UK MNer with a child aged 7-11? Testers needed to try out new smartphone for kids - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

We have been asked by Monqi, to find 20 MNers with a child aged 7-11 who hasn’t owned a mobile phone before, to test out their new smart phone, specifically developed for children. All parents also need to have their own smartphone, - to manage what their child does on their phone.

Monqi is a brand new mobile phone for kids which will launch on October 1st.

Here’s what Monqi had to say: “When should I buy my child a mobile phone? How do I keep them safe online? What about the costs? And what games are appropriate? Monqi is the revolutionary new mobile for kids which addresses parental concerns while giving children a phone they want. Monqi, Stay Close.”

If selected to take part, your child will get an Android smartphone with games, messaging, internet and Apps.

You will be sent the smartphone along with an active SIM card that includes the following - valid for one month from activation: 150 mins calls, 5000 texts and 1GB data. (note: if there is any “suspect” use eg international Calls, Premium Rate Calls etc, the SIM may get barred).

If selected, you and your child will need to test out the smartphone for 2 weeks making use of all of its features. Testers will have help and support from the mobile network during this time if needed.

Once the trial is over the SIM will be cancelled, but you will be able to keep the smartphone.

Selected testers will be required to leave feedback on a thread as well as completing a short survey. All who give the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list). This test will take place in September so please only apply if you’re around during this month and are able to give feedback then.

If you’d like to take part, please add your details here
We will be in touch with those selected.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

I'm not sure about Snapchat. I think it has an age limit, as we haven't allowed our teen to get it.

One other thing...I know some people were taking about their dc getting up early to play with their phones etc and about turning the wifi off at night...we don't let our teen have a phone (or iPad, laptop etc) in her room at night, and they are plugged in in our room. I've been really shocked to see other kids of 13/14 are texting as late as 2am - we're doing the same with the monqi phone.
I do think parents being able to turn off child's phone wifi is a good idea too.

Has anyone had problems with some texts not going through? I sent my DS a text which he received fine, I sent him another one which hasn't come through I tried to send it again and it still hasn't come through? Also can't seem to delete texts?

Unless it went with the update apps like Snapchat, twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube etc could all be downloaded and parent just authorize.
It's something I personally wasn't comfortable with considering it's a phone for children, and the apps are for 13+. When queried it was to give parents the choice. Which I think defeats the point for having a phone that claims to be for children. 🙄

We have used the app timeout feature with no problems, however I agree with others as DS thought the phone was broke.
He has gone camping with my sister so will get chance to use the phone away from me.

I had no idea Snapchat had an age limit, I thought it was just taking silly pictures! Luddite here though!! I'm learning lots.

I think it's age 13 for most social media, including snapchat and whatsapp.
We're at this age now with our eldest and still trying to limit and monitor things, but it's so hard!

Blather I just had a look at the contacts to see if I could change the pictures - I couldn't change mine, but could change the other contact pictures.

Today is the first day my son is out with the phone away from me. And this has shown me a big issue with the location tracking. I tried to track his location from as soon as we split off. However it showed him as being in our house which is he last place he had used the phone this Morning. Until he uses the phone again, it did not update his location. Now, considering that apps exist already on andoird to track kids location and iPhone has find my phone for any phones you link to it, I can't see how this is better. In fact, it is worse as those apps and iPhone trackers work so long as the phone is on - you don't have to be using it.

Mine has gone out with her phone without me today (she is with DH). It has accurately tracked her to Asda on this side of the road and is now showing her at Sainsburys on the other side of the road, so clearly it is working.

The log shows she was playing Rope Escape before she went out.

I still can't call out but DD can text me and download games. I've emailed support as this is what I get when I try to use the phone to call me. So I think there's an issue with the sim.

I'd much prefer to be able to text DD outside the app as occasionally I go over my data limit so would need wifi to view the app.

The app limits is very good. I also like the lock facility.

I remotely locked the phone today and got an instant WhatsApp asking me what I had done - so that feature works well. But the tracking did what I said earlier again later in the day. They had left one location but he did not use his phone until a hour later in the new location. In that hour, it showed him as still being in the old location even when I knew he was not. It is only once he did something on his phone that it updated to the new location.

Ds went out today and I tracked him with no problems.
The only problem has been that texts still don't come to my usual messages and I wasn't aware he'd sent a text until I opened the Monqi app.
We have also made use of the timed limits and that all worked well.

Love the phone lock feature. Just tried it out for 10 minutes.
Wish I could do the same with teen's phone! 😬

I'm still having that issue wifi.
I have also set the alert for when he goes out of the area. It didn't work.
Same with the time limit for apps etc, doesn't work.

I just tested the texting problem other people mentioned. First I made sure all notifications were on for Monqi in my iPhone settings (they were). Then I exited the app (but made sure it was still running). THhen my son (who was sitting right next to me) texted me. Nothing came through. Then my older son with his android phone texted me just as a control measure and I got a notification right away. When I clicked into the Monqi app I could see a little symbol telling me there was a text. But unless I had gone in there and looked, I would not have known. No notification by sound or otherwise. My son will revert back to using whatsapp to contact me now as it is much more reliable!

I'm having the same problems with the texts and didn't realise DS had sent me 3 messages. Another issue we have is that DS can't ring me from the icon on the front of the phone he has to go into contacts. So if we lock the phone he is unable to ring me.

We're finding battery life is an issue - presumably because of it constantly sending out its location. This morning it was at 100% and it ran out of battery about 7pm despite hardly being used all day. That's just not really good enough for a kid who might well be out and about all day.

A few days in and DS1 is definitely finding it too limited for his needs ; he keeps looking for apps that his mates have (eg Clash Of Clans) and being frustrated that he can't download them. I don't think he'll be that keen to keep it as a long term phone.

Yes battery life an issue here. And lack of clash of clans. Also the fact that messages only appear in the app and are often missed.

Ds is quite happy with the phone at the moment. He hasn't been on it too much, which I am happy with and so far only had family members as his contacts, which is also helping to keep phone use to a minimum. The app and phone locking is great.
We have found battery life is quite short too, but our iPhones aren't too good either.
The main issue is the messages not going to my usual message place and no notifications showing.

We seem to have a broken phone 😔

Fantastic response from Monqi they are sending out a new phone. They believe it is a handset problem not a software fault.

I'm also not getting notifications for texts or geo fences

No notification on adult phone when mini monqi sends a text.

My 11 year old copied a phone number into contacts - the number was not recognised as it copied as a International +44 number so deleted the +44 and changed it to a 0

When initiating set up 'you tube' was downloaded can this be changed to the kids version of you tube?

The first day my 9 year old used it she asked to visit a neighbour - the app said she was in the next street which gave me a bit of a fright, I guess it's not 100% accurate.

Another one.....

When she first got the phone she wanted to call her dad. I read out the number she dialled it ..... the wrong number..... quite funny when she called him dad which was followed by silence then remained unanswered. We then checked the number (I hope that bloke didn't get too much of a fright lol).

Anyway my point is that she could make phone calls without me approving the number/contact. Should this be able to happen?