Why Buying a Dumb Phone for Your Kid is a Smart Idea
Buying a dumb phone for your child is a smart move. A child-safe phone will let them grow up human, without smartphone addiction and exposure to online harms.
Affiliate disclosure: we may promote screen time management solutions consistent with our mission of protecting families from addictive technology, at no additional cost to you — and sometimes with a discount.
Why Do Parents Buy Phones?
When we decide to get our children their first phone, what we really want is:
- To be able to reach them via calls and texts
- To give them the freedom to arrange their own social life
- To know where they are. To keep them safe.
The reason we buy our kids a phone is to protect them. To worry about them less. To make sure they are safe.
But what happens in reality is exactly the opposite of “safe”.
A smartphone comes preloaded with these features:
- Distraction and cheating at school
- Toxic social media
- Addictive video gaming
- Porn in their pocket
- Exposure to violence
- Open access for predators
- Depression and anxiety
- Behavior manipulation by Big Data
- Self-harming behaviors
- Sleep deprivation
- Degradation of social skills
- Compromised childhood development
The list goes on. It is the most dangerous object we hand to them.
Instead of making our kids safe, a fully-loaded smartphone destroys their humanity.
How do we give our children the gift of connectivity — without any of the dangers?
In our family, we decided to give dumb phones to our kids to opt out from the digital madness. We signed the WaitUntil8th campaign pledge that encourages parents to wait at least until the 8th grade before giving children a smartphone. Considering the ever-growing Ledger of Harms, we might wait even longer. Our oldest is in high-school — without a smartphone.
Below is our overview of child-safe phones and their features.
GABB Phone
I got these phones for my 2 older kids, ages 12 and 15 (who never had smartphones before), and 2 years later, they are still using them. Here is a detailed post documenting their experience.
What is great about the GABB phone is that it is a dumb phone that looks like a smartphone so children can preserve their social standing. Kids, especially teenagers, are terrified of not blending in with their tribe — and all of their friends have smartphones. Teens are only rebellious when it comes to parents, with peers they want to conform. With GABB phone, they can look “cool” like their peers with smartphones.
$25 off GABB phone with promo code: TECHDETOX
GABB phone looks like a smartphone, but without all the dangers:
- No addictive video games
- No toxic social media
- No porn
- No manipulative advertising
- No distracting apps
- No Internet browsing
- Real time GPS tracking of your kid’s Gabb phone from a parent smartphone
It’s much cheaper to replace than an expensive smartphone if the kid loses or breaks it. The drawback is that you cannot add it to your existing family plan, but the monthly fee of $19.99-$24.99 is comparable to most carriers. I pay it to protect my kids from smartphone addiction until they are old enough to be trusted with actual smartphones. Also, Gabb phones only work in the United States for now — I hope international connectivity will be added in the future.
Bark Phone
Bark is the company with a proven record of protecting millions of children online. Their powerful AI monitoring software helps prevent self-harm, bullying, predators, and porn.
Their founders are experts on online dangers, making a documentary and publishing a book about digital parenting.
And now they released the phone with all this technology and expertise built in.
- The Bark Phone is a Samsung A13. It looks like a regular smartphone — there is no Bark branding visible, but it’s got powerful built-in parental controls.
- Parents with either Android or iPhones will be able to manage everything from the Bark Parent app.
- Bark Phone plans start at $49/month with no contract required.
- Monthly Plans (All plans include a phone, Bark Premium, and wireless service):
- $49/month for Wi-Fi only
- $59/month for 4GB data
- $69/month for 8GB data
- The phone comes with a monthly Bark Premium subscription for the Bark Phone — so the added benefit is that it can monitor all of the other devices and accounts in your family. If you’ve already got one, it will be rolled into your phone payment — you won’t be paying double.
- We partnered with Bark to offer a 20% off discount for the life of your account with our exclusive promo code TECHDETOX20.
