10 Reasons To Get Your Child a Kid-Safe Smartphone vs Parental Controls

Kid-safe smartphones, however, are a class of mobile devices designed specifically for children with all the security measures parents want. They offer tons of child-appropriate safety features and offer a great alternative to parental control apps.

Let’s take a look at 10 reasons why you should get your child a kid-safe smartphone instead of relying on a parental control app alone.

10 Reasons to Get Your Child a Kid-Safe Smartphone vs Parental Controls

1. Kids can’t turn off controls on a kid-safe smartphone

One of the biggest issues with parental control apps is the ability to turn them off or modify them. Some apps don’t have any security controls that prevent your child from deleting the app. In other cases, you could unintentionally deactivate important parental controls while modifying the app’s settings.

With a kid-safe smartphone, safety measures are baked into the phone. There’s no app to delete and no settings to change for basic features like limiting access to the uncensored internet. You never have to worry that your child could get access to apps or content that they aren’t supposed to have.

2. Safety measures on kid-safe phones are universal

Another benefit to kid-safe smartphones is that the safety measures they come with are universal. That is, you don’t have to create one set of rules for your child’s browser and another for their text messages, like you do with many parental control apps. That approach often leads to mistakes and backdoors that allow children to access inappropriate content.

Instead, with a kid-safe smartphone, you can block all inappropriate content containing specific words. If it’s on your blacklist, the phone will automatically block everything containing that word, whether it’s an image on the internet, a social media post, or even a text message. This is a much more comprehensive approach to filtering out material you don’t want your child to see.

3. Kid-safe smartphones offer their own app stores

Many kid-safe smartphones have their own app stores with vetted apps. That’s a very different approach from parental control apps, which typically require you to approve or disapprove app downloads.

As an example, Gabb smartphones come with 15 proprietary apps, including a camera, radio, and calculator. Gabb recently introduced third-party apps that have been carefully vetted to ensure they’re child-safe and don’t offer any hidden backdoors to the internet.

A major benefit to this solution is that you don’t have to worry about your child asking to download an app they shouldn’t have, which can lead to a tense situation.

4. Built-in controls mean no monthly app subscription

Many parental control apps require a monthly subscription that can add up over time. Some apps put their best features, like social media monitoring, behind a higher subscription tier, forcing conscientious parents to pay even more.

With a kid-safe smartphone, parental controls are built into the device’s operating system, and you can access all of the monitoring features without a monthly subscription. You just pay a one-time fee to buy the device and monthly cellular service fees, which you have to pay for anyway with a traditional smartphone. 

In the long run, that can end up saving you a fair amount of money compared to paying for an app every month.

5. You can get multi-line discounts if you have multiple children

Another way that child-safe smartphones save you money is with multi-line discounts. If you have two children and they both need phones, many providers offer a discount on your phone bill. Some kid-safe smartphone providers will discount your monthly service charge by up to 65% for each additional phone you buy.

That’s rarely the case for parental control apps. If you have two kids, you’ll just end up paying for the same app twice.

6. Kid-safe smartphones offer longer battery life

Another drawback to parental control apps is that they’re often battery hogs. They typically transmit location data, app use data, and more to an online dashboard around the clock. Uploading all that data from your child’s phone uses a lot of power.

Kid-safe smartphones, on the other hand, provide on-device guardrails that don’t require you to constantly monitor what your child is doing on their phone. These devices still transmit some data, but not nearly as much as many parental control apps. That conserves battery and ensures that your child’s phone is ready when they need it.

7. Specialty browsers keep your child safe online

One of the biggest dangers lurking on smartphones is the browser. An uncontrolled browser could potentially give your child access to graphic content, expose them to online predators, or worse.

Many kid-safe smartphones come with specialty browsers designed to keep your child safe on the internet. For example, some phones come with a kid-safe browser that allows your child to access only the websites that you’ve whitelisted.

Some kid-safe devices go even further, by preventing internet access altogether. For example, Gabb phones don’t come with any browser. Gabb has also evaluated all of the apps available on its devices to ensure they don’t allow backdoor access to the internet.

8. Many kid-safe smartphones eliminate social media

Parental control apps usually take the approach of allowing social media while letting you monitor what content your kids see. While there are benefits to this approach, it takes a lot of work. You have to review your child’s feed and respond quickly to any content that isn’t age-appropriate.

Many kid-safe smartphones simplify this problem by eliminating social media apps entirely. They aren’t installed on the device, and your child can’t download them from the smartphone’s app store. While this can be a limitation when your child gets into their mid-teens, it’s a huge benefit if your children are younger.

9. Kid-safe smartphones are age-adjustable

Buying a kid-safe smartphone is an investment, so ideally you’ll be able to use the same device as your child ages. The good news is that many of the top kid-safe devices offer age-adjustable controls. So, you can give your child more access on their phone as they mature.

As an example, the Bark phone offers access to the entire Google Play app store but lets you decide what apps your child can install. (This is a major difference between Bark and other kid-safe smartphones, which typically have their own app stores.) As your child grows, it’s easy to whitelist additional apps for social media or messaging—while still getting the benefits of Bark’s built-in content guardrails.

10. You can monitor messages without invading your child’s privacy

Kid-safe smartphones have developed a unique approach to messaging that protects your child’s privacy while still ensuring that their conversations are safe.

Phones like Gabb and Bark don’t allow you to remotely read your child’s messages. Instead, they use artificial intelligence to alert you when inappropriate content appears in a message thread. They also prevent your child from deleting messages.

This approach requires some nuance when you have to talk to your child about an inappropriate conversation. However, it gives them more privacy and more responsibility, which can make a big difference in how they mature as a smartphone user.

Conclusion

Kid-safe smartphones play an important role in putting guardrails on your child’s smartphone use. They offer more built-in controls than parental control apps and often save you money in the long run. You can also rest easy knowing that the safety measures on a kid-safe smartphone can’t be turned off.

Even better, kid-safe smartphones can grow with your child as they mature. It’s easy to adjust these phones’ safety measures to give your child more online freedom as and when it’s appropriate. So, your child can stick with the same smartphone from their pre-teen years into teenhood. That saves you money and makes a kid-safe smartphone a better long-term investment than a parental control app.

There are now more choices for kid-safe smartphones than ever before. Check out our guide to the best mobile plans for kids to find the right device for your child.