This Phone-Maker Is on a Mission to Make Better, Healthier Devices for Kids [CNET]

HMD’s Better Phones Project will see the company co-create phones and other kid-friendly devices with parents.

HMD’s Better Phones Project will see the company co-create phones and other kid-friendly devices with parents.

Parenthood comes with a million and one worries – and that’s before you introduce smartphones and social media into the mix. It’s why Finnish phone-maker HMD, best known for bringing back Nokia phones, is rethinking what phones for kids and teens should look like from the ground up.

The Better Phone project, announced by HMD on Wednesday, will see the company create more age-appropriate devices for young people, together with the input of parents and other experts. The aim is to create alternative devices for parents to limit some of the potential harms their children can encounter, while still staying connected.

Anyone who has grown up online over the past 20 years will likely be able to tell you that their early experiences with technology and the internet weren’t 100% positive. The debate over what can be done about rising mental health problems among teens and their increasing time spent on social media has gathered pace over the past decade, resulting in the US Surgeon General issuing an advisory last year about the harmful effects of social media on the health of children and teens.

At the same time, it’s totally understandable why parents might want their kids to have phones. Not only can they be useful for communication, tracking and education, but many won’t want their kids to feel left out if all of their peers have phones.

HMD already has a strong lineup of “dumb” phones, which can be a great option for people who want their children to be contactable without spending all day glued to their screens. But the company’s research has shown that parents are often taking these phones and performing DIY on them in order to turn them into the kind of device they want their kids to have.

“We believe we can do better than gluing a tracking device on a dumb phone,” says Lars Silberbauer, chief marketing officer of HMD. He added that it’s the responsibility of Big Tech and, “in our case, smaller or midsized tech,” to work with experts and families to be part of the solution.

In order to figure out what parents want, HMD started by asking them how they feel. In a global survey of 10,000 parents, more than half said that they regret giving their child a smartphone. The average age most children get their own smartphone is 11, but the parents HMD spoke to said they wish they’d waited longer, with almost half blaming phones for causing personality changes in their children.

Around the age of 12, when 97% of children have smartphones, according to UK watchdog Ofcom, they are also going through other changes, so it’s important to remember that this data is anecdotal. Experts have long emphasized that it’s not always accurate to draw a direct line between social media and phone use and increased mental health problems among young people. That doesn’t necessarily mean anecdotal data should be discarded either though – there’s value in listening to people’s perceptions and taking into account their lived experiences.

“We want to show what parents are feeling,” says Adam Ferguson, HMD’s global head of proposition, partner and product marketing. What the research indicates to the company is that “some action needs to be taken [and] the time is now,” he adds.

HMD will start by running global webinars for interested parties to join and contribute to, but it’s also seeking partners interested in working on the project. Silberbauer welcomes “anyone who wants to actually be having an honest and open conversation,” adding that this might also include competitors.

He acknowledges that inspiration for the project came from his time working as global director of digital at Lego, which achieved great success by sourcing inspiration from its users and fans. Likewise, his own experience as a father of two comes into play. (He hopes to keep his own kids away from devices for “as long as possible.”)

As for the “series” of devices HMD wants to make as a result of the Better Phones Project, the company is open-minded about what that might look like or include. From Silberbauer’s conversations with other parents, some have been asking for NFC so their kids can make basic payments, whereas parents of younger children who may not yet be fully literate have expressed interest in predefined messages or responses. Then there are debates around camera versus no camera, and limited internet access versus no internet at all.

“The form factor is also something that we’re completely open [to],” says Silberbauer. It might be a phone or a watch, or different devices for different age groups. 

Whatever brief emerges from the project is likely to be an unusual challenge for HMD’s product development team. It’s not going to be about pursuing higher resolution screens and faster frame rates, says Silberbauer. To prevent it from being just another captivating, addictive piece of technology, the mission could well be about creating “something that is less attractive and less inspiring and less interesting.”

It’s a refreshing approach to building technology that, at least at this stage, seems to be about putting the needs of people ahead of the pursuit of profit. Parents who are interested in contributing to the project can find out more on HMD’s website.