Most phone contracts you'll find online are a list of rules for the kid and nothing for the parent. Kids sign them the way you sign a software licence. These are different: the parent makes promises too, including what they won't do. That's what makes it something a teenager will hold you to, which is the point.
Pick the version that fits
How to use it
Print it and sit down together. Not at bedtime, not after an argument. A weekend afternoon with nothing else going on works. Read it out loud, both columns.
Fill in the blanks together. The blank lines are the real agreement. Phone-off time, where it charges, which apps are okay. If your kid helps set the number, they'll keep it more often than if you hand it to them.
Sign it, date it, put it somewhere visible. The fridge works. So does a photo of it on both your phones.
Revisit it. A rule that made sense at 12 is insulting at 14. When your kid pushes back on a line, that's a sign to move up a version, not a sign the agreement failed.
The line parents ask about most: "I will not read your messages." It's in the teen and 16+ versions on purpose. A kid who believes their messages are private is a kid who leaves the apps on the phone where you can see them. The ones who think they're being watched move to the apps built to hide.
Where the check-in comes from
Every version includes a periodic check-in: you plug the phone into Device Nanny together and look at the list of what's installed, by its real name. Nothing else. No messages, no location, no history. It takes a couple of minutes, your kid is sitting right there, and you both see the same list.
That's the deal the agreement is built on. The kid keeps their private life. The parent gets a true picture of what's on the phone, as often as you've agreed, without sneaking. If an app shows up that neither of you can explain, that's the conversation. Everything else is theirs.
One honest limit: a list of installed apps is a starting point, not the whole story. It won't show what happens in a web browser or inside an app. That's why the agreement leans on talking, not just checking.
Your first scan is free, so you can run the first check-in the same day you sign. See how it works or download it for Windows.