With kids headed back to school soon, many parents are struggling with one question: Is it time to get your child a smart phone yet?
On one hand, it’s incredibly handy to have a way to stay in touch during the day. You can let them know you’ll be late for pickup, see how that cough is progressing, make sure they remember to bring their violin home for lessons today, all of which is difficult to communicate through a busy school secretary and a web of teachers.
On the other, no one wants their child to get obsessed with social media or screens early. We want our kids able to read a real book or talk to a friend instead of staring at a phone.
The answer? “Dumb” phones that allow phone calls and limited messaging. You can get your child when needed — or she can get to you — but she’s not distracted by the tippity-tapping possibilities of a smart phone that’s basically a little computer you keep in your backpack.
Here are 5 dumb phone options we like, starting with phones for the youngest kids and graduating to tween options — and even a couple of bleeding-edge tween-to-teen possibilities at the end.
LG GizmoPal 2
Kids age 4-7 are too young to be trusted with a phone that’s all too easy to drop in a toilet or leave in a backpack. The solution? This wearable device that connects with two smartphones, and only two smartphones (one of which must be on the Verizon network). Kids can press a button once to call the first caregiver, twice to call the second, and speak over a speaker-like system that’s not great for long intimate chats, but fine for the “Where are you?” type of calls.
For their part, parents can call the GizmoPal anytime, track their child using GPS and their own phone, and activate “geo-fencing” options that alert you if your child strays out of certain pre-defined boundaries. The GizmoPal 2 is available from Verizon only and costs $80 with a two-year service contract, plus a $5 monthly access fee.
KISA
Developed in Australia originally for the elderly, disabled, and vision-impaired, the KISA is made to be easy to dial, and is thus ideal for children aged 4-7, too. KISA phones come pre-set with up to 10 — or as few as 1 — phone numbers, which appear on the users’ screen as a name and/or a photo of that person. Want to make a call? Just press a single button. In trouble? Press the SOS button on the phone’s back to be immediately connected to emergency services.
There’s no touchscreen, the KISA doesn’t take or send texts, and it doesn’t communicate with the internet. But if you need a simple way for your child to call you without the need to look up phones or remember a complicated routine, KISA may be for you.
Setting KISA up in the United States is slightly more complicated than in Australia — U.S. parents must buy and activate a SIM card, then send it to KISA in order for the phone to work. And naturally, you have to pay for a plan from whatever provider hands over the SIM card. But the phone is so easy to use that you could even give it to a preschooler. KISA runs $39 Australian dollars — about $30 American at presstime — and can only be ordered online at Kisaphone.au.
Sharp Docomo SH-03E
This flip phone for kids aged approximately 5-10 can’t go online, which pleases parents. It also has a number of features that make it kid-friendly: It’s tiny, sleek, pretty, has a great-quality 5 megapixels camera (i.e. pictures good enough to blow up), and it’s made to be water-resistant and near-indestructible. Kids can drop it, sit on it, fling it around in a backpack, even drop it in the sink, only to fish it out unharmed.
This unlocked phone can be used on any GSM network: AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket Wireless, Simple Mobile. It costs about $150 to $275 new — on the higher end for the groovy kid-bright colors like orange, aqua, and pink.
The Alcatel Onetouch flip phone
This tough flip phone that’s great for ages 7-10 will probably remind you of one you may have had in the 1990s — it’s best for phone calls and picture texting, since there’s no keyboard and typing is limited to pressing numbers to produce various letters. You may also remember how slow that is.
Nonetheless, the Alcatel is nicely priced at about $20-$60 new and available from carriers Sprint and Virgin Mobile — where it goes by the Retro, as if to remind you how past-it you are — and from prepaid service Boost Mobile — which calls the Onetouch the “Fling.” Warning: There are other kinds of Alcatel Onetouch phones, including the Fierce, which is internet-capable — don’t be fooled into getting the wrong model.
It has a 2 megapixels camera so it takes decent selfies and records video. And since what you really want for your second- or fourth-grader is for him to be able to receive messages rather than tapping away all day, the numbers-only keyboard is just fine for many parents.
Kyocera Rally
If you have a selfie-obsessed 7- to 10-year-old who isn’t quite ready to be set loose on the internet, try the Kyocera Rally on for size. The camera takes sharp photos and accepts microSD cards — for an extra $10-$30 and with a few minutes’ effort, you can show your child how to pop in the card, save those pictures, and then download in seconds onto a computer or tablet — no more unexpectedly running out of picture-storage space on the phone.
The Rally supports texting but doesn’t have a keyboard, so your child won’t want to send long texts using it. However, any text sent to her can be converted into text-to-speech and read out loud. Phone calls can similarly be used on the Rally’s speakerphone for hands-off communication. The Rally is available to T-Mobile customers; it runs $30 plus the cost of any prepaid monthly plan or pay-as-you-go service.
Dumb phones even your teens will take to
A teen without a smart phone? Unthinkable! But not all parents are on board the smart phone train — and these days, not every teen is eager to be distracted all day (and sometimes all night) long. If you find yourself in either — or both — situations, try out the Punkt MB01 mobile phone, thoughtfully made by popular British industrial designer Jasper Morrison to be simple, sleek, and low-fi cool, with text messaging, calling, contacts, an alarm clock, a calendar and not one thing more. The battery last forever, and the $295 phone is an anti-mass market conversation piece.
Similarly, the $100 Light Phone was designed to keep users in touch with the outside world, yet not to distract from whatever they’re doing. It works with your smart phone — you still have to have a smart phone, and service — and forwards calls from anyone or from certain preset numbers to the Light Phone. Users can call out to anyone they like. That’s it — no texting, no internet access, no camera, nothing else. Users travel “Light.” Get it?
Looking for more on kids and technology?
* 5 smart low-cost cell phone plans for families
* This monitor knows your baby’s sleep better than you do
* Track your baby: 6 devices that make it easy
* 17 mind-blowing gadgets for babies of the future
