You can breathe a big sigh of relief: we’re half way through the summer holidays (unless you’re in Scotland, sorry Scotland!).
While you might have set strict no-screen rules at the beginning of the summer holidays, we’re sure you’re getting to the point of easing up.
And no one would blame you – it’s a long time to have the whole family under one roof.
All you have to do is get through the next few weeks – and if that means plonking them down to play games or talk to their friends as a distraction, so be it.
At the same time, though, there is plenty to think about when giving your child access to the internet. I don’t need to recount the potential horrors, because over 90% of parents on Mumsnet say current smartphones aren’t safe enough for children.
Plus, 77% of parents say keeping their child safe online feels like an impossible task, and that only gets harder in summer when they don’t have the school routine to keep them busy.
If you’re just about wondering when someone’s going to do something about this mess, enter: the OtherPhone.
Responding to readers’ concerns, the team at Mumsnet teamed up with two London-based tech companies – Nothing and SafetyMode – to create a phone catered to keeping kids safe online.
It might look like a regular phone, but it’s actually a cool phone – that is, the 3(a) phone from cult brand Nothing – that your kid will love (all you need to know is that Charli XCX is the ambassador).
The phone is super lightweight, coated in tempered glass, and is dust and water-resistant, so it can handle the muck and clutter of being a kid.
Loaded with all the regular functions of a smart phone, this particular phone also comes with SafetyMode, a software that uses AI to monitor, filter and block harmful content (like bullying, nudity, and explicit language) across every app your child uses.
While safety tools track a list of basic keywords, or block specific websites, SafetyMode has been trained to read content, which means it can distinguish between a normal conversation and a concerning one.
It can track their locations, and the filters are fully customisable, so you get to decide what you want your child accessing, based on their changing needs.
When troubling content is detected, SafetyMode will send an alert straight to your phone, so that you can rest assured you’ll know what your child is up to online, even when you’re not in the same room (or home!).
Even better, your child’s data won’t ever leave their phone, as all of the processing happens on the phone itself, for added privacy.
If you don’t want to buy a whole new phone, you don’t have to. SafetyMode is also available via the Google Play store to be compatible with any Android device.
The app itself is free, but if you want to manage permissions and filters without even having to pick up their phone, you can upgrade and pay £5.99 per month for SafetyMode Plus.
That means online safety for the rest of the summer, whether they’re at summer camp, the grandparents’, or simply curled up in their rooms.
