How To Fix Other Verizon Smart Family Issues
We assume that after applying our methods you were able to resolve your Smart Family issues. In case it is not working at all, we recommend checking if you have missed something.
As a last resort, you can contact Verizon customer service for further assistance.
Weve found many people complaining that Verizon Smart Family content filters not working, or the location is inaccurate. Now, we will take a look at how to resolve both of them.
Signing Up For Verizon Smart Family
You need Verizons standard account with at most 10 lines to be able to sign up for Verizon Smart Family.
Take note that you can add up to 20 blocked numbers or contacts with the app.
Just like blocked contacts, you can add up to 20 trusted contacts to your list.
Location Alerts / Notifications
You can set up alerts to notify you of your child’s location. You can have these alerts sent when your child arrives at and leaves certain places, or you can be notified of your child’s location at set times during the day.You can also receive daily and/or weekly notifications of important activities and communication with new and watchlist contacts.Note: You must have Verizon Smart Family Premium to use location services. You should also pair your phone with the Smart Family Companion app on your child’s phone for more accurate results. To view any location for your childs Verizon Android tablet, you must pair with the Smart Family Companion app on the tablet and have Smart Family notifications enabled in device settings.
In the Verizon Smart Family app:
You’ve successfully set up arrival and departure alerts. Repeat these steps for each location you want to receive alerts for.
In the Verizon Smart Family app:
In the Verizon Smart Family app:
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What To Do If Theres A VPN On My Childs Phone
Step one dont make assumptions. Yes, theres a 51% chance theyre trying to get around something, but, first, give him/her a chance to tell you why. Be a loving investigator.
Step two assuming the VPN was downloaded for nefarious reasons, delete it.
Step three remove the App Store or Google Play .
Related post:3 Reasons to Disable the App Store
Step four impress upon your child the importance of privacy, yes, but abusing that principle to hide online behavior from parents isnt honest. It isnt noble. Online secrets usually get us into trouble , eventually. And, the behavior will be punished.
What To Do If Your Subscribed Directly On Verizon Smart Family’s Website
Here’s how to cancel your Verizon Smart Family subscription when billed through a payments provider that is not the Appstore, Playstore or Paypal.
Sometimes, you may start a subscription directly on a company’s website without using an extra layer of security like Paypal or Apple. To unsubscribe, you might have to sign into Verizon Smart Family’s website or directly reach out to the payments provider.
Generally, here are two steps you can take if you find yourself in that fix:
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Worst Update Ever Cant See Limits On All Lines
There used to be a page that allowed a parent to see all the lines listed and limits listed and change limits from that list. Now I have to purposely open each line individually to see or change data limits. My monthly to do list just got longer because it cant be done at a glance. So if I added or subtracted data from one line or another, I cant see that unless I open that lines data list from the app. I want the old overview. Line A has x gb, line B has y gb, line C has a gb… etc. its not only inconvenient , but its not free with my plan. Also I hate pairing devices to block content. I should just be able to set age limits without pairing. Please fix!!! Lastly, the phone numbers my kids are calling/texting should be listed by their contact name in my family base, not by last four digits. I have no idea who these numbers are. Please list them as the contact name in the phone. That would really help. Then if an unknown number comes up, I know it is a stranger. This is particularly critical with teens, to know which texts are random and which are friends. Safety first!
I don’t feel comfortable with this app, I had a mini panic attack when I found out how much the parents can see. My aunt said it was to ‘protect me from viruses’ but little did I know she could see my photos, search history, accounts, and almost all my personal info
How Kids Can Dodge Parental Safety Controls And What Parents Can Do About It
IT Expert Sarah Kimmel with Family Tech joined us with five ways kids dodge parental safety controls and what parents can do about it.
1. Changing the time on the deviceOne of the oldest tricks in the book is to adjust the time on your device so it seems like it is in an allowed timeframe. After 11 PM your child can go grab their phone, change the time to 6 PM, and suddenly they are allowed to use their phone again!
To combat this, layers of controls are recommended. Using restrictions not only on the phone itself but through the carrier and the wireless router in the home will help make sure that even though the time on the phone says 6 PM, the other systems know otherwise.
2. Installing a VPN – Virtual Private NetworkSarah says there is really no reason for a child to have a VPN installed on their phone unless is it already part of parental controls you have set like for Circle Go or Verizon’s Smart Family. If your child installs a VPN app, it essentially allows them to remove the device from the protected network and allows them access to a network that does not have restrictions.
Do not allow the installation of VPN apps and that should clear this one up quickly.
Just make sure you have your notifications turned on for your parental control app so you know when it`s been entered!
For more IT tips from Sarah, please email her at Sarah@familytechbiz or visit: Familytech.biz
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Verizon Smart Family Issues Are Still There
If you have tried all of our methods and recommendations and your Smart Family feature is still not working or youre experiencing any other issues, you can always contact Verizon for additional assistance.
Dont forget to include everything youve tried in this post in your mail to Verizon to save both your and their time.
How To Bypass Verizon Family Base App
With the field of technology touching, even more, higher skies every single day, nothing has remained impossible. Many different unique and advanced options are there to assist you in your every motive whether it is good, or bad, or just to get a little bit of privacy and a lesser number of restrictions. Yes, Im talking about bypassing those over the top strict restrictions put on you by your parents using the Verizon Family Base services. Heres how you can bypass Verizon Family Base limitations.
