One of the most challenging parenting challenges today is knowing when to give your kid personal access to the internet via their cell phone. The list of the best cell phones for kids without internet access continues. If you’re in this situation, you may want to check out our complete parent’sparent’so help you make this decision.
Once you’ve you’ve your child ready for an internet-enabled smartphone, check out the parental controls available on your chosen device. It’s crucial to balance smartphone usage habits to limit the potential for excessive screen time and eliminate the dangers of social media.
If you feel like your child isn’t resisting social media or internet browsing on their device, Wisephone has you covered.
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Best Phone for Kids No Internet for 2024
1. Techless Wisephone 2
Yes, the Wisephone is an excellent choice for kids who need a smartphone without internet access. It’s designed to prioritize essential functions like calling, texting, and primary features while eliminating distractions and potential online dangers.
The Wisephone is for adults who need to cut down on screen time. It lets you make calls, text, and take photos and includes only the bare minimum of apps necessary for modern life: maps, a clock, and a calculator.
The Wisephone 2 is proof that less really is more. Designed to focus on essential communication, it offers a refreshing alternative to the feature-packed smartphones that dominate the market.
In conclusion, the Wisephone 2 is an attractive choice for parents looking for a safe and straightforward touchscreen phone without internet for their children. It doesn’t have the features of a smartphone, but it provides a focused and distraction-free experience.
2. Light Phone
We also considered the Lightphone for our kids; like the Wisephone, the Lightphone is primarily for adults to avoid endless scrolling. It doesn’t have parent-friendly features, so your kids can text and call anyone.
But that’s the only fun they can have. It plays music and podcasts, so it’s not entirely uninteresting. But there’s there’srnet, games, or camera.
But you’re courting much for your money for $300 upfront and a minimum monthly subscription of $30. This one is a little different. It’s between a primary phone and a smartphone and is marketed more toward adults than kids.
Lightphone 3 offers phone calls, texts, an alarm clock, a primary music/podcast player, and a streamlined wayfinding tool (instead of Google Maps, for example). The e-paper screen is more Kindle-like than phone-like.
3. Teracube Thrive
Teracube’s mission is to provide consumers with a more eco-friendly smartphone than many other brands at a fair price and with long-term support. Packaging this into a kid-friendly smartphone can give parents peace of mind. The Thrive is marketed for kids ages 8-17, which may be accurate, but I think it’s better suited for kids ages 14 and under.
Older kids will focus more on the camera and adding contacts than younger kids. With its low cost of entry, affordable on-premises wireless plan, and excellent warranty, the Thrive can be a device that can grow with your child. With managed access to the Google Play Store, plenty of apps satisfy your child’s curiosity.
Thanks to its long-term warranty and durability, you can be confident that it can handle just about anything your child throws at it—unless it’s splash-proof, which it is.
Ultimately, the Teracube Thrive is an excellent choice for your child. Having to use two apps to manage your device and apps can be a bit annoying, but they get the job done and make using Thrive fun for both you and your kids.
4. VTech KidiBuzz 3
The VTech KidiBuzz 3 isn’t a phone, but your little one won’t know the difference. Designed for children ages 4 and up, it features a touchscreen, camera, educational and fun games, and a secure messaging app that works over Wi-Fi.
The VTech KidiBuzz 3 doesn’t track your child’s child, but it gives them a smartphone-like device they can use as a sibling. It doesn’t to a cellular network, so there’s a small fee.
You can set daily screen time limits and download music or videos to the device to keep your child entertained. There’s also a Headphone jack for peace of mind.
5. Pinwheel
The Pinwheel brand offers five phones and provides the best multi-line discounts. Pinwheel subscriptions start at $14.99 for the first phone on your account and drop to $4.99 for all lines, making them affordable options for families with young children.
Unlike Gabb and Bark, Pinwheel doesn’t own a cellular service plan. You can add a SIM card from your preferred carrier if it’s compatible with your phone. Other options include adding a US Mobile plan for around $10 or a Mint Mobile plan for around $15.
