SINGAPORE: Parents who are concerned about giving their child a smartphone will soon be able to buy a “dumbphone” device that allows messaging and audio in a controlled environment.

The Nodi Flip is a cross between a phone and smart speaker aimed at 5 to 12-year-olds who want to send messages and listen to music and stories.

The Flip is linked to an app controlled by an adult who can choose the contacts and content.

The £149 device has been developed by German entrepreneurs who are concerned about the impact of smartphones and social media on children.

Pascal Blum, a co-founder of Nodi, said: “We founded Nodi to get kids away from screens. I think our kids could be the smartest generation ever, but right now it looks unlikely because screen time and social media have negative effects on the way they develop.”

The Flip, which goes on pre-order in a few weeks, looks like a small speaker and aims to address parents’ primary reason for buying a phone.

“The main reason is typically to give them access to audiobooks or stories and communicate … like when to pick them up from school. But they end up scrolling YouTube or doing all kinds of things, seeing inappropriate content.”

The Flip can be linked to Spotify or its own offline library and the child can send text or voice messages to other Nodi devices or a parental phone. The adult can select the Spotify content that is accessible. No other content apps are allowed.

The Flip has a small screen to show controls and connects to wifi. One version has a built-in Sim card (eSIM) to enable mobile message sending, but it does not have a telephone number, to prevent strangers from contacting the child.

The Flip, which can connect to Bluetooth devices, runs on a Linux-based operating system built by the company rather than Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS. There is also an option to add tracking through a detachable handle.

Its marketing says: “No strangers, no open internet, no endless scrolling, no cracked screens, no big blue-light screen, no data harvesting.”

A market is developing for parents who want to delay or shun buying smartphones for children. Restricted phones like the Fusion X1, Pinwheel and Sage enable parents to lock down apps and features and gradually release them as the child grows.

The Flip is similar to screen-free audio players like Yoto and Tonies, but Blum claims it has a longer appeal than those devices, which become “uncool” when the child starts school because they have limited content.

Of the restricted smartphones, he says that most are built on Android so “Google still gets all the data in the background” and it is impossible to restrict Spotify on those devices.

“You can’t really do a fully safe device for kids if you go with [Google’s] Android and [Apple] iOS in the background,” Blum claims.

The device will be sold in a limited pre-order in the UK from mid-April and go on general release this year, with Selfridges the first retailer to stock it. It costs £149 for a version that connects to wifi and £179 for the eSIM model, with a £40 discount in the pre-order.

The launch of the Nodi Flip comes amid growing disquiet over the impact of social media and smartphones on children.

The government is consulting on a possible social media ban for under-16s and other restrictions like night-time curfews and app time restrictions.

A US court recently found Meta and YouTube to be liable for the harm their products caused to a woman who was a compulsive user when she was a child.

Campaigners said the Nodi Flip was a positive development. Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood, said: “The arrival of devices like Nodi Flip in the UK suggests the industry is starting to hear what parents have been saying for years.

“Families aren’t asking for unlimited access to the entire internet in a child’s pocket. They want something age-appropriate — music, stories, simple contact with home — without the strangers, addictive feeds and endless scroll that come with a smartphone.”

Dr Rebecca Foljambe, founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens, welcomed the “diligence into child safety before release to the market”.

However, she added: “A screen-free alternative that offers children some safe enjoyment seems sensible but is never a substitute for the activities that should be filling the most part of their time at this age, playing with friends and non-digital toys, being outdoors, reading books and being read to and spending time with family.

“We mustn’t let these device launches distract us from what we already know is essential for healthy child development.”