A Barbie-branded telephone has been launched within the UK and Europe with the goal – its makers say – of serving to younger folks take a break from their smartphones.
It’s a very pink and basically very primary machine, with no entrance digicam, just one recreation and really restricted entry to the web.
Producer HMD, which additionally makes telephones for Nokia, says it is making an attempt to faucet into what it calls a “surge” of individuals wanting a smaller “digital impression” on their lives.
However others say that may be higher achieved by instructing folks easy methods to use their units in a more healthy and extra managed method.
There are rising calls from dad and mom and campaigners to restrict the time youngsters spend on smartphones, and even ban the units utterly.
Their issues vary from the suspicion youngsters will find yourself with shorter consideration spans, to the concern that they may be uncovered to dangerous or unlawful content material.
Some colleges are taking motion, maybe most eye-catchingly the UK’s best known fee-paying school, Eton College. It’s offering a few of its pupils with “brick” telephones – additionally generally referred to as function telephones – which might solely ship and obtain texts and calls.
It says it desires to “steadiness the advantages and challenges that expertise brings to varsities.”
And this week mobile network EE waded into the debate by advising dad and mom to not permit their under-11s smartphones in any respect.
Lars Silberbauer, a senior govt at HMD, says it’s these developments his agency is responding to.
“We have seen this surge which began within the US coming to Europe, that an increasing number of folks truly wish to not be having a digital expertise on a regular basis,” he stated.
Some could also be sceptical about how actually noble Mr Silberbauer’s motives are – and he did concede he would “love” to have the ability to incorporate a messaging platform like WhatsApp into the Barbie telephone.
However I spent a day utilizing it and, for now, there’s little doubt that as a digital detox it was actually efficient due to its very restricted performance.
It’s mirror-fronted flip telephone and has no app retailer or contact display. I had no social media in any respect, and the telephone can’t obtain something extra superior than SMS messages.
Which means no textual content messages with “learn receipts” or the perform to see when somebody is typing. It’s the default setting on many smartphones – so I didn’t get many textual content messages both.
Even with predictive textual content enabled I discovered the numbers and letters keypad a lot slower than a touchscreen keyboard and consequently I ended up calling extra folks than traditional, which maybe was no dangerous factor.
And I found there are solely so many instances you may play the retro Nokia recreation Snake, even when it’s referred to as Malibu Snake and it is pink.
However the handset actually attracted loads of consideration, particularly from women and younger girls, as I walked round Glasgow metropolis centre with it.
There may be in fact the hazard that as a substitute of being pestered for a smartphone, dad and mom will discover themselves being pestered for a bit of Barbie merchandise – which can be simply as unwelcome.
The telephone has a launch worth of £99 within the UK – twice what you’d pay for a non-branded Nokia function telephone. There are many different telephones available on the market that supply the identical restricted performance, however with none form of large company tie in.
“I’d think about fairly a couple of folks might be tempted to purchase it as a little bit of enjoyable, however in actuality, everyone seems to be so depending on their smartphones that something greater than the odd day of detox might be a stretch,” says Ben Wooden, a telephone professional who has his personal museum of units launched over time.
Nonetheless, he says, there’s a marketplace for what are generally referred to as “dumbphones”. His agency, CCS Perception, estimates that round 400,000 might be bought within the UK this 12 months.
“That is a lovely area of interest for an organization like HMD”, he says.
Some consultants recommend that withdrawing smartphones is not any actual answer – they’re woven into our lives, in any case – and as a substitute youngsters should be taught easy methods to use them in a wholesome and secure method.
“What we ought to be doing as a substitute is considering, how will we construct actually good, actually long run, sustainable digital literacy expertise in that technology,” says Pete Etchells, professor of psychology and science communication at Bathtub Spa college, who has written extensively in regards to the concern of display time.
“I believe we may all be higher at utilizing our telephones in a more healthy and extra resilient method,” he stated.
HMD can also be engaged on a separate undertaking, a brand new machine which it’s designing in collaboration with dad and mom. It says greater than 1,000 folks have signed as much as work on it to this point.
And Mr Silberbaum concedes that the ensuing handset might nicely find yourself being one thing that sits someplace between a dumbphone and a smartphone.
“Do I need the smartphone with all of the bells and whistles, or do I wish to have one thing that may truly assist me have a extra thought-about method to digital? That is the selection we wish to ship,” he stated.
