Just an FYI to prevent parents from making a mistake that we did! My oldest has a Pinwheel phone. We switched from Gabb bc he is really into music and wanted Spotify. We had no idea that Spotify is filled with pornographic content (and after recently adding video content things are even worse). Just putting it out there in case any other parents assume Spotify was “just music” like we did! Workaround: Your kid can get Spotify Kids. The music selection is pretty terrible and definitely directed at young children. However, there is an option for them to use your adult Spotify account, make playlists, and then add the playlists to their Spotify Kids. You have to put in a password so you can monitor what they’re adding.
Great job finding that more protective workaround, Megan! I enjoy sharing a Spotify account with 3 of my teen and young adult children. I just have to be careful at my parent talks when I want to pull up music that I don't drop Alice in Chains on the crowd (I have a son who loves the 90s :)
I haven’t looked into this much myself so could be something to look further into, but the WisePhone 2 by Techless works hard to protect kids from 99% of explicit content out there. I believe I heard on a recent review that it even blurs inappropriate images on album covers on Spotify. Could be a good alternative to look into! In fact I’m surprised that device wasn’t mentioned on this list.
Disclosure: I don't own a cellphone, a smartphone, or a flip-phone. Landline only.
However! Both of my kids have one (when they were in 10th grade. We have rules: 1) Parents can get on it any time we want (we don't). 2) Must be used in the living space of the house (no phone in the bedroom. 3) They are required to be off the phone a significant part of the day (we should have defined that!).
Please somebody make a quality flip phone with a high quality camera and voice recognition for texting. This rugged format is by far the best for actual voice communication, positioning microphone and speaker appropriately, and making the answering and hanging up functions easily navigated in the dark rather than a mess of floating icons where it is hard to find the phone function.
IMPORTANT: Some of these phones *will not* work outside of very urban areas due to coverage limitations.
I posted this comment over on Jean's Stack as well:
"Jean, an additional concern with basic phones that we encountered with the Gabb 4 and previous Gabb is that the signal coverage is NOT good at all outside of major urban areas. We got the previous Gabb model for my older son to be able to go on Scout campouts without me and still have a way to communicate, and to be able to track his location.
It almost never worked, and we're not talking places that are super-remote like the middle of Philmont Ranch in NM...We're talking campouts in a city parks or on the verge of smaller towns (like 5k-20k population towns.) We couldn't call or receive calls from him, couldn't text, and couldn't track his location.
If you want to have use with a kid traveling with anything like scouts or church groups, try to read a lot of reviews about coverage in rural areas.
Otherwise agree with the above points wholeheartedly."
There's an Orthodox Jewish organization called TAG that allows you to take any smartphone and add a filter for a small fee. If you work with them you can customize which apps to allow.
Yes! The Jewish community has been WAY out in front of designing safer devices for a long time. My friend, Eli Samuel, is the CEO of SafeTelecom, which creates "kosher" browser-free Android devices. I'm not an affiliate. Eli's just a great guy on mission.
A phone is a device for voice calls. An advanced phone may also have SMS text support. A super-advanced phone may have a simple one-lens 1600px (small file size, cheap sharing) camera in it - that will cover all your needs.
Anything added on top of it is a rip-off. First, you don’t need 99% of it. Second, the user interface is deliberately designed to make access almost impossible or time-consuming: this thing literally eats away your lifetime. Third, you cannot control it and its settings. Unlike hackers.
Hey all I am reading anxious generation right now and I’m trying to increase my kids independence especially playing with neighbor kids, I have a question of is there too much independence?
In my opinion it depends on the age and the situation. Congrats on reading the Anxious Generation and working to increase your children's independence! Another fabulous parenting resource is Screenstrong. https://screenstrong.substack.com/
I love this, and I see a near future where the basic phone will increasingly be adopted across the age spectrum. Consumption at this pace is starting to feel a lot like smoking felt in the ‘80s: it’s everywhere, and people are starting to understand it’s bad for them.
my take on optional hardware or services: if it can be turned off, it can be turned on. and what does “off” or “on” really mean?
pinwheel is a hard pass for me - too much data mining obvious in the marketing of it. and it looks as addictive as my own phone. not starting my kids there.
the wisephone is more interesting if we must go with a smart phone.
we have a monthly burner nokia (no camera) right now and after looking at all of these, i’m inclined to stick with it.
tincan is another thing i’ve been researching - like so many of these, they always seem to be on the cusp of coming to market. they’re literally a voip land line. why is this so hard?
