DS desperately wants the Vtech fake smartphone thing but the reviews aren't great

[DeathRattleDazzle]

DS will turn 8 just after Christmas and has for a few months mentioned he really really wants the Vtech kids smartphone thing,

https://www.vtech.co.uk/product/detail/19125/KidiCom_Advance_Pink

This kind of idea. He wants it to play games, it has face recognition to unlock it, plays music and takes photos. With some of the versions there is a very basic messaging app for messaging parents etc.

The issue is that the reviews are fairly mixed/pretty bad, and it's quite expensive. Has anyone bought this before? Or anything similar?

He's actually desperate for a proper phone but we've said that's not happening until he's much older. He wants to grow up too quickly 😩

I have to agree that these type of Vtech stuff I find kids really lose interest in fast.
would a kindle type thing be a good alternative ? There will be some good Amazon deals at Black Friday

Thank you. I totally agree, he got the Vtech camera one year and it was rubbish, he stopped playing with it as the functionality was poor. I like many Vtech toys but not so much their 'tech' toys.

He has a kindle which he loves, it has the Amazon kids profile thing on it, so he has plenty of games and takes photos and videos with it. I think he's attracted to the idea of a phone being more grown up. Maybe by saying he'll get one when he's older we've made it a forbidden fruit, but he's still so young!

Ds2 had an Android "phone" from around that age because dh got a new one (we always have relatively cheap phones) and so he was given it to use as a mini tablet, which is what it is when there's no Sim.

I suspect he'd soon realise that his Kindle was actually a lot better.

I’d be inclined to get him a cheap ish phone and leave the SIM card out. He’ll have everything on it that the v tech thing would do, you can set parental controls on the internet and he’ll be over the moon because he’ll think he’s a big boy. And if he asks why he can’t make calls or message, tell him that’s the bit that comes when he’s older.

my dd who's 6 got this last xmas & she plays with it a lot, mainly with the camera/filters etc. and the games. Doesn't use it to message. i would recommend it.

Op I think you'd be better getting a budget smartphone - without a sim. Let him use it as a mini tablet.

You can control it via Google Family link and only allow access to certain websites. It will have more longevity than a vtech version and still be able to carry it around.

Lots of 8yos do have their own phones but lots more have hand me down sim-less phones.
Apple stopped doing the ipod touch because the market was limited to tween aged children.

Word of warning "you can download games from vtechs site" if its anything like Leapfrogs website the games are wildly priced, £20 for a game.
Leapfrog & vtech are owned by the same company. Captive market - they know how to charge.

Get him an actual tablet/iPad, he will appreciate it a lot more

My 7 year old daughter also really wants this and I’m so reluctant to buy it because it’s expensive and the reviews are poor.

If you manage to come up with a solution let me know @Mariee1234 I'm really unsure what to do.

No that’s for babies

My concern with a budget smart phone as others is that he may play on it too much and bypass parental controls. I’d probably get the vtech, with that being the closet thing he’s getting to a smart phone until at least secondary school. And hope that it’ll be less addictive than a normal phone with it not being quite as good. There’s also no way he can bypass parental controls (I’ve heard lots of kids do this) and download social media apps.
I’d definitely go for either the kidicom or the snap touch.
Many teenagers and adults struggle with phone addiction, and kids can get so badly bullied over social media. He’s just a baby still really, save devices that can access social media and a proper internet browser for a few years yet. It seems like a good compromise for a little child.

@DeathRattleDazzle i have found some on EBay which are so much cheaper so I think I will buy one secondhand and put it in a nice box for Christmas and she will never know the difference. Saves paying loads when she will probably only be bored in a month or so!

@GardenersGarden if you properly set up parental controls no amount of playing on it will grant your child the ability to bypass the parental controls on a basic smartphone unless you either tell them the password or have already downloaded a browser that is capable of accessing the dark web.

I agree it's impossible to get round the parental controls on a smart phone.
Google and Apple both know their stuff.

And I'd go with which ever operating system you currently use although I believe family link from Google can be used by an Apple phone to control an Android phone.
You can either unlock from your phone or unlock using a code that changes every time.

Family link warned against having the Samsung web-browser on my sons tablet because it couldn't control it.

They are toys that will be quickly outgrown I'd really advise against it for a child over about 5 or 6, esp if they have other 'adult tech' ie kindle or tablet, or occasionally play on mum or dads phone.

I wasted so much money on a leap pad & stupidly priced games. It said it let you access Internet, really it let you access one Web page - theirs.

@DeathRattleDazzle might be worth have a chat with him, what does he think one of these will do that his Kindle can't?

The kindle being marketed at an adult market can probably do much more.
If I remember rightly the leappad thing we had you could use as an mp3 player or you could download kids albums at £15 a time.

Mine wanted this too, same age as well. I've just said no phones at all. He's already got the smart watch that he barely uses. I know it will be a total waste of money.

That is good to know! My eldest is 7, and a smart phone of any variety is off the cards until 14. They’ll get a basic Nokia at 11.
I’ve heard lots of people say determined kids, or those who have made friends with determined kids can bypass any parental controls, including special software. 🙈 Hopefully that’s not true!

@GardenersGarden good luck with holding off on smartphone to 14. They use them for so much in secondary, homework via an app etc that it becomes impossible

Surely that can be done on a tablet? (We currently have a shared family one - unsure of when/ if that’ll change).
As far as I’m aware lots of secondaries have already banned phones in classrooms and there’s talk of a country-wide ban! I don’t expect smart phones to be a requirement of any school now to be honest, and certainly not when my eldest reaches that age, they’re cracking down on being able to have them at all in schools.

Homework app, order lunch app, timetable app and something else I needed to get on to my sons phone within the first weeks at secondary school. And his pals were all using WhatsApp to arrange meet ups etc.

Smart phones are basically a mini tablet. And they are here to stay.

But back to Ops question that is a toy that's too toy like for an 8yo, and probably doesn't do anything his kindle doesn't already do.

DD wants it too and I have been put off by the reviews and without getting a real phone can’t find a good alternative x

As far as I can tell, he likes the idea that it has face recognition and looks like a phone.

Getting a sim-free android is the best practical solution but I feel like it then just undermines the 'no phone until high school' boundary we set and is the slow creep towards an actual phone. He'd end up with a SIM in it after a few years, and his younger sisters would want one earlier and earlier. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

Your over thinking it. You can stick to your guns over the sim card, making it a phone until secondary or you see a real need for it. Think of it as a pocket sized tablet.

People on here go nuts at the word phone but think nothing of 4 and 5 yos with kindles, tablets and ipads. Or whipping their phone out for LO in restaurants or waiting areas.

If it was a cheapish £20 quid thing I'd say bash in, not a big deal if the novelty wears off by the end of holidays, But to drop £100 on it plus games is making me scream No!

I know a few 8 yos with simless phones used as mini tablets, most of them are passed down when parents have upgraded, which is another route for you to consider.
And one who acquired an ipod touch that had been passed down from older sibling when they upgraded to a phone.

An ipod touch would have been a good alternative but they have stopped making them. Probably because phones do everything they did and people pass old phones down to kids without sims.

Thank you. I'll speak to DH about it and see what he thinks. We don't have old phones to pass down but could look at a 2nd hand or cheap model.

It is funny, I really am pretty lax on screens generally, but something about 'mobile phone' makes me worried!