An audit is not a punishment
A phone audit is a shared evening with a parent. You go through settings. You write down what you changed or left. You do not have to delete apps. You do not have to hide anything. It is about knowing which doors are open.
An audit is not “proving you are good”. It is a map. If something leaks in a year, you know where you were.
What an audit contains
One page of paper. Three columns for permissions: app — permission — left / switched off.
Plus lines:
- 2FA on the phone account: yes / school deals with it / no
- Cookies / tracking: bar refused, cross-site tracking off
- Camera — location: on / off
- Google/Apple account — went through with a parent: date
- Public Wi-Fi — rule: [sentence]
- VPN — we have / we do not, when to switch on
The audit belongs in a drawer with a parent, not in a group chat. Not a photo into WhatsApp. Paper or a file with a parent. Once every half year again — the phone changes.
Audit evening — method
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Agree one evening. Thirty to forty minutes. The phone at the table, not in bed as a punishment.
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Go through the Shadow lessons one after another: permissions on five apps, cookies, camera, account, Wi-Fi, VPN. What is missing, fill in now.
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Fill in the paper. Both sign — not legally, as a symbol: we went through it together.
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Add one sentence from the audit to family rules. For example: We refuse optional cookies. or Public Wi-Fi — no sensitive things.
If something cannot be switched off (a school app), write school deals with it. That is done.
What to say at home
To a parent:
“Can we do a phone audit this evening? We have paper ready. We are not deleting anything. We just know what is on.”
To a sibling:
“We are doing an audit. It is not about you. It is our settings. If you want, you can next time too.”
An audit is not a reason to search private messages without a reason. It is about phone settings — permissions, account, network. Cyberbullying is dealt with another way, with proof and an adult. Family rules say what holds at your home.
The phone audit project
This is the final task of the phone audit project in Shadow. Paper done. Date. Signature. Not on the fridge — into a drawer with a parent. In half a year again.
Now you 💪
Agree an audit evening with a parent. Prepare paper with the columns and lines above.
If the evening is not possible today, write a date when it will be. An audit without a date is a wish. With a date it is a plan.
Check: You have audit paper ready or filled in. An evening with a parent agreed. One sentence from the audit goes into family rules.
What to take from this lesson
- An audit = a map of settings. Not a punishment.
- Paper with a parent. Not in chat.
- Go through permissions, cookies, account, Wi-Fi, VPN.
- Once every half year again.
© 2026 Ing. Martin Polak / AlgoRhino · Content usage terms