Not a day goes by when you won’t see an article about how children should not be allowed to use smartphones because they’re evil or unhealthy or whatever. But of course the reality is that depriving kids of gadgets can also have harmful effects. The key is trying to find the balance and a new app from Samsung wants to help parents and the kids themselves develop that “healthy” smartphone habit. Of course this can seem a bit self-serving from the OEM, but that doesn’t mean the tool can’t be used for good.
Basically Samsung Marshmallow (which has nothing to do with Android 6.0 Marshmallow) is a smartphone management and parental control app that also involves the children themselves in setting up the controls and also in a sort of rewards and punishment system. Together, they can set a smartphone usage plan, set targets and goals and get rewarded (the kids, not the parents) if they use their smartphone properly. Consequently, they will also get docked points if they violate any of the rules agreed upon.
The parents can choose apps that they don’t want their children to use. They can also set bedtime where they cannot use their smartphones so they will get a healthy amount of sleep. They can also monitor the actual usage and see daily and weekly reports to see their kids’ progress. And when the child gets enough points for good smartphone behavior, they can get a gift card to buy something from the gift shop.
However, the app is of course compatible only with Samsung devices, specifically the following: Galaxy S8 / S8 + / S7 / S7+ / S6 / S6 Edge / S6 Edge+ / S5 / Note5 / Note4 / A5 / A7 / A8 / A9 / J3 / J5 / J7. If you have any of those devices, you can download Samsung Marshmallow from the Google Play Store for free.
