Safety-first smartphone for children unveiled amid growing safety concerns

A new smartphone has been unveiled that is designed to keep children safe through extensive built-in parental controls, location tracking and parental approval for messaging and call contacts.

The Fusion X1, produced by HMD, the firm behind modern Nokia devices, has been created in response to new research from the firm which found that more than half of children had been contacted online by strangers.

The study, which included a survey of 25,000 children and adults in the UK, US, Germany, India, Australia and the UAE also found that one in three children had been encouraged to take conversations to private platforms, 40 per cent of children had been sent sexual or violent content and more than half (52 per cent) said they felt they were addicted to their screens.

It comes after Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, promised to ban mobile phones in school classrooms if he becomes the next first minister of Scotland. In a speech to his party’s conference in Glasgow last month, he pointed to a “sickening attack” on a pupil at a Fife school that was filmed on a mobile phone, and warned that an increasing number of pupils were feeling “unsafe.”

There is growing debate around restrictions on mobile phone use in schools. Picture: PA | PA

Existing Scottish Government guidance empowers head teachers to take steps to limit the use of phones in schools, including a full ban on devices across the school estate. It is understood Scottish Labour’s plans would instruct head teachers to implement such a ban.

Gordonstoun private boarding school in Moray has banned mobiles from classrooms since 2017, a decision its head said has had “enormous educational benefits,” encouraging children to speak to each other rather than “scrolling through their phone.”

Amid such ongoing concerns about the impact of the digital world on the physical and mental well-being of young people, HMD says its child-safe phone contains controls that allows parents to decide when and if social media apps are accessible.

The built-in controls all include parental approval for contacts for messaging and calls, a location-tracking feature which enables parents to receive alerts when children leave designated safe areas, and a “stay focused” mode which can block app access during school hours or bedtime to reduce distractions.

HMD says its new Fusion X1 handset will keep children safe online. Picture: HMD/PA | PA

The features have been developed in partnership with Norwegian tech firm, Xplora, who make child-safe smartwatches. HMD said the aim of the device was to provide parents with an alternative to the dilemma many parents currently face, which is to either give their child a fully-fledged smartphone and the more unrestricted internet access that comes with it, or to keep their child unconnected.

The phone maker has committed to launching two devices in 2025 as part of The Better Phone Project, a scheme which has seen the firm work with parents and experts on what to include in a child-friendly device.

“Smartphones aren’t just tech, they shape childhoods, family dynamics, and society itself,” Lars Silberbauer, HMD’s chief marketing officer said. “Few companies are building solutions with children and parents in mind. We are working with parents to do exactly that.

HMD also confirmed that it will begin rolling out a real-time harm protection feature to its phones built with British cybersecurity firm SafeToNet. It will use AI-powered tools to automatically spot and block harmful content before it reaches the user.