Internet-safe iPhone for children goes on sale for £99 a month
A neutered iPhone, stripped of web browsers and social media apps, is going on sale to parents worried about their children’s phone use, but the “peace and freedom” its creators promise will come at a steep price.The pared-back version of the top-selling handset, which will not allow internet searches, gaming or downloads of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other social media, is being offered in the UK for £99 a month by a US company that wants children to “reconnect with real life, not just reduce screen time”.At more than double the price of a typical two-year iPhone contract, Sage Mobile, an iPhone 16 handset loaded with custom software, will be a pricey way to avoid online harms.But it reflects growing parental dilemmas over the best way to start their children’s digital lives.Research has shown children with problematic smartphone use are twice as likely to experience anxiety and almost three times as likely to experience depression compared with those whose use did not resemble addiction.
The launch of the device has been timed to coincide with the enforcement of strict new UK rules requiring robust age verification to access online pornography, starting on Friday next week.Chris Kaspar, founder of Techless, the US company launching the phone, said the default settings on most smartphones, which allow widespread access to apps and the internet, were “dark”.“Right now they are selling cars without seatbelts,” he said.“We want the defaults to be safe and healthy.”The devices will include an app store that is curated by Sage Mobile and will only allow users access to apps for tasks like banking, public transport, schooling, calendars and weather.
Experience with a similar device sold in the US showed children used it for between 15 minutes and an hour a day, instead of average screen time in the UK of almost three hours a day among eight to 14-year-olds,Kaspar said children lose interest in it because “it’s not as magical, it’s not as fun”, resulting in many reclaimed “life hours”,But due to the high price it looks set to be a product sold in the thousands rather than millions,The cost results from a contract that can be cancelled at any time and the removal of the full app store and browsers, which create lucrative revenue streams,“Until now, this is still a niche market and people, especially parents, are not ready to pay a significant premium for a dumb phone,” said Thomas Husson, principal analyst at Forrester, a market research company.
The product hopes to find demand among parents pushing back against pervasive smartphone use among children.Primary schools in Hampshire became the latest to ban devices this week.Similar devices sold under the Pinwheel and Balance brands are also available.Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, said it was very hard to find an effective way of stripping a phone back to make it fully safe for teens who were ingenious at finding new ways of getting around blocks.“There is real demand for something like this from parents, especially of teens who don’t want to be lumbered with a phone that sticks out like a Nokia,” she said.
“But the price will be prohibitive for most people.It’s children from low-income families who are most at risk from harm online and £99 a month is out of their range.That’s not this company’s fault, but is a function of today’s digital ecosystem.“The government must make stronger policies to protect all children and not just those whose parents have enough money to do it themselves.”
Ministers urged to overhaul and raise carer’s allowance
The carer’s allowance benefit should be overhauled and the basic rate of payment increased to lift more unpaid carers and disabled people out of financial hardship, according to a living standards thinktank.The Resolution Foundation said unpaid carers on low incomes were paying a “very heavy price” – a typical penalty of 10% or as much as £7,000 a year compared with non-carers – for looking after loved ones full-time.It called for the basic rate of carer’s allowance – currently the lowest-value benefit at £83.30 a week – to be raised to at least the £92.05-a-week rate of jobseeker’s allowance to help improve miserable living standards for the poorest carers
Ministers to enshrine UK charities’ right to peaceful protest in new ‘covenant’
The right to engage in political activity and protest peacefully is to be enshrined in a new agreement between the government and UK charities and campaigners aimed in part at ending years of damaging “culture wars”.The agreement is intended to reset relations between government and the voluntary sector after years of mutual distrust during which Conservative ministers limited public rights to protest, froze out campaigners, and targeted “woke” charities.The so-called “civil society covenant” will also commit ministers to giving charities and campaign groups a formal partnership role in helping design and fulfil the government’s missions to achieve economic growth and tackle social problems.Keir Starmer will announce the covenant on Thursday in what is seen as the most serious government engagement with the voluntary sector since David Cameron’s ill-fated attempt to co-opt charities into his “big society” vision in 2010.The prime minister is expected to say: “This is about rebalancing power and responsibility
‘We’d never heard of it’: a woman tells of daughter’s death from mitochondrial disease
When I had my 20-week scan, Lily had a strange heartbeat. It would beat and then stop and then start beating again. The sonographer had never seen it before. I was referred by my local hospital to St George’s to see a specialist and it happened again. I went back every day for a week, and then every other day for another week, but they never saw it again
Nurse cleared of misconduct in trans doctor changing room row in Scotland
A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender woman doctor has been cleared of gross misconduct allegations.Sandie Peggie, who has worked as a nurse for the health board for more than 30 years, is claiming she was subject to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act when she was expected to share a changing room with a trans woman, Dr Beth Upton.Upton herself complained to the board about Peggie’s behaviour after an altercation in the women’s changing room in Victoria hospital, Kirkcaldy, Fife, in December 2023. Peggie was accused of misconduct, failures of patient care and misgendering Upton.But NHS Fife confirmed on Wednesday that an internal hearing had concluded there was “insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct”
Is it safe to use magic mushrooms while pregnant? One woman’s quest raises questions
Inspired by Indigenous practices, Mikaela de la Myco has collected stories of mothers who say psilocybin helped them during pregnancy. US scientists are skepticalWhen Mikaela found out she was pregnant six years ago, she knew she needed to stop drinking. What she wasn’t sure about was how she would manage the cravings.As a teenager, she had discovered that alcohol and opiates could dull traumatic memories, including recurrent sexual assaults that played in her mind nonstop and led to suicidal thoughts. But as she entered her 20s, eager to address her mental health, she realized what helped most was psilocybin
Instant noodles, foot spas and counsellors: Seoul tackles loneliness with ‘mind convenience stores’
On the third floor of a community centre in Dongdaemun in Seoul’s east, a massage chair hums gently at the entrance to an airy room – a cool refuge from the sweltering summer heat.Inside, the space buzzes with quiet activity: soft bleeps from a touchscreen board game, muted chatter from the cooking area, the rustle of turning pages.Eom Mi-hui, 53, settles into an infrared foot spa with a look of contentment on her face. “This feels really nice,” Eom says. “My body isn’t feeling great, so I think the foot spa helps
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