Coming Soon: A Safer Cell Phone for Kids

This kid-friendly cell phone has no web browser, so it's safer, but looks seriously cool.

By Deborah Skolnik March 9, 2018

If you’re like most parents, you wrestle with the question of whether or not your child is too young for a phone. After all, it means he’ll have ready access to social media, and a whole bunch of things you don’t necessarily want him to see.

Yet it also feels harsh to hand your kid an old-fashioned flip phone that he’ll be ashamed to use in public. Worse, he may leave it home, so you can’t reach him when you need to be in touch.

Style But No Social Media

Light, a startup based in Brooklyn, has come up with what it thinks could be a viable alternative: The Light Phone 2. Sleek and sporting a matte finish, it’s got trendy, basic style. It also has truly basic functionality—it’s a call-and-text-only phone.

“Clearly, there are some safety reasons for wanting [a cell phone] but the fear of the smartphone effects on children is also incredibly concerning,” Joe Hollier, co-founder of Light, told Good Morning America. The Light Phone 2’s lack of a web browser and social media ought to alleviate many parents’ concerns, he noted, while the hip overall look of the phone ought to satisfy image-conscious kids.

Attractive to Adults, Too

The company speculates that the phone may win over a portion of the adult market too, becoming popular with people who will use it as a second phone in order to unplug a bit, or those who tend to save their web browsing for a time when they have a laptop, desktop, or tablet at hand. Grown-ups who’ve stuck by their flip phone for years may also be attracted to the Light Phone 2 for the style upgrade, Hollier noted.

The phone, which will be ready to ship in 2019, already has nearly 3,000 orders. Prices start at $250.