First phone for a child checklist
Set up before it's ever handed over — the settings that matter, and the agreements about loss or damage that are easier to make now than after the fact.
19 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Phone and a plan chosen togetherPay-as-you-go with a fixed spending cap avoids the surprise bill a contract can bring.
- Protective case and a screen protector fitted before first useA first phone gets dropped more than any phone after it.
- Insurance or a repair plan consideredWorth pricing against the phone's value rather than skipping it and hoping.
- Passcode or fingerprint lock set upChosen with the child, not left on a default.
- Find-my-phone or an equivalent location feature turned onAgreed together rather than sprung on them later — explain it's about a lost phone, not surveillance.
- Parental controls and content filters installed
- App store set to need approval before anything downloads
- Contacts limited to family and agreed friends to startEasy to add to later — harder to take away once it feels normal.
- Emergency contacts saved and reachable from the lock screen
- Messaging and social apps agreed before any are installedCheck the platform's minimum age rather than what a friend already has.
- An agreement for what happens if the phone is lost or broken
- Who pays for a repair or a replacement
- Whether there's a backup phone in the meantime
- What to do first if it's lost — this list, not a panic
- Data limits set, or wifi-only agreedAvoids a data bill turning up as the first thing the phone teaches anyone.
- Photo and location sharing settings checked app by appDefault settings on most apps share more than seems obvious.
- A charging spot agreed, ideally outside the bedroom overnight
- A time agreed for when the phone goes away at night
- A few practice calls and texts with a trusted adult firstBefore it's used for real, so the basics aren't being learned mid-emergency.
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What's the most important setting to get right on day one?
- A passcode and a location feature, agreed together before the phone is used properly — both are far easier to introduce as normal from the start than to add later.
- Who should pay if the phone is lost or damaged?
- Whatever you decide, decide it before it happens. An agreement made calmly in advance avoids a row invented on the spot when it's actually lost.
- Should a child's first phone have full internet access?
- Most families start more restricted than feels necessary and loosen it over time — it's far easier to open something up later than to take it away once it's normal.