What to do if your child’s mobile phone bill starts to ring alarm bells

They can run up huge charges, or someone else can if they lose the handset. Here's how to mitigate the risks

It's every parent's nightmare. The monthly mobile phone bill lands on the doormat to reveal that their teenage son or daughter has massively overspent - and 100-plus is about to be taken by direct debit. Or you get a tearful call at work - the expensive smartphone they got last Christmas has been stolen " and there's worse to come: the thief has run up a huge bill calling premium rate numbers, and you're liable.

According to the telecoms regulator Ofcom, a third of children aged five to 15 in the UK now own a smartphone. It seems that providing a mobile for your children has become one of those rites of passage that modern parents have to go through.

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