It is frustrating when even the "kid phone" companies are trying to produce phones that are fun and engaging (albeit safer), rather than non-addictive.
Just a heads up for anyone considering a cheap flip phone like a Nokia: they all come with un-deletable YouTube browsers that work surprisingly well. Found this out the hard way with my 10 year old who is obsessed with stupid short videos. Otherwise would be a great phone.
I would like to add for the benefit of the readers that you can actually turn your smart phone into a dumbphone for free using ADB App Control. I used it to uninstall chrome, youtube, and the google play store from my phone. I essentially removed any means of accessing the internet or social media but besides that I still have everything you could want from a smartphone. I still have a major service provider and the higher quality coverage that provides, can check my email (though you could uninstall that as well), can use maps, my smartphone camera, my banking apps, listen to podcasts, read my kindle books, bible app, etc... And it doesn't cost me anything. You will have to reinstall google play periodically to update the apps on your phones and ensure they continue to work as without the google play store they don't automatically update, but I just uninstall google play store after the updates finish and it's back to using my phone as... a phone (primarily). I highly recommend the ADB App Control for anyone who can't afford these alternatives cited by the author.
Fair point, maybe these phones listed in the article are the better option for children who being tech savy could also use the ADB App Control to re-install whatever was uninstalled. Maybe it's best for them to have phones incapable of the functions provided by your regular smart phone. That being said for adults with self control but who desire their phone to be less of a distraction, instead of dropping 200$+ on one of these phones, utilizing the ADB App control for free may be a better option. I don't think it should just be dismissed out of hand, it's been an incredible blessing in my life.
On the one hand you have smartphone companies selling you toxically addictive products, on the other hand you have "good" companies selling dumb phones that have half the speed and a 10th of the features for twice the price, not a good look lmao.
Sunbeam F1 flip phones at $250 are still the most affordable and highly customizable (you can choose your version with the features you want), but are still incredibly expensive considering the technology.
The market is small so margins need to be bigger to make a viable business. If not for the Orthodox Jewish market, Sunbeam wouldn't exist at all. And that's a pretty small market.
My Lightphone 3 just arrived last week. Unfortunately, it may take a few more weeks for Lightphone to get approval to work in Canada so I can’t call or text yet.
My initial thoughts, it’s built very well and is smartly designed. love the simple screen. Just clean bright text. The flashlight is easy to turn on, and the battery is replaceable.
I’ve added the music and podcast “apps” but haven’t tested them out yet. I’m still not sure how I’ll best listen to music and podcasts. My iPhone makes that so incredibly easy. My plan is is shift most “smartphone” things to my iPad. But I won’t be taking my iPad out when I walk, so I’m still thinking. I’m tempted to get an iPod since it would be more compatible with Apple Music.
Much needed post. There needs to be more awareness around the reality of what childhood is becoming for our children. As parents we need to protect them. My husband and I have recently made huge changes to how we approach technology in our home. We are modelling our relationship with it to our children... If we don't protect them then who will?
Just an FYI to prevent parents from making a mistake that we did! My oldest has a Pinwheel phone. We switched from Gabb bc he is really into music and wanted Spotify. We had no idea that Spotify is filled with pornographic content (and after recently adding video content things are even worse). Just putting it out there in case any other parents assume Spotify was “just music” like we did! Workaround: Your kid can get Spotify Kids. The music selection is pretty terrible and definitely directed at young children. However, there is an option for them to use your adult Spotify account, make playlists, and then add the playlists to their Spotify Kids. You have to put in a password so you can monitor what they’re adding.
Also, Spotify recently added messaging, which changes the nature of the app in my opinion.
Yikes! I did not know that!
