First phone options for kids

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It’s time to go shopping for your child’s first phone! Exciting!

Hold on…

Before you go buy the latest smartphone or even shuffle through the junk drawer to revive your old smartphone, take a minute to identify your NEEDS and your child’s NEEDS. Your child probably don’t NEED to own a smartphone with access to the 4 billion people on the internet with all levels of good to bad ideas. Especially if they’re 12 or under.

What do you need to be able to do with a phone? Call your child? Text? Locate them? Arrange schedules (calendar access)?

What are your family's needs?

Once you've identified what you need, you can explore options. We recommend starting with training wheels - a simple, low-tech "dumb" phone or a smartwatch.

First phone options

Here are a few trusted brands that have built first phones for kids: Gabb Wireless, Pinwheel Phones, Bark Phone and don’t forget about the flip phone choices.

Some things to keep in mind - your child needs to buy into this plan and they’ll probably want to hear a timeline for when they’ll get a “real” phone. If you don’t include them in the selection of this device, there’s a chance they’ll be embarrassed by it and won’t pull it out of their backpack to even answer your call, defeating the whole purpose of a communication tool.

If you do decide on a smartphone for a first phone, choose an Android and install a monitoring app like Bark before you even hand over the phone.

Experts agree that Android devices are preferable to Apple devices when using Bark to supervise and to "see" what your kids are doing online - there’s just more access to information through Android. And just to be clear, we're not suggesting "spying" on every message and swipe your child ever does. You just need to see when your child is exposed to inappropriate words, photos or videos so you can supervise and give guidance.

What about smartwatches?

Smartwatches are a newer category and serve as good first devices for many families who need to contact their child but don’t need all the bells and whistles of a computer-in-you-pocket (smartphone). Here is a 2024 article from Parents Magazine with reviews on various smartwatches. With a smartwatch, you can track your child’s location, setup emergency contacts and communicate with your child.

Be aware - smartwatches can still access the internet. Yes, the screen is tiny but if a child is motivated, there are various ways they can connect to apps, games and websites through their watch.

As a solution, Bark just released their Bark smartwatch. Bark features include “no access to social media, games or internet browsers.” The watch also automatically scans texts for serious issues like bullying, predators, suicidal ideation, and more, and will send you a parental alert.

For more information about what you should be doing at each age for and with your kids, visit our Digital Milestones Guidebook.