Pinwheel Phone
Pinwheel is the child-safe smartphone designed for kids. The company’s mission is to put humans (particularly, parents!) back in charge of technology with the phone that is built to be a tool, not an entertainment center. The phone is specifically designed to resist the toxic dopamine reward loop of addictive technology:
- Has its own operating system to protect kids’ attention and wellbeing
- No Internet browser, no App store, no social media, no video games
- Parents can choose from the list of pre-approved apps vetted by child psychologists to be beneficial — not addictive. Apps emphasize learning, communication, creativity, and wellness
- Unlike Gabb, Pinwheel is dynamic and customizable: it can grow with your child as you add access to apps when you think your child is ready for them. Examples that caught my attention include Kindle reader, Khan academy, Spotify, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, or Uber — depending on what your family needs. You can find the current list of apps here. There are 500+ expert-approved apps, which makes Pinwheel the phone with the most options.
- Bark child safety software can monitor all activity on the phone and warn parents of any dangerous content (additional charge, with a discount provided by Pinwheel)
- Unlike app-free Gabb phone, every third party app on Pinwheel has a potential for loopholes. The team of engineers is on standby to fix any workarounds kids might find within the apps. If an app deteriorates into addiction, it risks being removed.
- If you want no apps, you can lock the phone down in the basic functions of calls and text, just like a Gabb phone
- Pinwheel currently comes in 3 models:
- Pinwheel Rugged $249 (Incompatible with AT&T and Verizon)
- Pinwheel Slim $159 (Incompatible with AT&T and Verizon)
- Pinwheel Plus $329 (Compatible with all major carriers)
- You can keep your current phone carrier, but a subscription to Pinwheel Parent Dashboard ($14.99 a month) is required to use the phone
- Pinwheel phone is more expensive than a Gabb phone, but in theory can be used longer without switching to the smartphone with all its harms
Get 10% OFF Pinwheel Kids Phone with promo code TECHDETOX
Troomi Phone
Troomi is a Samsung phone with a proprietary child-safe Android-based operating system with built-in parental controls:
- Troomi Samsung A12 $180
- Troomi Samsung A13 5G $240
- Troomi Samsung Xcover Pro $400
- No social media, video games, or unrestricted Internet access
- Built-in security to block pornography and predators
- GPS family location tracking
- Monitoring kids’ activity via a parent portal
Like Gabb, Troomi has its own wireless network, so you have to switch from your existing carrier to their plan:
- Do: $19.95/month (includes talk, text, GPS, text monitoring)
- Dream: $24.95/month (adds picture and group texting)
- Discover: $29.95/month (adds Safe Browser and Safe Apps)
Troomi has 9 basic apps (maps, calculator, music player, weather) available on all plans, and about 50 approved safe kids apps only available with a premium plan. The list of apps is likely to expand once safety experts approve apps for children.
We partnered with Troomi to offer our readers $30 dollars off with exclusive promo code TECHDETOX.
Light Phone
- Light Phone II is a minimalist phone, designed to be used as little as possible
- Black and white screen similar to e-readers
- No social media, clickbait news, email, or Internet browser
- It’s a phone, it calls and texts
- Customizable menu of simple tools: an alarm, a calculator, directions, a simple music player, and a podcasts tool.
- Headphone jack, Bluetooth, and it can be used as a personal hotspot.
- Price: $299, compatible U.S. Carriers:
Light, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, Ting, Mint, US Mobile
Punkt Phone
- Swiss-made minimalist 4G phone designed to connect with people without distracting notifications
- Sold unlocked, works with all carriers
- Minimalist interface: phonebook button to make a call, text button to send a message, simple menu system for everything else. Monochrome display.
- Hotspot capability: Internet access can be tethered via Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/USB: broadcasting phone’s mobile signal as a Wi-Fi network to a laptop or any other device
- Designed for security: includes proprietary privacy protocol to provide encrypted Internet-based calls and texts worldwide
- No browser, apps, or group texts. It’s a quality feature phone.
- Price: $379-$399
KidsConnect Phone
Calling and texting only 4G phone, only pre-programmed numbers are allowed.
- 2 options:
- KidsConnect KC2-R $100 (refubrished)
- KidsConnect KC2 $200 (new)
- No Internet, No Apps
- GPS Tracker sending coordinates to parents’ phone app
- SOS Feature to send a text with a GPS location and auto-dial 3 numbers
- GeoFencing feature allows parents to set a predetermined area and receive an alert if the phone enters or leaves the area.
