Get the latest tech news

Can Barbie help beat teen smartphone addiction?

Manufacturer HMD says it is trying to help people who want less 'digital impact' in their lives.

Even with predictive text enabled I found the numbers and letters keypad much slower than a touchscreen keyboard and as a result I ended up calling more people than usual, which perhaps was no bad thing. "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. "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.

Get the Android app