Missouri Ranks Safest for Kids With Phones, Illinois Near Worst

There's a new study into the safety of smartphones and their use by kids that is either comforting or alarming depending on if you live in Missouri or Illinois as both states have wildly different outcomes.

I had a study shared with me that was conducted by PCB manufacturer WellPCB. It's an interesting deep dive into smartphone use by kids and the reports of cybercrime connected to them. There's good news for Missouri as the state ranks among the 10 safest in the nation.

Infographic, WellPCB

As you can see, Missouri ranks 7th safest when it comes to kids and the overall phone danger metric. I find it interesting that the average age for the first kids phone is around 11 years of age. The story is completely different for parents and kids in Illinois.

Infographic, WellPCB

Notice in Illinois that the average age drops to around 10 years for kids getting their first phone and the cybercrime complaints skyrocket. I have to wonder if the gullibility of young kids and online plots are the reason that the younger age kids in Illinois are getting duped.

How can you help your child be safe with a smartphone?

In my non-radio life, I am a certified computer tech and the first thing I do is turn off location-enabled services so no one can trace where my kids are to our home. My kids also have strict orders to never accept messages from strangers that are not on the approved list of their real friends. They also know to alert me if they receive a message that claims to be from a friend or family member, but is odd. I also do random checks of messages on their devices and in the games they play to make sure nothing nefarious is going on. It's also a great idea to enable parental controls especially if your schedule doesn't allow you to do the micromanaging of devices like I do.