CrackBerry's guide to using the Parental Control feature on your BlackBerry smartphone.
As more and more teens start using smartphones, it's only natural that more and more parents start to worry. With great entry-level devices like the BlackBerry Curve 9360, it's easier than ever for more users to get into the BlackBerry game. To help ease the pain of setting your child free with a smartphone, the latest round of BlackBerry OS leaks (7.1.0.402) includes a slew of parental control features. When enabled, the device can be limited for incoming calls, location services, text messages, browser use and various other options. These help ensure you know just what your kids are using their phone for and helps give you peace of mind. Keep reading and we'll take a look at just how easy it is to enable the parental control features on your BlackBerry.
How to use parental control on your BlackBerry
First off, be sure that you are running OS 7.1.0.402 or higher or you will not have the option for Parental Controls.
Go to Options > Security and select Parental Controls
Click Enable to activate the Parental Control features. A list will appear letting you choose what features you'd like to use. You can choose from Phone - Limit incoming calls to contacts, Text Messages, Bluetooth File Transfer, Location services, Browser, Application Installation, Email Account Setup, Facebook, Twitter, Camera and BlackBerry Messenger.
Choose which features you would like to enable, then press the Menu key and choose Save. You will then be asked to enter a 4-digit password (PIN) that will be used to access Parental Controls in the future. Keep in mind, the password can only be reset by wiping and restoring the OS on your device - so don't forget it.
That's all there is to it! Having these parental controls in places lets parents rest at ease knowing their children are limited in what they can do on their BlackBerry. You can tweak the settings as needed and based on your childs use case and again, these options are only currently available in OS 7.1.0.402 or higher.
For more help and discussion on this or other topics, head to the CrackBerry Forums.
Reader comments
How to use parental controls on your BlackBerry smartphone
Nice thinking RIM!
i love how it's put out as parental controls. Not "block things from your significant other" controls. all in all i am quite pleased. security on all fronts. Woot?!
How are you confusing parental controls with limiting others from seeing or accessing feature of your phone? These are two completely different features. Parental controls appear to restrict the ability to use the feature all together, not just restrict access. There are apps that can lock access to each and every app on your device independently from any other security feature if you’re looking to "block things from your significant other".
ok...maybe i havent actually taken a look at it. i am sure that i can put restrict ability and it will block access as well though. i posted this light heartedly
not working on BES network
what child would have an enterprise activated BB.
and if it is the case what right do parents have to manage corporate property?
I'm 13 years old and i have a bb passport with parental controls
Hopefully, RIM will leverage this as an advertising feature to attract users to the BlackBerry camp! I'm sure that many parents, myself included, would be interested in a platform that allowed control over phone usage instead of paying the carriers for such features. Time limitations would be an awesome addition too.
Wouldn't any tech savvy kid know how to wipe & restore the OS, which would make the parental controls pretty weak? It might be better if, say, there was a website (like the one for BlackBerry Protect) where you could set the parental control settings for the device (& if you forget the password, get it emailed back to you).
true we are in an age where the kids are more savy then the parents.
FYI, there are also ways to get copied on every e-mail sent and received on a BlackBerry. The user never sees this.
I think it would take something quite drastic for a parent to need to monitor his kid (I see this as more of a corporate tool) but it could help a parent somewhere deal with possible drug or alcohol issues.
Also, ATT (and probably all others) allow parents to get an e-mail when a phone in their plan wants to buy an app and the parent needs to approve it.
It is not the level of control that is bad, only a misused parental control that is bad.
If you select 'limit incoming calls to contacts'...what happens when a non contact tries to call the phone? Is it diverted to voicemail or can the caller just not connect to the phone at all?
I'm still stuck trying to get this update on my phone. For some reason blackberry desktop will not recognize the downloaded update. What gives?
Delete both vendor.xml files. There are tutorials to do so.
hi guys... can anyone tell me what font is that on the pictures? I use blackberry os 6 and I don't have that font so I would like to have it to use it in my blackberry... thanks!
Would be nice if they either integrate the feature into Protect or maybe BlackBerry management center. Head of family could then fully manage, control and support the entire families blackberries.
Great, great effort, RIM! Parents all over applaud you!
Great apps, But if you don't enable Blackberry Messenger your contacts have been deleted
Great apps, But if you don't enable Blackberry Messenger your contacts have been deleted
This is a lame review, and a very limited o/s feature. All it does is switch on / off specific features of the phone - like browser access / phone access / sms access etc etc - it doesn't let you control the actual feature at all.
As a parent with three children, the eldest of which now has his first blackberry, I wish to be able to control access on the web specifically - blocking porn, gambling and other adult material. Surely all parents would wish to do the same?
There are no decent apps that do this for BlackBerry that I've seen - kidlogger was ok, but slowed down the handset to intolerable levels. Apple / Android handsets have quite a choice - why not the same for BB?