Verizon today introduced a new mobile plan catered towards children and parents who want to give their kids access to a smartphone while exercising some control over their use of it. Just Kids will be available starting this coming Thursday, and it"s just $5 cheaper than the Go Unlimited plan, ranging from $35 to $55 depending on the number of lines in your family, and provided you have Auto Pay enabled.
That may not seem like a significant discount since you only get 5GB of LTE data instead of the "unlimited" data on other plans. Additionally, the Just Kids plan includes unlimited talk and text for up to 20 contacts, so it"s not quite as unlimited as on the more expensive plans. You also don"t get a lot of the benefits of more expensive plans, such as the free Apple Music subscription. The redeeming factor for Just Kids may be the inclusion of Smart Family Premium, which typically costs $9.99 per month.
This service lets parents track the location of their children, set limits for how much time they can spend online, or create content filters for their children, so they don"t see anything they shouldn"t be seeing. Just Kids also includes Safety Mode so children don"t exceed their data usage, which would result in additional charges.
Given the limitations, the plan will only be attractive if you really need the included parental control tools. Nonetheless, if you"re interested, you can head to Verizon"s website starting Thursday, April 4 to sign up for the plan.