New Pink Barbie Mobile Flip Phone: for very young kids
 

[Barbie's iconic flip phone becomes a reality!
HMD unveils a bright pink smartphone
that will go on sale this summer

Human Mobile Devices (HMD) has joined
forces with Mattel on a new phone
The tech giant is remaining tight lipped about
any features, including price]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ality-HMD.html

Shown on BBCnewsHD

It was shown to under 10 girls
they liked it

but a young boy
wanted his apps on it

Under 10s shouldn't be having smart phones

This one is safe

No Porn.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...5b116.png.webp

£99

[The phone has a launch price
of £99 in the UK – twice what you would pay
for a non-branded Nokia feature phone.
There are plenty of other phones on the
market that offer the same limited functionality,
but without any kind of big corporate tie in.

"I’d imagine quite a few people will be
tempted to buy it as a bit of fun,
but in reality, everyone is so dependent on their
smartphones that anything more than the
odd day of detox will be a stretch,"
says Ben Wood, a phone expert who has
his own museum of devices released
over the years.

Nonetheless, he says, there is a market for what are
sometimes called "dumbphones".
His firm, CCS Insight, estimates that
around 400,000 will be sold in the UK this year.

"That's an attractive niche for a company like
HMD", he says.

Some experts suggest that withdrawing
smartphones is no real solution – they are
woven into our lives, after all – and instead children
need to be taught how to use them
in a healthy and safe way.

"What we should be doing instead is
thinking about, how do we build really good,
really long term, sustainable digital literacy
skills in that generation," says Pete Etchells,
professor of psychology
and science communication at Bath Spa university,
who has written extensively
about the issue of screen time.

“I think we could all be better at using our phones
in a healthier and more resilient way," he said.

HMD is also working on a separate project,
a new device which it is designing in collaboration
with parents. It says more than 1,000 people have
signed up to work on it so far.]


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2x52y0wv4o

Nice Photo from the Irish Link

https://img.rasset.ie/0020da1c-800.jpg

This is the Box Magnetic Close Edition


https://www.rte.ie/news/business/202...-barbie-phone/

Just in time for Christmas, in some ways its not a bad compromise as it does not have the funcionality of a smart phone, under 10s do not need a smart phone as wise Neem has stated

11 and under
it is aimed at

These days .... even babies have smart phones , that's how silly it's gotten.

11 and under can use this Safe Phone.


No Porn.

Porn isn't the only reason I wouldn't give a young child a phone

Smart phone dumb parents.

Of Course


11 year olds can have them.

No boys, though

grow up

The BBC say this phone
is being promoted in the E.U. first.

Hence the RTE link

I am going by what
BBCnewsHD showed

Girls liked it


Boy wants his apps on the phone (not possible)

I want one

They will be in the UK soon

Generation growing up with an inability to hold a conversation….you go to a restaurant…waiting rooms…kids transfixed on their phones.

It’s just tragic…

i don't honestly know if it's a good or bad thing for young kids. As a piece of kit, it nails the brief

…I wonder if there will be a Ken flip phone as well…it does ‘nail the brief’ in terms of being a ‘safe phone’ that will provide voice or text contact with a parent/carer for safety…without the internet access…it’s an expensive piece of kit, though…it feels very exploitative so obviously none of that is the thought process…it’s all about the money, honey…

Tbh I think this is a waste of time and I don’t really see how it’s gonna catch on. You’d be better of just buying some cheap phone that only does the basics and you could get it for a cheaper price and it can have PAYG.

No sign as yet

Of course, it will catch on
as it is limited in its use
ideal for young children.

The cheaper phones can bought for young boys

Anything Barbie will catch on, that's why it's priced higher, because people will pay :laugh:

Unfortunately I would adjust this down to under-8's these days, I understand in principle why not but the social impact in 2024 of being the last to have one is unfortunately too far in the other direction (likely to lead to social isolation). My overall thought is that "having a smartphone" is never the issue, unrestricted and unsupervised use of said smartphone is. Technology and interconnectedness is unfortunately just a reality of the world now and the best option IMO is to teach responsible use and healthy skepticism early. Now that my daughter's in her mid teens, it's become extremely clear that the kids who had "delayed access" are FAR more likely to be "phone obsessed" when they finally get one (delayed gratification I guess?) and also more naive to the risks of being online. A bad combination.

To add to that I wouldn't have thought the same 10 or even 5 years ago, there has been a dramatic shift in how kids engage socially over the last few years -- specifically since COVID lockdowns, I suspect.

On a more practical note away from the shoulds and shouldn'ts -- it looks like overpriced tat and you could get a half-decent actual smartphone for £20 more and stick a £5 Barbie case on it :joker:.

I get what you're saying but I still think that a child that age shouldn't have a phone, granted my kids are older now and thankfully it was perfectly acceptable that a child didn't have a phone until after primary school back then.

On the topic about educating them about online interactions, unfortunately you can drill things into their heads as much as you want but they'll still ignore you and do stupid **** when they're teenagers. I've had a couple of things like this happen with both of mine when they were mid/older teens (which I'm not going to get into on here) luckily we were able to sort these things without any damage but it's a scary thing to navigate as parents - teens and the online world

It's complicated because I agree that in an ideal world they shouldn't have phones and it was far, far better when they didn't but the reality in the 2020's is that it's normalised, so the balance becomes the risk of having one vs. the impact of being the "unusual outlier" whose parents are holding out and one of the only ones who doesn't have one. The way social groups form and communicate in the final years of primary school now, again unfortunately, revolves around the "context" of conversations that they have ongoing in group chats. Lots of social info flying around, lots that they'll all be doing the normal kid-gossip etc about the next day and the kids who weren't able to join in can sadly be very, very quickly left socially isolated at that age. I've seen it happen to multiple kids. There's no way around it. It's one of these situations were there's a "tide of normality" that's a massive net negative for everyone, but can't simply be opted out of without other consequences. Like I said I think it completely changed at an accelerated pace from 2020 to 2022 because of COVID restrictions (as did so many things like remote working). I'd MUCH rather that it was how it was before that... but it just realistically isn't... so all that can be done is a focus on safety and not being complacent.

Fair enough, that makes sense, I hate how that's how it is now because I think it's so bad for kids and how they should be learning to interact with each other. But obviously you have to choose the lesser evil in the situation your kid is put in

I think it can have positives and negatives (for teens anyway) to be fair. My daughter is quite socially outgoing but she now has a very close friend who she met at high school, sat with in a couple of classes, who was less confident by nature but basically started messaging my daughter on Snapchat to say "I really like you and you're really funny and awesome, I'm determined for us to be besties pls" (not in so many words :joker: ) and 2-3 years later they're a very close and quite large friend group that was created by their two groups of friends "merging" through them. I honestly doubt she would EVER have been able to just come out with that face-to-face and I'd be surprised if they're not going to be "life long old friends" at this point.

I try to see the positives in it really. I am generally quite nihilistic about social media/online stuff in terms of human interaction. I do think it's, overall, a disaster for social psychology... but we get the world we're given sometimes :umm2:.

Yeah, can't argue with any of that I guess.

BIB : Yeah me too, I think about it a lot, people (not just children) are getting so addicted to the online world and fakeness as well, it feels like we're sleep walking into a dystopian sci fi film. I know I'm guilty of spending too much time online too

I think we're already there :joker:.

I spend less and less of my actual free time online actually. Unfortunately I have a WFH desk job that involves being online anyway all day so... it's just right there... the beckoning procrastination...