Great job finding that more protective workaround, Megan! I enjoy sharing a Spotify account with 3 of my teen and young adult children. I just have to be careful at my parent talks when I want to pull up music that I don't drop Alice in Chains on the crowd (I have a son who loves the 90s :)
I haven’t looked into this much myself so could be something to look further into, but the WisePhone 2 by Techless works hard to protect kids from 99% of explicit content out there. I believe I heard on a recent review that it even blurs inappropriate images on album covers on Spotify. Could be a good alternative to look into! In fact I’m surprised that device wasn’t mentioned on this list.
I just published a book about going analog: https://davidzelenka.substack.com/p/analog-jesus
Disclosure: I don't own a cellphone, a smartphone, or a flip-phone. Landline only.
However! Both of my kids have one (when they were in 10th grade. We have rules: 1) Parents can get on it any time we want (we don't). 2) Must be used in the living space of the house (no phone in the bedroom. 3) They are required to be off the phone a significant part of the day (we should have defined that!).
Please somebody make a quality flip phone with a high quality camera and voice recognition for texting. This rugged format is by far the best for actual voice communication, positioning microphone and speaker appropriately, and making the answering and hanging up functions easily navigated in the dark rather than a mess of floating icons where it is hard to find the phone function.
IMPORTANT: Some of these phones *will not* work outside of very urban areas due to coverage limitations.
I posted this comment over on Jean's Stack as well:
"Jean, an additional concern with basic phones that we encountered with the Gabb 4 and previous Gabb is that the signal coverage is NOT good at all outside of major urban areas. We got the previous Gabb model for my older son to be able to go on Scout campouts without me and still have a way to communicate, and to be able to track his location.
It almost never worked, and we're not talking places that are super-remote like the middle of Philmont Ranch in NM...We're talking campouts in a city parks or on the verge of smaller towns (like 5k-20k population towns.) We couldn't call or receive calls from him, couldn't text, and couldn't track his location.
If you want to have use with a kid traveling with anything like scouts or church groups, try to read a lot of reviews about coverage in rural areas.
Otherwise agree with the above points wholeheartedly."
I'm 41, and it seems that the Light Phone is ideal for me (I do use the Maps App quite often).
I am genuinely tempted myself (I am 44).
i came to say that i wanted one of these for myself. thanks for pre answering my question
Surprised to see no mention of the Wisephone.
I have a Light Phone III and find it pretty good, it's buggy and a bit unpredictable, but it does the job, and certainly no temptation to overuse it.
I agree Wisephone deserves a mention.
There's an Orthodox Jewish organization called TAG that allows you to take any smartphone and add a filter for a small fee. If you work with them you can customize which apps to allow.
Yes! The Jewish community has been WAY out in front of designing safer devices for a long time. My friend, Eli Samuel, is the CEO of SafeTelecom, which creates "kosher" browser-free Android devices. I'm not an affiliate. Eli's just a great guy on mission.
Safe Telecom is great. There's also Koshercell.
There's also Bark and of course Family Link
A phone is a device for voice calls. An advanced phone may also have SMS text support. A super-advanced phone may have a simple one-lens 1600px (small file size, cheap sharing) camera in it - that will cover all your needs.
Anything added on top of it is a rip-off. First, you don’t need 99% of it. Second, the user interface is deliberately designed to make access almost impossible or time-consuming: this thing literally eats away your lifetime. Third, you cannot control it and its settings. Unlike hackers.
Hey all I am reading anxious generation right now and I’m trying to increase my kids independence especially playing with neighbor kids, I have a question of is there too much independence?
In my opinion it depends on the age and the situation. Congrats on reading the Anxious Generation and working to increase your children's independence! Another fabulous parenting resource is Screenstrong. https://screenstrong.substack.com/
I love this, and I see a near future where the basic phone will increasingly be adopted across the age spectrum. Consumption at this pace is starting to feel a lot like smoking felt in the ‘80s: it’s everywhere, and people are starting to understand it’s bad for them.
Why do these all need cameras? More basic, more dumb please.
I agree!
