How much phone data does your teen have?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

My 16 year old dd has a small amount, 2GB, which I think is the lowest our phone provider does on a contract (Tesco mobile).

Her sleep hygiene is poor (she is autistic), we turn off the wifi on her phone and laptop at night but that's not much good if she is using data!

Does anyone have any ideas what we can do about this? Tesco mobile suggested pay as you go instead of a contract but I don't know exactly how this works.

My DDs (12, 15) are on a PAYG renewing bundle with ASDA. It's 5£/month for unlimited calling minutes and texts in the UK plus 3G of data. I'm on the same. We are not big users and are usually on wifi somewhere.

If you really don't want her on her devices during certain hours, you probably have to confiscate them. I've read about lots of families with a 'gadgets downstairs at night' rule.

We have a cheapy SIM from GiffGaff, about £12 a month which gives 10-15g data a month, though they are always throwing more at you for nothing.

Phone stays downstairs at a set time otherwise teen would never get to sleep. When they get to 16 they are allowed it in their room at night but not before, it's just a recipe for disaster as mine has ADHD

Unlimited I think. Our younger teen has ‘downtime’ from 10pm so he goes to bed, is that an option? That’s using an iPhone.

Ds 13 has 100gb.

I use family link so they can't access the phone more than 3hrs in total and downtime from 9 to 7. But 8gb was the same price as 2gb so he has 8gb. Never uses it, all rolls over to be used as credit on a new phone or sky stuff. With sky mobile. Any android phone use family link, apple have their own version.

They can emergency call me as ice anytime though even if phone locked

My two teens have a VOXI SIM card with 12gb and unlimited social media. This is £10 each monthly. Sim only rolling contract.

Myself and two adult children, have 100gb, free calls, text and picture messages £17 monthly sim only deal with Vodafone.

Wow some of these data packages are huge! So I assume 2gb is very small and won’t last that long?

Renewed DDs last month 30gb with O2. It was a 12 month contract at £96 via uswitch so works out £8 a month.

DD15 has 60gb for £20 a month on Vodafone with our phones.

DS13 got an unlimited for £18 when I renewed him this Yr.

DS is also ASD and had to put his phone on charge in our room at 9pm on school nights.

DD has hers all the time.

Both DC have an hour each way on the school bus so use data every time they are on the bus.

Also we live rurally and our WiFi is useless and often doesn't reach their rooms!

We're in contract with o2 and they have 2gb and it's not enough. They tether to me and DH quite a bit as we have unlimited. As soon as we're out of contract we'll get giff faff or smarter

Thanks, I’m reassured that 2GB is a small amount! That’s what I want to achieve.

Just have a no phones in bedrooms at night rule. Simple.

@Yerroblemom1923 not really that simple. I unfortunately fell into the ‘I need it for the alarm’ excuse and at 16 don’t feel I can claw it back now.

We all have unlimited data with our plan but DS14 phone gets given to me at 9 during the week, 11 at weekends.

Mine have loads of data but have screen time limits including bedtime settings so nothing will work at nighttime. Also the under 16s leave phones downstairs overnight.

What settings specifically do you establish so you can control someone else's phone for "bedtime settings" please.
Please tell me like you'd patiently explain how to work the DVD player to your great aunt. As I am very tech-stupid but I need to learn.

my 15 year old is on this too as am I. the data has always been enough considering mostly connected to WiFi anyway. and great at only £5 per month. Some of DCs friends are on stupidly expensive contracts with unlimited data etc. i just say the parents must have too much money!

@Avarua2 - I'm not very techy myself so I can't explain it slowly because I can't remember exactly how it works but I did it by googling 'parental controls'? and then followed the instructions there. We have iPhones but there are ways on android too. I can't remember all the options but as you work through 'settings' there are places to render the phone little more than a clock at certain hours. You can also turn on 'clean' surfing and set it so they have to ask to add any app.

Easier said than done when your child is autistic

If you're worried about meltdowns etc then the mechanism by which access is restricted probably isn't going to make much difference, whether it's removing the phone, cutting the data, or taking the battery out - the reaction - not just from someone who is autistic, but from any teenager is probably going to be fairly intense / dramatic.

The only 'hard' mechanism is going to be via some form of parental controls installed on the device - be aware that google won't allow this if you set the age to above 13 as the parental control features become more lax.

Our (much younger) autistic daughter was fixated by her tablet, in the end removing all of the chargers etc from the bedroom and building 'switching off and plugging in' into her routine seems to have worked, we had to replace the tablet with something else - which in her case is a bath, which means we have to have a bath at 7:30pm on the dot, every night, regardless of what else is happening, otherwise it's chaos, but a small price to pay.

Your routine might be - phone off to charge (in a place that's out of sight and mind), then bed time snack, or watch something on TV together - anything to make a physical break from the phone before bed.

Yup. We had much stricter rules in place when she was younger but for some reason I took
my eye off the ball and the rules sort of lapsed. At 16 and approaching adulthood, I can’t start to insist her phone is left downstairs without a huge amount of stress for her and me. And plus she’s a natural night owl and works better at night.

Wbhat sort of phone does she have?

We all have iphones and they are connected and each phone has screen time programmed so that they cant use thier phones at night. if they want to use thier phone eg we are all up late or something then it sends a message to mine and DH phones and we have to authourise it by putting in a pin. It means apart from emergency calls and alarm etc they cant use any apps/games/internet/text etc.

Just got fantastic deals for my kids, new samsung, unlimited calls, texts and data, was £20 each on ID. My youngest (13) is off phone at 10 but my eldest (16) stays on til 12 ish, as long as he makes no sound Im ok with that.

30g with Tesco sim only for £10