These days it’s practically a given that you will send your students off to college not only with essentials like bedding and a computer, but also with a smartphone. For most parents, this is not only a way to ensure that they can get in touch with their kids at any time of day or night, but it’s also a way to put their minds at ease, knowing that kids will have a way to call for help should they find themselves in a sticky situation. However, not just any smartphone will do. And before your children are out the door with visions of frat parties dancing in their heads, you need to do a little research to figure out which smartphone options will best benefit them during their time on campus. Here are just a few essential smartphone features you might want to consider.

1. Front- and rear-facing cameras.

While you can certainly communicate with your kids via phone and email, you might want to get a look at them once in a while. Front- and rear-facing cameras mean that you can use a service like Skype to video chat with your students even while they’re miles away on campus.

2. 4G service.

Let’s be honest: there’s nothing wrong with 3G service, per se. Well, there is the fact that everyone has it now, which means that it has gotten a lot slower over the past couple of years. If you want your students to have instant connectivity and fast download speeds, 4G is where it’s at nowadays. Although coverage is spotty in some areas, many networks are diligently expanding their 4G zones in order to ensure the best service for their customers.

3. Intelligent personal assistant.

You’ve no doubt heard of Siri, the intelligent personal assistant that can seek directions and make reservations, all with hands-free functionality and a computerized wit to go with it. This type of technology is essential for student smartphones for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the voice activation and recognition means that your kids need never use their hands, a great boon if they can’t seem to disengage from a phone, even when they’re driving. In addition, it can help them to find any information at the drop of a hat without stopping to type, a handy feature for busy college students.

4. Storage.

Most savvy students these days store data in the cloud, but with a wealth of educational apps at their disposal they should also have plenty of storage space available on their device with which to run their plethora of applications. They may want to take notes, use talk-to-text functionality, keep a schedule of classes and assignments, or even share project information with group members for a specific class. All of these applications may have to be present and accounted for on the device (rather than in the cloud) in order to be useful, so phones that feature extra GB for storage are probably preferable.

5. Insurance.

In case you didn’t know, your mobile service provider (i.e. Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, for example) can offer you insurance in case your kids’ phones are lost or damaged. While it won’t cover issues arising from unlocked cell phones, and there may be restrictions on coverage due to negligence or abuse at the hands of users, it should pay out in cases where the phone is lost, stolen, vandalized, or even damaged by the user is some cases. You could rely on a protective case and a lost device locating program like the The Find My iPhone application. But only insurance will guarantee a replacement phone or parts.