5 tips for making your iPhone/iTouch kid proof

I got my son his own iTouch after I fell in love with my iPhone. Unfortunately my son has my clumsiness genes. Below I share some tips for parents on how to make  iPhone/iTouch kid proof and kid friendly: 

1.  Get a case with a stand: While this was a no brainer, it took me 2-3 hours to find a silicon-non  slippery case with a stand. It is relatively in-expensive at $11.89 for a two pack, clear and pink. The pink one was pretty ugly, but the clear colored one did the job. Also this was an iPhone case and it fit little loosely to my son's iTouch. Nevertheless it worked for us.
   
   
   
2. Get a few retractable chargers: The long dangling charger that comes with the iPhone was just too attractive for my son to pull and play around. Plus, when he is playing with the iTouch he drains the battery fast, so I got several of these retractable chargers and plugged them into every computer we have. They were very inexpensive at $1.92 each and shipping cost more than the product. Therefore, you may want to order several at once.
   
   
3. Never give the ownership: Even if you get them their own device -like I did-, and even if you had their name engraved at the back of the iTouch -like I did-, do not tell them that its theirs. Tell them that its the whole family's to share. That way they are not obsessed about it and you may be able to get it back from them when you need to.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Have them use it only sitting down: Only after two days of iTouch ownership, my son got really comfortable with the device, just holding it with one hand, using it while walking etc. I do not want him to break it so I made a rule of him using it only when he is sitting down.
   
   
5. Avoid applications with heavy motion controls: This way they do not get used to throwing around and shaking their iTouch and you can avoid having it slip out of their little hands.
   
   
   

   Access all blogs about iPhone kids games and apps, tips for parents

   Do you think these techniques would work and I will manage to keep his iTouch intact? Do you have additional tips? I'd like to hear your thoughts!

   
   

Comments

[Liz@VioletPosy]

Great tips!

[IanG]

Any way to prevent the wiggle mode (move icons/delete)?

[erin b]

> Any way to prevent the wiggle mode (move icons/delete)?

unfortunately no.
however, my experience is that even very young kids learn easily to press the 'home button' to escape if they go into this mode by mistake.

[Jay]

My two year old likes to put my ipod touch into wiggle mode and has deleted several applications. Luckily not ones I had data stored on like a notebook application but I can easily see that happening as there is no way to restrict this! Apple needs to add application deletion to the restriction settings! Can you imagine taking notes at a meeting and then going out to dinner with the family and having your kid erase everything before it gets saved to a computer! How hard would it be to need a pass code for deletion? The do you want to delete dialog box is not effective as one extra button press and the app is gone. Presto!