The Light Phone 2 version has no camera. Also the Wisephone and Pinwheel allow the camera feature to be turned off. And "The Phone" has no camera.
https://wisephone.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorzx5D95DYj89XVopns4Hkl1LWyJcQubQGQXuCB9syxDNOqm1x9a
https://thephone.fr/en/products/the-phone?srsltid=AfmBOooxJ4HMeNR0MAbkpYA1WaZKQphUK31IpDG-5kcDnLHko05od4YK
my take on optional hardware or services: if it can be turned off, it can be turned on. and what does “off” or “on” really mean?
pinwheel is a hard pass for me - too much data mining obvious in the marketing of it. and it looks as addictive as my own phone. not starting my kids there.
the wisephone is more interesting if we must go with a smart phone.
we have a monthly burner nokia (no camera) right now and after looking at all of these, i’m inclined to stick with it.
tincan is another thing i’ve been researching - like so many of these, they always seem to be on the cusp of coming to market. they’re literally a voip land line. why is this so hard?
I've also wanted more dumb basic options too.
It is frustrating when even the "kid phone" companies are trying to produce phones that are fun and engaging (albeit safer), rather than non-addictive.
At the end of the day they want to make money. Not make kids safer. They see kids as mid term investments. Harvest data now. Use it later. 😅
Just a heads up for anyone considering a cheap flip phone like a Nokia: they all come with un-deletable YouTube browsers that work surprisingly well. Found this out the hard way with my 10 year old who is obsessed with stupid short videos. Otherwise would be a great phone.
I would like to add for the benefit of the readers that you can actually turn your smart phone into a dumbphone for free using ADB App Control. I used it to uninstall chrome, youtube, and the google play store from my phone. I essentially removed any means of accessing the internet or social media but besides that I still have everything you could want from a smartphone. I still have a major service provider and the higher quality coverage that provides, can check my email (though you could uninstall that as well), can use maps, my smartphone camera, my banking apps, listen to podcasts, read my kindle books, bible app, etc... And it doesn't cost me anything. You will have to reinstall google play periodically to update the apps on your phones and ensure they continue to work as without the google play store they don't automatically update, but I just uninstall google play store after the updates finish and it's back to using my phone as... a phone (primarily). I highly recommend the ADB App Control for anyone who can't afford these alternatives cited by the author.
A kid can easily break it with in app browsers
Fair point, maybe these phones listed in the article are the better option for children who being tech savy could also use the ADB App Control to re-install whatever was uninstalled. Maybe it's best for them to have phones incapable of the functions provided by your regular smart phone. That being said for adults with self control but who desire their phone to be less of a distraction, instead of dropping 200$+ on one of these phones, utilizing the ADB App control for free may be a better option. I don't think it should just be dismissed out of hand, it's been an incredible blessing in my life.
On the one hand you have smartphone companies selling you toxically addictive products, on the other hand you have "good" companies selling dumb phones that have half the speed and a 10th of the features for twice the price, not a good look lmao.
Sunbeam F1 flip phones at $250 are still the most affordable and highly customizable (you can choose your version with the features you want), but are still incredibly expensive considering the technology.
The market is small so margins need to be bigger to make a viable business. If not for the Orthodox Jewish market, Sunbeam wouldn't exist at all. And that's a pretty small market.
I’m interested in the light phone for myself! Does anyone have a review on using it (replacing my smart phone)?
My Lightphone 3 just arrived last week. Unfortunately, it may take a few more weeks for Lightphone to get approval to work in Canada so I can’t call or text yet.
My initial thoughts, it’s built very well and is smartly designed. love the simple screen. Just clean bright text. The flashlight is easy to turn on, and the battery is replaceable.
I’ve added the music and podcast “apps” but haven’t tested them out yet. I’m still not sure how I’ll best listen to music and podcasts. My iPhone makes that so incredibly easy. My plan is is shift most “smartphone” things to my iPad. But I won’t be taking my iPad out when I walk, so I’m still thinking. I’m tempted to get an iPod since it would be more compatible with Apple Music.
What a great plan!
Much needed post. There needs to be more awareness around the reality of what childhood is becoming for our children. As parents we need to protect them. My husband and I have recently made huge changes to how we approach technology in our home. We are modelling our relationship with it to our children... If we don't protect them then who will?