Get the latest tech news

Kids Love Landline Phones

Some parents want to avoid the pitfalls of smartphones and social media while keeping their kids connected to their friends. Home phones are helping.

Halfway through last year, the surgeon general, the US government's top doctor, called for tobacco-style warnings on social media and for kids to have more phone-free time. She is also advocating the government to improve national internet filters to block some sexual imagery including rape, bestiality and child pornography from New Zealand screens. The organisation's official suggestion to parents is to delay giving their child a smartphone until year nine, but "we recognise for a bunch of reasons why that might not be realistic," says Atkinson.

Get the Android app