Pinwheel phones are compatible with the Bark parental control app. This is excellent news because Bark’s mBark monitoring is industry-leading. That means you can read the entirety of your child’s child pages from the Pinwheel parent portal. Bark offers additional protection for messages sent from other platforms.
Adding Bark monitoring to each Pinwheel phone costs about $5 per month. Just select the option at checkout. We hope this partnership continues, even though Bark has released its phone.
6. Palm Phone
The Palm Phone is a small smartphone with powerful features. Like the iPhone or Android phone, the Palm has apps, social media, and internet browsing.
You’ll pair the Palm Phone with a parental control app to keep your kids safe, but it’s one of the few options that can fit in your pocket or hand.
7. Troomi
Troomi sells a range of Samsung phones with KidSmart OS. Your kids will enjoy a safe digital experience and the speed, storage, battery life and camera quality you’d expect from an adult phone.
Troomi phones range from about $190 to $400, with financing available and service plans ranging from $20 to $30 per month.
Troomi Samsung phones come with screen protectors, up to 1TB of expandable memory, GPS location services, and advanced picture cameras. The more expensive A14 is the only one of these that is 5G-compatible, expanding your child’s child’st-connected apps and range.
These phones are compatible with Troomi’s smiley plans, which range from $14 to $30 per month and add features like text monitoring, photos and group texts, and the KidSafe browser and app.
Troomi’s OS is designed to grow with your child. By default, there’s a There’srnet browser, but with the Discover plan (around $30/month), you can add the KidSmart Safe Browser if you feel your child wants a little more online freedom.
8. Gabb Phone 3 Pro
Gabb’s release is the Phone 3 Pro. It comes with 32GB of storage, a 5MP camera, and all the bells and whistles of a grown phone our kid could want. With flexible pricing, it’s a pit that can grow with your child as they’re there to explore the broader digital space and connect with more people.
One of Gabb’s user-friendly features is that it comes pre-installed with a list of parent-approved apps. The Gabb Phone 3 Pro includes kid-friendly standards like the camera, maps, and messaging. Parents can also submit approval for the apps their kids want or choose from hundreds of apps approved by other parents.
None of these apps are social media. So, Gabb eliminates the risk if you have a child who is too young or not yet mature enough to use Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat.
Parents cannot add Gabb to a family plan, however. The Gabb phone and watch both run on their network, but it’s easy to set limits and check on your child’s children through the MyGabb app. Parents can set safe zones and limit the contacts and apps their kids can access.
Gabb Music+ is now available to Gabb users. Kids can stream popular hits, create playlists, and share favorites from a neatly curated library.
9. Bark Phone
Bark phone has parental controls and even guardrails for TVs and home gaming consoles. It is a recycled Samsung phone with permanently installed software, giving it the adult phone look with kid-friendly software inside.
While you can add Bark to your Android and iOS devices, the Bark Phone offers a few extra features you won’t need anywhere else. Contact management, spam call blocking, remote phone locking, and app download approvals are just a few of the perks of having everything on one device.
Bark gives your kids enough time to explore technology and communication safely and privately. Parents still have a lot of say, but Bark doesn’t want them to spy on or control everything their kids do. For example, they can’t change their browsing history or see their location without knowledge.
This makes Bark an excellent fit for older kids between middle and high school. They can explore their fancy new phone in a digitally safe space with limited screen time and parentally approved apps.
The biggest downside to Bark Phone is its high service fee. You’ll use the Bark Wireless plan, which costs $49 monthly for a no-data plan. That means your child can only use the phone’s features when connected to Wi-Fi.
Adding data will increase the monthly price, but you can choose a limit on the various Bark plans. A 4GB data plan costs $59 per month, 8GB data costs $69 per month, and unlimited talk, text, and data costs $89.
Adding a second Bark Phone to your account doesn’t offer a discount, and you can’t switch to a different carrier, so you won’t be able to find a cheaper price if things change.
The good news is that your Bark Phone purchase includes a Bark Premium subscription ($99 value), so you can apply parental controls to all your kids’ devices, like tablets and computers. And at least you won’t won’t pay for the phone.