Parents are bringing back the landline

DUMBPHONES ALLEVIATING SOCIAL BARRIERS

- CAITLIN GIBSON

THERE were eight children among the four close-knit families in their Seattle neighbourhood, and by last fall, the oldest child - who was almost 9 — had already started asking for a smartphone.

But the group of parents had made a communal agreement: They would keep their children away from smartphones for as long as possible.

There was strength in that solidarity, says Lauren Zemer, a Seattle-area therapist and mom of two: “We had agreed that we were going to share these values.” But she and her neighbours also wanted their children to feel connected to their peers and to develop a sense of social independence.

So in October last year, when one of the parents heard about a local father who had built a prototype for a kid-specific, adult-controlled landline phone —and had created a waitlist for families who wanted one — Zemer and her friends were ecstatic.

“Our neighbour was like: ‘Everybody, text him right now, we’re all going to get them’,” Zemer says, and within days, they were among the first parents to acquire an early model of what has now become a virally popular phone for kids — the Tin Can, a Wifi-enabled, curly-corded landline that allows parents to control the hours when it is in use and which phone numbers are approved to call in to (or be called from) the closed network.

In the year since then, Zemer says, the Tin Can has been transformative for her children, ages 5 and 8. Her 8-year-old son has autonomy to call his friends when he wants to talk; the neighbourhood kids often work out their own playdates, without their parents having to text one another.

The landline has also been a boon for the children’s relationship with their grandparents, Zemer says: They used to video-chat over FaceTime, but “the kids would get so distracted by the screen and the poop emojis they could drop in, and how they could change their face or turn into a unicorn,” she says. “Now they have thoughtful, nuanced conversations.”