on wifi at home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they on wifi at home?

This. Not just home but anywhere they go. Have them sign into a local wifi hotspot and limit their downloads in the car.

[Anonymous]

How?!? They must be watching videos over 3G. It's a setting you can block on the iphone. And there's a setting on facebook to only auto play videos over wifi

[Anonymous]

Had this issue with my teen. She was streaming music and watching a lot of movies on her cell. We set a limit where she is cut off if she goes over a certain amount of GB in the plan; she won't get GB back to use (for anything, like surfing, texting, etc. unless she gets wifi access) until the next month when it resets. This has helped her "ration" the data she has.

[Anonymous]

Make sure you are clearing the text messages out.
Download photos on the computer.
Delete apps she no longer uses.

[Anonymous]

Switch them to a discount carrier. I have my phone on Virgin Mobile and for $35/month, I get unlimited text and data, 200 minutes of talk time. I can pay $45/month for 1200 minutes of talk time or $35/month for unlimited talk time. Since most kids don't use the minutes much, the $35 plan would be a decent plan for the kids. No contract, you have to purchase a phone, but there are a number of less expensive phone options.

There are 3-4 other discount phone carriers that have different deals. Look through them and pick the plan and carrier that fits your kids' usage needs better.

[Anonymous]

Cap the data use, as PP said, and cut it off when the limit is reached. Pretty simple.

[Anonymous]

My DD didn't realize apps ran in the background and use data. She turns the data off and only uses it when there is no wifi available and even then, sparingly. She figured this out on her own at 12. Certainly, your teen can figure out how to limit data if she is forced to.

[Anonymous]

Pick a reasonable amount of data. If they go over, they pay the difference.

[Anonymous]

Our carrier sends a text when we're approaching our limit---see if yours will do this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they on wifi at home?

This. Not just home but anywhere they go. Have them sign into a local wifi hotspot and limit their downloads in the car.

I do not suggest ever signing into a public WiFi network like in stores or restaurants or whatever. Huge security risk.

[Anonymous]

4 k is plenty. Teach them skills and then cut them off after 4k.

No streaming of music or video outside the house. They can download enough music from iTunes to keep themselves amused.

There are plenty of kids with limits, and they manage.

[Anonymous]

I don't know. I use phone for email and reading news and dcum no streaming anything and I use 2 G easily. And I'm not on a teen messaging and face booking cinstantly. They are not streaming video and a lot of bandwidth is eaten up by ads download in 'free' apps. Switch to sprint unlimited.

[Anonymous]

Turn off the cellular access for apps that are data hogs (like streaming video). Take the phone away for a day of they go in and turn it back on. Close apps after using, set software upgrades to "only when wifi is available".

I use wifi primarily and only have a few apps that I let use cellular data. The only one that uses any real data is Google maps. If they have to have FB on non-wifi, turnoff video auto play.

I use about 60 mb a month.