Simple Phones & Watches
Check out phones and watches below that help your kid stay in touch (with Grandma!) while avoiding unnecessary risks and needless temptations.
The matrix above shows several alternatives ranging from no mobile phone to a stripped-down iPhone. The toggle icons (in black or green) indicate additional features that can be enabled or turned off, depending on the product.
Basic features like calling and texting often meet the communication needs of children and families, and many products can be set up without additional features and apps that quickly become an unhelpful distraction.
We recommend keeping phones and watches as simple as possible until high school.
When it comes to kids and phones, our top suggestions to parents are:
Take it slowly. Very, very slowly.
More apps and features on a device means MORE parenting for you plus more distraction and risk for your child. To simplify your parenting role, delay unnecessary features.
Determine the essential need you’re trying to address, and provide the minimum tech to meet that need but nothing more. For example, if the need is to communicate with parents and friends, roll out a phone or watch that enables calling and texting only.
Remember to set up a phone for a young user before handing it over to your child. Most phones are set up by default for adults, not kids. If you’re considering an iPhone, watch how to set up a barebones iPhone for a child.
Find inventive ways to take collective action so it’s easier to meet basic communication needs while avoiding harm. For example, see if parents around you want to get the same Ooma landline or pick the same basic phone or watch so herd mentality flips toward the greater good!
Together let’s reclaim childhood for its developmental purpose: to play, be outdoors, develop life skills and competence, and spend time IRL with other people. A phone should be a helpful tool to support these goals, not displace them.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
If your child has an iPhone you want to simplify, watch our tutorial about how to reel in access and remove apps from your child’s iPhone. This video explains how to remove the Internet, video games, and social media.
Explore more details about phone and watch alternatives via these links:
