As the crackdown against smartphones in schools intensifies, some parents are relying on smartwatches to keep their children’s routines in check.

Many parents choose smartwatches not only for their children to keep track of the time, but also to keep an eye on their own whereabouts and routines.

Technology correspondent for the Irish Times, Ciara O’Brien told Sean Moncrieff there are good reasons why parents might give their children smartwatches. 

“Everybody has a different family setup. 

“Some people have their children moving between houses. Children are much more scheduled than they would have been before. It’s a full time job managing a child’s schedule these days. 

Mrs O’Brien told Newstalk smartwatches had allowed to get in touch with her daughter with more ease and offered comprehensive parental controls. 

“I have control over who can actually contact that phone number. You need to make sure that only certain people can contact your child and that they're not giving the number out randomly to people.

“Watches are usually tied into a parent-controlled app and only people who have permission through that app can actually contact the child.”

Speaking on the Moncrieff  Show, she added that while control was mostly on parents, the accuracy of location of children depends on the number of updates and phone signal data strength. 

Children play mobile phone. Photo by: Gregory Wrona.

“It gives you a reasonable idea. If she’s gone out with her friends, she would usually ring me to say through the watch or send me a little voice note through the watch to say that she is going somewhere else.”

As schools across Europe crack down on smartphone usage for young people, Mrs O’Brien suggested parents get permission or at least check with the school that permission isn’t needed for children to go to school with smartwatches. 

“They do have school modes where you set it between hours to lock or unlock,” she added. 

Smart watch options appropriate for children are the X6 play model, iMu and My First and, Apple Watch 3SE. 

Main Image: Smartwatches on wrist.