You don’t realise how quickly a ‘just in case’ phone turns into a daily battleground…until you’re refereeing screen-time negotiations before breakfast.
Back to School 2026 saw our middle son, age 10, about to begin taking the train and bus to school. When our eldest hit that milestone two years ago, we bought him a smartphone linked to our Apple accounts. We were reluctant to get him a phone, but worried he’d need to call us.
The good news? We’ve never lost him. The bad news? The iPhone has become a source of tension and distraction.
Despite every parental control Apple could throw at us - screen time limits, blocked apps, purchase restrictions - our eldest seemed to treat them like challenges. Data usage went up, apps were downloaded, and the small monthly phone bills quickly became not-so-small.
Leading up to the start of the school year, our middle child was obsessively and expectantly browsing the Apple store and trying to convince us he was ready for his own iPhone. Our elder child was glued to his device so much that his ears stopped working.
Dumb phones: the smart alternative?
Good friends of ours in the UK mentioned that their son’s class had begun voluntarily moving back to dumb phones. London has form as a setter of trends - punk, Spice Girls, One Direction, mohawks, glam rock - so I wondered if this would soon be embraced by schools in Australia.
Looking for a cheaper, more age-appropriate iPhone alternative, I decided to buy both kids a dumb phone and be done with it. A hot model for pre-teens seemed to be the Nokia 3210 4G, which covered all the basics and wasn’t impacted by the recent closure of 3G networks in Australia.
A bit of research showed the Nokia 3210 was useful for simple calls and texts (using the old-school T9 dictionary for quick typing). It ticked the box for battery life, had an ok camera, and even featured Snake.
However, there was not one model in stock from an Australian retailer, perhaps due to the Back to School rush. I ended up buying two from the UK on Amazon. While we waited for them to ship, my resourceful 10-year-old used the free Telstra phone boxes to call us in his first week of school.
After a week the 3210s arrived, and luckily both phones worked fine in Australia. (Pro tip: If you order a phone from overseas, make sure you’re getting a 4G or 5G model that supports VoLTE Emergency Calling and is compatible with Aussie mobile network frequencies.)
Finding a sensible mobile plan for kids
The next step was finding the right phone plan for each child. I used Canstar’s mobile plan comparison tool and found a great deal for both the 10-year-old and 12-year-old. Both paid an average of just under $20 per month for around 20GB of data.
I had a very happy younger child who loved playing Snake, had a photo of his two favourite dogs on his home screen and a memory card for his music. I also had a tweenager who, while initially looking longingly at his iPhone every time he passed it in the kitchen, eventually got used to being on ‘dumb phone rations’.
However, while we’d successfully downgraded the devices, it became clear that we hadn’t downgraded the plans. Most prepaid plans in Australia now come with far more data than a dumb phone could use - often 10GB to 30GB each month as a starting point. For a device that’s mostly calls and texts, that’s like paying for Netflix when you’ve got a DVD player.
The second flaw in my cunning plan was discovering that the new, HMD-made Nokias were not as robust as I remember. By March, we had two 3210s with smashed screens sitting on the kitchen bench - and two kids once again without phones.
The Apple Watch compromise
I thought we were back to square one, until one of my colleagues mentioned that she’d bought her son an Apple Watch. I hadn’t considered this option - naively thinking a smartwatch would be just another distraction.
So off we went to the Apple store and 10 minutes later, had a shiny new Apple Watch. We went in person to make sure we correctly understood how the eSIM would work, but you could easily do this online. I couldn’t use the mobile SIMs that we already had, as neither one was eSIM compatible. Luckily, it only took about five minutes to sort out a new eSIM and number when we got home.
The Apple Watch has all the relevant features of a phone, most importantly connectivity via calls and text to a select group of contacts that we co-manage. So far, it’s a crowd pleaser: our 10-year-old has access to family shared Apple Music, fitness tracking (he’s already obsessed with this!), location tracking and iCloud backup.
It’s early days, but this feels like a neat solution: all the benefits of an iPhone (parental management, location sensing and screen time controls), but in a much more restricted format without all of the distractions.
Is a smartwatch a good phone alternative for kids?
Tara Donnelly, Canstar’s Utilities and Finance Managing Editor, says parents should weigh up the pros and cons of phones and wearables when shopping for their child.
“Navigating your child’s first smartphone can be tricky, but opting for a ‘dumb’ feature phone can keep your kid connected while avoiding the pitfalls of social media and apps. It’s also a much cheaper upfront cost when compared to a new Apple, Samsung or Google smartphone.
“Taking the smartwatch route is also becoming increasingly popular - it’s much harder for youngsters to lose something that’s strapped to their wrist! However, this can be more complicated.
“The Apple Watch SE is a premium pick, but there’s multiple brands offering child-friendly smartwatches with calling, texting and location tracking features. Garmin’s Bounce and Vivofit Jr ranges are designed for younger users, and Spacetalk and Pixbee’s watches are exclusively for kids and families.
“Whatever the brand, make sure you’re going for a smartwatch that has cellular connectivity, not just GPS. This way your kids can use their watch with an eSIM plan, and connect to you wherever that plan’s mobile network is available.
“Unfortunately, Australia is behind other countries when it comes to standalone eSIMs for watches. A handful of telcos only offer eSIMs for wearables as an add-on to an existing mobile plan. This means you can’t get a plan and individual mobile number for a smartwatch alone: you’ll need to pay for a primary phone plan, plus the added wearable eSIM.
“One exception is Optus, which currently offers a standalone Family Watch Plan eSIM with Spacetalk smartwatches only. Outside of the major telcos, Apple stores tend to recommend Better Roaming eSIM plans to Watch buyers - these run on the Vodafone network and also include an individual number.
“Ultimately, consider what your child actually needs in terms of data and features, set a budget, and take the time to research before making a decision.”
