Huawei's Child Mode Creates A Safe Online Environment For Children

With everything today being readily available on online and digital platforms, its no surprise that everyone, including children, are rushing to get their hands on devices that can get them connected.

These days, mobile phones are not only a necessity for adults, they are also an important tool for educating children. Curious children want to search for information, and often need online resources to complete coursework for school. However, giving them full access to a phone may open the door to many problems. They may develop addictive patterns of behavior around online gaming or social media. Some children may spend a lot of money on in-game purchases or rewarding live streaming hosts with their parents' accounts. Too much time looking at screens may affect a child's eyesight, too.

Without being alarmist, or indulging in hand-wringing about the state of kids these days, we should acknowledge the urgency of ensuring a safe online environment for our children. For Huawei, this work starts with the phones that children use to access the Internet, and that can be seen in various features of the company's latest OS, EMUI 11. In particular, parents should be aware of the Child Mode and Digital Balance features.

Child Mode allows users to set up a child account, which is tailored for children under 14. Unlike a standard Huawei ID, with a child account, content that is not suitable for children will be filtered out. This mechanism is applied in Huawei native apps such as Huawei AppGallery, Huawei Video, Huawei Music, Huawei Reader, and Huawei Browser.

To register a child account, go to Settings, then Huawei ID, then Settings, tap Child accounts, and then tap NEW ACCOUNT. Then fill in the required information, and you're all set.

When children use these accounts to open Huawei AppGallery, content is restricted based on age information and children will not be able to download games at will. If a child searches for restricted content, AppGallery will automatically block certain content. In addition, once a game has been downloaded, children need to ask their parents for permission to make in game purchases, and the same is true when children want to buy an e-book or a new wallpaper for their phone.

EMUI 11 also has a feature called Digital Balance, which supports screen time management, content restrictions, and location sharing. This allows parents to set usage limits for their children. A child's phone can be bound to a parent's phone, making it possible to keep track of the child's location in real time.

To activate this feature, go to Settings, choose "Digital Balance" on a Huawei phone, and then tap START. You will be asked whether the user of the phone is you or your child. Choose "My child". Your child will not be able to modify system time, switch user account, reset the device, clear browsing history, or enable private browsing mode, meaning that your child can't hide his or her browsing activity. In other words, your child will now be unable to register a new account or clear the browsing history.

Parents can set a daily screen time limit for their children. When time is up, apps other than Phone, Messaging, and Settings will become unavailable. Parents can also use the App Limits function to set usage limits for specific apps. The Screen Time feature allows parents to check what apps their children have used in last seven days, the total screen time of each app, and the number of unlocks.

Of course, all these features are just tools for helping parents manage their children's phone use. Parents and children can negotiate how these features are used, and parents may want to show that they respect their children by having an open and honest discussion about why it is necessary to place certain restrictions on their phone use.

Meta Description: With EMUI 11’s Child Mode feature, parents don’t need to worry about how their children use their devices, giving them complete control over major aspects and screen time