Privacy Recommendations for a Young Teen (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 week ago by pineapplelover@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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So I have a young teen entering 7th grade and so they're about to receive their first phone. With that, it opens a lot of doors to all the big tech social media apps and privacy invasive services.

I'm not sure how to approach this. My parents probably want tracking features so it'll probably be Find My or a 3rd party app like life360 depending on if we choose iphone or degoogled pixel.

Social media I'm not sure if fediverse stuff is the right path especially for lemmy, since it's just tech nerd stuff and politics which isn't interesting really unless they go out of their way to find smaller communities. Their friends will probably force them onto Instagram or some shit and I don't really want them doomscolling on reels, that shit algorithm, and the malicious messaging app built in to it.

It's just kinda hard trying to blend being a functional member of society and maintain your mental well being and privacy.

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[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If you're in EU https://murena.com/smartphones/ is a good compromise IMHO and it will be radically cheaper than an iPhone. I imagine elsewhere there are other companies selling new or refurbished deGoogled phones. Again that'll probably set you back 300 € versus 1000 € for an iPhone. One is a tool, the other is, again from my biased perspective a former iPhone user, a tool too but mostly a status symbol.

Edit on parental controls : from a technical standpoint, which I'd argue it's only part of the challenge, I've found https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/parental-control specifically but more broadly https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.timelimit.android.open/ or https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.timelimit.android.aosp.direct/ which are more about self discipline. There is also https://github.com/xMansour/KidSafe but seems outdated.

[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

I also have a PinePhone and PinePhone Pro... but I wouldn't (yet) recommend them as daily drivers unless :

you are REALLY committed to privacy
don't care much for the camera
don't need mobile "Apps" and fine using the Web or Linux (which are great) apps
don't need much battery
you are eager to tinker.

this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025

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