First phone confidence checklist

The 5 things a child's first phone needs to get right.

Handing over a first phone is a big milestone, and a bigger risk if it gets the basics wrong. Here's what actually matters. Check each one off as you scroll.

1 Anti-addiction by designNot just fewer apps. Actually engineered to resist the pull of infinite scroll.
2 Better screentime, controlled by the parentNot negotiated every night. Actually enforced automatically, by you.
3 Harmful content blocked, in any appNot just a web filter. Actually working inside every app they use.
4 Controls tailored to your childNot one generic setting for every child. Actually built around who they are.
5 One purchase, a whole childhoodNot a phone they'll outgrow in a year. Actually built to grow with them.

There's a phone built to get all five right. Keep scrolling to see how.

Check off the first one

Your Child's First Phone: Confidence Checklist. Anti-addiction. Parent controlled better screen time. Harmful content blocked within any app. Controls can be tailored to each child. One purchase to last a childhood.

01

Anti-addiction by design

Most smartphones are built to be addictive. On purpose.

Every notification and infinite scroll is engineered to exploit the brain's reward system, and children's still-developing brains are the most susceptible (1 in 3 show increasingly addictive social media use by age 14, Xiao et al., JAMA, 2025). SafetyMode fights back: off-schedule apps vanish from the home screen, notifications stay silent outside scheduled hours, and the doomscroll loop gets interrupted before it becomes a habit.

75%

reported reduction in screentime among SafetyMode users within the first month.

This is exactly what SafetyMode was built to solve.

02

Better screentime, controlled by the parent

Screen time rules are only real if you're the one enforcing them.

Nine in ten parents argue with their child about technology use, and half say it happens at least weekly, Talker Research, 2024. Asking nicely doesn't scale. App Scheduling sets the rhythm for you, automatically, so bedtime means bedtime and homework time means homework time, whether or not you're in the room.

No need to ask for it back, no moment of confrontation. Schedules can be adjusted remotely with SafetyMode Plus.

Morning

Wake-up: no YouTube, no TikTok

Daytime

Focus: social apps out of sight

Evening

Together time: apps wind down

Night

Bedtime: everything shuts down

03

Harmful content blocked, everywhere

Most content filters only work in the browser. Kids don't live in the browser.

A third of children have seen content online that upset or worried them, Ofcom, 2024, and most of it never arrives through a search bar, it turns up inside the apps they already trust. SafetyMode's Live Content Blocking works differently: real time, inside every app, not just the browser.

Real-time filtering as your child browses, in any app, including the photos app.
Block by category: nudity, bullying and harassment, graphic language.
Remote alerts and adjustments from your own phone with SafetyMode Plus.

The only parental control that filters live, inside every app.

Learn how it works →

04

Controls tailored to your child

A one-size-fits-all setting will always be wrong for someone.

Most parental control apps give you one dial: more restricted, or less. But your child isn't "a child in general," and a generic setting will always end up either too loose or too tight. Parental warmth paired with autonomy-supportive, tailored controls shows positive effects in 91 to 98% of families, peer-reviewed review, 2022. SafetyMode adjusts to who they actually are.

The most customisable smartphone parental controls available anywhere.

Some example configurations.

Every OtherPhone starts the same, but the controls flex to fit the child using it. A few examples of what that looks like in practice:

The latch-key kid

The curious coder

The young artist

The night owl gamer

05

One purchase, a whole childhood

Buy the wrong first phone and you'll be buying a second one within a year.

Phones that are too locked down get outgrown fast. Phones that are too open were never really locked down at all. OtherPhone starts basic and unlocks as positive habits are built, and the hardware is tested to survive a 500g drop, 600N of bending force and 250,000 button presses across 7 years of daily use, so you're not replacing the phone either.

One purchase that adapts as they grow, hardware and controls both.

Why it works → The hardware →

Starts here

No social media, no app store, no browser Calls to favourited numbers only

Unlocks as they grow

Location tracking, Google Maps, Spotify More, gradually, as habits form

What parents are saying

Other parents felt the same way.

★★★★★

"He kept asking for an iPhone. This was the first phone he was excited about that I actually felt comfortable giving him."

AllisonMum of two

★★★★★

"Restricted material won't even come up on it! I can't police him constantly, it's just such a huge relief knowing the phone keeps him out of trouble without my peering over his shoulder."

DavidDad of one

★★★★★

"My eldest has T1 diabetes and it works with Dexcom. He needs the phone day and night, but this means we don't have to compromise his safety or risk him getting addicted to it at the same time."

GinaMum of two

Getting started