Promotion for Tone Down Tech
At some stage, you’re likely to be grappling with when to get your child a mobile phone and what phone to get. Mum Katie and Ella (9) took the AGM M6 – Tone Down Tech’s ‘dumb’ phone – for a test run to see if it was the ideal first phone for Ella.
Find out here what they thought.
Devices and screens
Some recent studies on raising healthy kids show that the best mental health and cognitive outcomes are in teens who do one hour of physical activity each day, sleep eight to 10 hours a day, and use screens recreationally for less than two hours a day.1 Other studies show a correlation between increased screen time use and behavioural issues.2
The portability of a smartphone means that this is one of the most commonly used screens. So that’s why Tone Down Tech is delighted to offer the AGM M6 phone to the market.
This little beauty has all the features that you want in a phone for your child, without the anxiety-inducing stuff!
First up, it’s tough! Waterproof, dustproof, and smashproof, making it the ideal phone for kids who are often on the go or leaving their belongings lying around (insert parent eye roll!).
It has an extra-long battery life and, in most cases, only needs to be charged once a week making it ideal to pop in the school bag on a Sunday night and charge it the next weekend.
Katie and Ella review the AGM M6
I’m sure most parents have been asked the, “When can I have my own phone?” question. I have most certainly been asked a number of times by my nine-year-old. However for a number of reasons to date we had not let her have a phone.
The first was her age. Secondly, because we didn’t want her to be able to access social media unsupervised. In addition, we don’t want her exposed to inappropriate content and finally, she still needs to learn the value of expensive fragile items. I’m not prepared to spend the money on a smartphone for her when she can’t even remember where she has put her drink bottle! But we want her to always be able to contact me in case of an emergency or just to say, “I love you Mum”.
This meant when Tone Down Tech offered one of their AGM M6 phones to try we jumped at the chance.
Old school
This phone takes me back to my teenage years! It looks like the classic, indestructible Nokia phone – when took it out the box to see it, both my husband and I had a great big laugh.
Why is the AGM Kids phone good for kids? Well, it does what a mobile phone was originally designed to do – you can call and text on it and this one has a few wee bonus features such as a torch, FM radio player, and camera. Like its predecessor, it’s also drop-proof and waterproof and so perfect for children. The battery life is incredible too – it’s been two weeks since we got the AGM M6 and we still have not had to charge it. This means it can hang out in her bag, ready for action whenever the need arises and not left sitting on the bench charging.
Keeping in touch
My daughter is starting rehearsals for a play she will be in next year so this phone is the perfect way for her to stay in touch with me if she finishes early or needs me to bring her something or even if she is feeling ill on show nights and I need to fetch her (backstage can be frantic so the parent helpers on that day may not be able to call us).
In addition, it has turned out to be useful in other situations for us. The other day we were stuck in traffic, and I needed to call my husband to ask him to start cooking dinner. Normally I would just pass my phone back to her, which probably isn’t the safest thing to do but this time she was able to just grab her phone and call her Dad. She felt pretty proud too!
We have saved our phone numbers and her grandparents’ numbers in the phone and she knows not to answer the phone unless one of our names shows up. She now has the freedom to call without having to use someone else’s phone.
I also think it would be great if her friends had one of these phones. I remember spending hours on the phone to my friends after school which most kids can’t do these days as very few people have landlines.
Ella’s thoughts
What does Ella think of the phone? Well the look on her face when she opened it was priceless! It was not at all what she was expecting, she looked very confused and asked, “How am I supposed to text with numbers?”
It took a while but I’m happy to say she has learnt how to text the old-fashioned way (plus it’s great for her spelling!). She wasn’t at all disappointed that it wasn’t a smartphone, and she didn’t have access to all the apps (that is what her iPad is for). In fact, the phone has made her feel quite grown up and responsible.
There’s one other thing she really loves – playing the installed music as the back lights up like a disco ball!
Kaite and Ella
The price
At just $155, and with free delivery, the AGM M6 really is the best, rugged, old-school phone on the market. Plus, use discount code KSM6-10 at checkout and you will receive 10% off the AGM M6!
1 apa.org/monitor/2020/04/cover-kids-screens
2 psychcentral.com/
Katie was provided with an AGM M6 phone for the purposes of the review. Views are those of the reviewer.
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