Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think there should be a phone half-way between a nokia brick and a smartphone, which has email & whatsapp but no web access!

28 replies

ZafiraCyclist · 23/07/2017 12:25

My son starts secondary school in September and we had agreed to get him an old Nokia style phone which has calls and texts only.
However his friends seem to have already started setting up email and whatsapp groups and he feels like he's missing out!
I don't want to get him a smartphone because he would spend his whole time on it.
Is there such a midway phone?

OP posts:
hana32 · 23/07/2017 12:26

You can get him a smartphone and install Qustodio to disable/limit his internet access

Chasingsquirrels · 23/07/2017 12:26

You don't have to put extra apps on a smartphone.
My 11yo can't add apps himself, he doesn't know his app store password. So I have to approve them.
You can also lock down Internet access etc

DavidPuddy · 23/07/2017 12:28

I would buy it. For me. My willpower is appalling, but i need whatsapp.

Trills · 23/07/2017 12:35

You don't have to put extra apps on a smartphone. True but they all come with a web browser.

Chasingsquirrels · 23/07/2017 12:39

But you can disable the Web browser on most surely?
I certainly did so on the one ds2 had, along with YouTube and various other apps I didn't want him to have access to.

TheSpottedZebra · 23/07/2017 12:41

Could you get one and help him learn to regulate his usage?

Original poster
ZafiraCyclist · 23/07/2017 12:44

help him learn to regulate his usage?
lol
You don't have an 11 year old boy do you?

OP posts:
HarrietSchulenberg · 23/07/2017 12:46

How do you disable the web browser? I've been trying for years on ds's phone.

Secondary school is when they all start getting Snapchat and Instagram (not FB, that's apparently for old people). If you don't want him to have those, start teaching him now about being resilient to peer pressure so he doesn't feel left out when his mates are all on them. Some kids cope better with this than others.

AndNowItIsSeven · 23/07/2017 12:47

If you have an iPhone just go to settings -restrictions and then disable safari.

Witsender · 23/07/2017 12:49

I would buy one. I just want a phone that makes calls/texts, takes photos. If it had a GPS on it then great.

Give me a smartphone like this one and I am on it all the time.

Witsender · 23/07/2017 12:49

Just making restrictions doesn't help really, as most kids could work out how to turn them off again.

Chasingsquirrels · 23/07/2017 12:51

Sorry, I did it easily on ds2's - I just assumed it was a thing.

Chasingsquirrels · 23/07/2017 12:53

If my kids had restrictions put in place and they overrode or removed them then they'd have their phone removed.

LunarGirl · 23/07/2017 12:57

On most android smart phones you can have more than one user. Set yourself up an administrator account with a passcode. Set your ds up his own account. You can then restrict what can be done. You can remove chrome/Web browser. Not allow apps to be downloaded etc unless you approve them.

Or get a parental control app such as qustodio as a pp suggested.

I'd buy that phone if it was available though. Chrome is the most used app on my phone Blush

nanimobars · 23/07/2017 13:06

I can understand lots of you parents wanting to protect your kids from the dangers of the internet but if you sent your child into high school with a Nokia style mobile, they would be laughed out of school for it! Teach your child the dangers, install restrictions on the apps and internet browser, but unless you want your child having the piss ripped out of them, then they need the same kind of phone other kids have.

Yes I have a teenager myself in case you are wondering. High school is hard enough without making your child stick out like a sore thumb.

AndNowItIsSeven · 23/07/2017 13:07

Witsender not on a iPhone it's impossible without the four digit restrictions code.

TheSpottedZebra · 23/07/2017 15:19

help him learn to regulate his usage?
lol
You don't have an 11 year old boy do you?

Nope. But I have an 11 yo girl, they can't can't be that different surely? She has a phone, and yes she is learning to regulate usage. She has and cheap contract from Tesco, and she can't go over the monthly cost cost as there's a cap. Obviously she can use wifi, but I can -and do -easily change the password if I need to. And the phone doesn't go in her room at night.

abbsisspartacus · 23/07/2017 15:25

WhatsApp needs internet to work

RedSkyAtNight · 23/07/2017 15:28

My DS regularly uses the internet for research in class/accessing homework etc. Plus he uses the camera for taking pictures of homework/examples on the white board. So you might find that not having a web browser is going to actually cause him problems.

(DS has a monthly PAYG limit - he knows there is no more unless exceptional circumstances. The first month he went mad, but he's got the hang of it now.)

SpartacusSaiman · 23/07/2017 15:30

I have a 13 year old girl.

Had a phone since she was 11. We managed to regulate her.

Set times for phone. And out of her room and in our room after bed time.also linked to dhs apple account for monitoring through the ipad.

DJBaggySmalls · 23/07/2017 15:32

I would buy this phone. I cant afford a smart phone at all.

StillDrivingMeBonkers · 23/07/2017 15:39

Why would you set our child up to be isolated from his peers and laughed at?

sixinthebedandthelittleonesaid · 23/07/2017 15:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

specialsubject · 23/07/2017 15:59

It does amuse me that my tiny talk and text phone is referred to as a brick, when the fragile energy guzzling smartphones are so much bigger...

You can get middle ground ones, or ask the school if bullying for tech is acceptable as apparently it is elsewhere.