- The Voice Monitoring feature allows parents to monitor the child’s surroundings.
- Only works with KidsConnect plan, cannot connect to your existing carrier. 7 different monthly plans range from $15-$45.
Wisephone
- Wisephone is a kid-safe minimalist phone designed for adults
- Healthy boundaries: no games, social media, or Internet browser
- Family Portal to manage and monitor device usage
- Up to 3 Day practical battery life
- No reporting to Big Tech, ad free platform-wide
- No access to explicit/adult content
- Maps that don’t sell your location data
- Minimal color palette to reduce eye strain
- Curated list of essential apps: phone, messaging, maps, notes, music, photos
- MP3s and podcasts can be downloaded via USB cable
- Contacts can be imported from iCloud & Google
- Price:
- $299 (with monthly subscription)
- $599 (lifetime, without monthly subscription)
- $7 Monthly subscription fee
- Keep your cell phone carrier: works with T-Mobile and AT&T and their partners, might not work with Verizon yet
$30 OFF with our promo code TECHDETOX
CleanPhone
- CleanPhone is a phone that grows with the child: parents can limit it to just talk and text, or add apps they think the child is ready for.
- Made by the same company that created CleanRouter
- No browser, app store, or social media apps
- Parent portal app or via the web to add/delete apps, monitor text messages, turn Internet on and off, and set screen time limits. See this YouTube video for more
- Current phone is a Motorola, running on Android operating system, future models will vary
- Monthly subscription is required for the phone to work
- CleanPhone concept is similar to Pinwheel phone but less advertised
- Keep your cell phone carrier, works with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.
- Price — 3 options:
- Free Phone + $19.99 monthly fee (cellular+WiFi)
- $99 Phone + $9.99 monthly fee (cellular+WiFi)
- $49.99 Phone + $5.99 monthly fee (WiFi only, can’t connect to cellular)
Flip phones
A flip phone without Internet connection is a simple and affordable option for the first dumb phone for kids. Here are some feature phones without Internet capability to choose from:
QWERTY keyboard phones
The problem with most basic phones is that they are really difficult for texting — you have to press the key several times to get to the letter you need. The phones with slide-out keyboard like LG Expression make texting easy, which is what kids want. And they are an earlier version of touch-screen.
LG Octane No Contract QWERTY 3G Cell Phone
ZTE Altair 2 QWERTY Keyboard Phone
Before Gabb phones, I bought QWERTY keyboard dumb phones for 2 of my children and added them to our family plan — without data. Full disclosure: the 12-year old embraced the basic texting and calling and used the phone to communicate with friends, but the 15-year old refused to have anything to do with an “uncool” phone, and only used it when he needed to call us. The phones also had connectivity issues with our carrier, T-Mobile.
What if my child already has a smartphone?
Even if you gave your child a smartphone, it does not automatically mean a life of 24/7 distractions. The problem is Internet access, not the phone itself. And Internet access on the smartphone can be limited in these ways:
- Opt out of — or limit — the data plan for your child when activating their phone
- Limit WiFi at home to specific hours using router settings and parental controls
- Limit Internet access using cell phone carrier parental controls or screen time management apps
- Take the phone away when it’s not to be used according to family media rules. That’s what our product TechDetox Box is designed for:
Alternatively, you can use any of these lock boxes to enforce proper digital habits.
With the first smartphone, a good place to start is outlining the rules of engagement with a cell phone contract. As long as mom and dad are paying for devices, family media rules apply:
- No tech in the bedroom, at the dinner table, or outside designated screen time hours
- No multitasking with the phone distractions during homework
- No unauthorized apps, games, or social media
- Content filters for both family WiFi network and cell phone data to keep out the bad stuff
We plan to keep these rules in place even when our kids are 18.
Dear son/daughter, once you launch as an adult and pay for your own phone, you can set your own screen time rules.
Hopefully, by then you’d be a mature human being able to resist addictive technology without our help.
TechDetox Mom has found her children on the receiving end of addictive technology and decided to fight back.
Her research on the relationship between technology and psychology seeks to reveal how digital behavior manipulation affects human wellbeing.
She writes on her blog TechDetoxBox.com to find solutions to protect our families and reclaim our humanity.
