A lot has been written about keeping kids safe from technology, but what about the reverse?

Now that we’re all regularly handing our very expensive iPhones, iPads, Androids and Kindle Fires to our kids, how can we keep them safe?  Here are a few things you can do to protect your investment:

1.  Outlaw standing, walking, and running

Make this a hard and fast rule.  If your kid wants to play a game, he sits on the couch.  If he doesn’t like it, he can always go play with some wooden blocks.

2.  Buy a sturdy non-slip case

If your kid drops your phone or tablet from a great height on a hard surface, the glass will probably break.  Sorry.  Protect it from smaller falls with nonslip silicone case cover or an impact-resistant, slip-resistant Otter Box Defender Case.

3.  Just say no to shaking and throwing games

The motion interface is one of the coolest things about smartphones and tablets, but letting your kids play games that use it is risky unless they’re in a rubber room full of pillows and marshmallows.   It’s probably best not to download ibasketball, igolf and the like.

4.  Expect things to get sticky

No matter how clean you think your kids’ hands are, they always seem to gunk up your iPhone screen.  Who knows how?  You can clean the screen with eyeglass cleaner or the cleaning cloth that came with it.  Be careful not to get any moisture in the phone’s openings.

5.  Take turns

It’s easier said than done, of course, but if you have more than one kid of phone-playing age it’s worth setting a timer to keep things fair.  Nothing breaks a smartphone or tablet faster than two or more kids trying to grab it from each other.

Broken iPhone photo courtesy of Rob Sheridan.