Proxy sites and services are the easiest to use. These proxy sites are able to divert your network traffic through a rather different but innocent IP address which goes through the Verizon Family Base undetected.
This works by visiting a proxy site first where you need to write or copy-paste the link address of that particular webpage or site which you want to unblock access to. Such as hide.me is a similar kind of proxy site that might serve the purpose. You just need to visit hide.me, then simply tap the search box there and add your restricted link address into the site search bar and you are free to surf the page.
It is easy to learn how to bypass Verizon Family Base but it is not exactly the right thing to do, neither is putting such restrictions on your children is acceptable. You should try to maintain a trust level between all the family members.
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Sign Up / Upgrade Subscription
You can sign up through the Verizon Smart Family app:
Now that you’re signed up for Verizon Smart Family, you can on your children’s iPhone® and Android smartphones or Android tablets that have a line on your Verizon wireless account.Note: You can also upgrade to Verizon Smart Family Premium from the dashboard of the app when you first sign in.
In the Verizon Smart Family app:
You’ve successfully upgraded to Verizon Smart Family Premium.
To unsubscribe in the Verizon Smart Family app:
How To Cancel Verizon Smart Family Subscription On A Mac Computer
To cancel Verizon Smart Family subscription on your Mac, do the following:
Note: Always make sure to use the exact username and ID you used to set up the subscription to manage that subscription when necessary. This is sometimes different from the Apple ID or Android brand ID you have set up.
If you don’t remember your password however, contact the App for help/to reset password.
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Learn Your Teens Top Tricks To Get Past Your Parental Controls Like Opendns
The following blog post may seem long and get somewhat technical at times, but guess what? The minute you bought your child a smartphone, laptop, tablet, gaming console, or any other Internet-connected device you became a technical parent! Whether your kid knows more than you about this technology, is now up to you
Be sure to take a free 14-day trial of our parental control service and to see how we enhance built-in iOS and Android parental controls.
You trust your kids, but you also know that with kids you need to take the proper precautions at home and away, to make sure that they stay safe and do not venture into the seedy world of internet porn and other dangerous or inappropriate social media. Now, you may be an IT guru and even work as a software engineer knowing network routing, DNS, IP encryption, and you may have even built your own router at home so you can have full control over what happens!; If you are OR you are a Parent with little technical ability, this is for you!
Netsanity, for example, makes the process much easier with point and click Apple iOS parental controls, and Android parental controls;along with knowledgeable support and a cloud-based, easy to use parental dashboard, built for new tech parents..
Does My Child Need To Have The Smart Family Companion App In Order For Me To Locate Them
If you don’t have the Smart Family Companion app installed and paired on the child’s phone, you’ll receive the network location of their phone. Network location accuracy can vary up to a few miles.If the Smart Family Companion app is installed on your child’s phone and paired with your phone, you’ll get:
Note: Verizon Android tablets must be paired with the Smart Family Companion app and Smart Family notifications enabled in device settings in order to display the precise or network location of the device.
If your child’s device is paired with the Smart Family Companion app, the location results will indicate a street address and approximately how many yards away the device is from that location.However, location accuracy depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to:
We recommend you pair with your child’s Smart Family Companion app for better location accuracy.
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What Is Verizon Smart Family
As already mentioned, Verizon Smart Family is an exclusive parental control app for Verizon members. That said, the app wont work if you try to pair them on devices that are on a different network. It should be used on a Verizon phone or tablet to give you control over what your kids do online.
However, Verizon Smart Family isnt free whichever Verizon plan you have. You can get this service for $4.99 per month or get the Premium version for $9.99. The Premium version gets a free trial for its subscribers for 30 days.
Much like any parental control apps, Verizon Smart Family filters what your kid does on his or her gadgets. It can block any questionable sites, filter searches, as well as prevent unwanted purchases. This app can even locate your child whenever theyre missing. It would be helpful if there are kids smartwatches that can supplement protection for your kids.
Game Consoles And Other Internet Devices
What: Lately everything is being connected to the net. So one must be even more vigilant to make sure your most precious ones are protected. Nowhere is this truest than game consoles and portable game players.
Your teen will/can: Bypass your parental controls. Almost all have browsers and ways to access the net. If you lock down the PC but forget to do the same with the XBOX or Nintendo Playstation, you have not secured anything. We have seen many teens pretend they are playing Animal Crossing, but really they are on the web in a chat room.
Prevent By: Making sure that the parental controls are enabled and you restrict any changes via the console. Make sure notifications are enabled as well so you know when changes are attempted.
To summarize, the above is a tiny fraction of what kids routinely do to bypass parental controls. There are many more that are much more technical. Certainly, to avoid giving them any more ideas, we will not write about them here. However, do not be laissez-faire about their safety and be proactive. Allowing unfiltered internet in your home and on your kids smartphone and other mobile devices can be dangerous and its their job to test the limits and be curious. Our job is to make sure they stay safe and dont make bad choices that can harm them for years to come.
Additional reading:
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Viewing Who Your Child Contacts
Verizon Smart Family can let you view who your child chats or calls with. This will give you a perspective if your child chats with your friends, family, or people unknown to you. It can also give you control over who your child mingles with, thus letting your child stay away from potential harm.
To view your childs top contacts, do the following: