'I was terrified of giving my 11-year-old a phone but finally found a solution to screentime battles'

'I was terrified of giving my 11-year-old a phone but finally found a solution to screentime battles' Writer Lizzie Smith was searching for a smartphone that combined the restrictions of a dumphone with the advantages of a smartphone - within limits. She tested the £279 OtherPhone with SafetyMode, developed in partnership with Mumsnet. When my three children were little, monitoring their screentime was as simple as setting a strict limit to the number of Peppa Pig episodes they sat transfixed by. But as they grow older, things are far more complicated - especially when it comes to phones. With an 11-year-old currently enjoying the final few days of year six, alongside the emotional farewell to our close-knit primary school community, the anxieties about secondary school are beginning to creep in. Will my child make friends? Have we chosen the right school? And, inevitably, how do we handle a phone? There is no denying how useful phones are for modern family life, but I know firsthand that finding the right balance can be incredibly difficult. Four years ago, when my eldest started secondary school, I wanted something I thought should be pretty simple - a phone where he could take quality pictures and use a few preapproved apps, that would enable me to see his location as he walked to school. I didn't want him to use social media or to have unmonitored internet access. I spent hours obsessively researching, before downloading third-party parental control apps onto a standard smartphone. This gave us an illusion of safety. Within days, my 11-year-old had outsmarted the software, casually bypassing restrictions like a seasoned hacker, not even (or so he claimed) realising he was doing so. I went back to the drawing board and visited a series of high-street phone shops explaining what I wanted, only to be met with blank stares. While brickphones or dumbphones - which essentially cut off the entire internet and can only be used for making phone calls and texting - were already a growing trend, there was little for parents like me, who could see the advantages of some aspects of a smartphone, but were wary of full access. In the end, I bought him a phone specifically marketed at pensioners. My tech-savvy son went off to secondary school with a device designed for users who find technology fundamentally difficult, with large buttons and Whatsapp but no internet. Four years on, and my daughter is now following her big brother to secondary - and I faced the same problem. How do I give the freedom of connectivity without creating a screen addict, or exposing her to the safety issues of social media? Luckily, it seems I wasn't alone in my desire for a middle ground. I found there are now multiple options for parents who want tight controls over internet access, including the OtherPhone, which retails for £279. This device looks like a standard smartphone but parents have complete control over app access and screentime. It also has something called SafetyMode, which unlike traditional parental controls that block apps or rely on keyword filters, claims to understand context. It can distinguish between normal conversations and genuinely concerning interactions, helping identify issues such as bullying, grooming, explicit language and nudity while reducing unnecessary alerts. Parents can also gradually relax restrictions as their child grows, eventually leaving them with a fully featured Nothing smartphone. As my 11-year-old grows older she loves filming videos of our cats, video-calling her grandma, creating playlists, and listening to audiobooks. Her dad and I are happy for her to do all these things, but we don’t want her to have unlimited phone access, or access to the internet or social media. The OtherPhone comes with a very limited number of pre-installed apps. Parents can delete these, or install others - as I did with Duolingo, and kid versions of Audible and Spotify. I managed the device via an easy-to-use, password-protected interface on my own phone. Crucially, this allowed me to set time limits and downtime. While I see the benefits of my child having access to a phone as they grow older, I don’t want her glued to it for hours, nor do I want the constant friction of arguing over 'five more minutes.' Having preset time limits allowed her to plan her usage, eliminating any screen-time battles. During a month-long trial, we set her usage to one hour per day, with the phone locking an hour before bedtime and remaining unavailable until after breakfast. While she didn’t take it to school, it would also be simple to restrict access during the school day for those who want phone access on their way in, but not in class. With the phone in her bag, my daughter gained the security of knowing she could contact me in an emergency. Allowed to visit the park with friends, she had absolutely no intention of calling her mum to check in, but it gave me peace of mind to see her location and know when she was on her way home. As a parent, I’m delighted with the controls on this new phone. It’s clearly designed with my concerns in mind, and also will be easy to update as she grows older and is more able to manage her own screentime. But what about my kids? To find out, I gave the phone to my 11-year-old for a month. Used to very limited screen time we still found she was quickly able to navigate the phone. My 15-year-old son also gave it a test drive. But what did they actually think? Daughter, age 11: The phone has a really good camera to take pictures on with loads of different modes and I liked editing them. I didn’t like that it was a bit overprotective, when I tried to take a photo with a thumbs up it thought I was not dressed and wouldn’t let me. I had to ask my mum to sort it and she changed the safety settings [the camera safety settings are easily controlled on a sliding scale via the app, to alert for things such as nudity]. My favourite thing was listening to the books of Mallory Towers on it. It was really easy to change the volume and set a timer to turn the book off. It’s a phone I would be proud of to have with my friends. Son, age 15: The setup was fast and went really smoothly. It combines the convenience and ease of a smartphone with the same principles of a dumbphone. The phone interface is simple, non addictive. It was just the basics, what you would need from a phone without any extras. If you want an extra app your parents can agree it, if you can make your case! It had filters and was well done. Compared to the phone I had at 11 it could keep up with proper apps. My phone back then was super slow, but this one is as good as any other smartphone. I tried to access things like YouTube on it, but the controls are pretty impressive and you can’t get through them. The camera was really great, better than my smartphone. Learn more about the OtherPhone here. Alternative smartphones: - Uswitch rates Samsung Galaxy A15 (£250) as their top pick for an 11-year-old's first smartphone, deeming it affordable, well-built, and lots of parental control features. - The price-comparison site rates Moto G15 as the best option at under £120, reviewing it as "reliable, straightforward to set up" and easy to adjust parental controls. - If the rest of your family uses iPhones, an iPhone SE makes sense and lets your child use iMessage and FaceTime without needing WhatsApp.