You do not need me or HMD (Human Mobile Devices) to tell you that there is a screen time epidemic among young but the latter new research on the topic highlights how bad smartphones (and specifically social media) actively harm an entire generation.
Of 12,000 teens examined by the Nokia phone manufacturer for a recent study, over half said they are concerned that they may be dependent on their phone, while 37% said they have had a foreign approach them and are trying to move them to an encrypted chat like WhatsApp. 53% said they have seen something they want they did not have – which for most respondents was the content of a sexual or violent character – and 56% said they have seen bullying online. The bleak statistics continue.
Parents also know that these problems exist, but existing smartphone protection measures such as apps for screen time by easily by any curious teenager with access to YouTube or Reddit. To tackle this, HMD has collaborated with Smartwatch manufacturer Xplora to develop the ‘first smartphone for teens’-a seemingly common-looking handset that gives parents greater control over their child’s (potentially first) smartphone experience.
The launch in May for £ 229 (International Pricing has not yet been confirmed), HMD Fusion X1 – when purchased with a XPLORA subscription – will allow parents to activate, disable, disable or limit access to apps they choose. This subscription also includes continuous location tracking at 20 second intervals, emergency SOOS, which calls for the smartphone-owned teenager, as well as warnings with low battery and access to parents for parents.
In addition, a dedicated school mode function will minimize distractions during school time by locking specific apps and features as desired, and HMD has also confirmed that its Safetone Software – which uses AI to detect and block harmful content before it reaches the user – will start rolling out to compatible devices (merger x1 included) later.
I know what you are thinking: No teenager would willingly give their parents this level of control over their smartphone. And that may have been true a few years ago. But young people are definitely becoming more aware of the dangers of dependence on social media (HMD’s findings are by no means deviant), and if the drawing of ‘just a more roll’ is too strong to resist, teens may now be more willing to give another keys (after all, ‘Brain Council’ was named 2024 Oxford the word for the year for a reason).
As HMD founder Jean-Francois Baril put it on MWC, Fusion X1 is “The phone teens want, with the security parents wanting.” It also does not have an infantilizing design where the company teases a conventional look, industrial style handset on MWC.
HMD also has two new feature phones on the way: HMD Barca 3210 and HMD Barca Fusion. The first is a redirected version of the Nokia 3210 with exclusive, Barcelona-themed notes and Easter eggs as an engraved logo, hidden messages from players, custom wallpaper and, yes, even a Barcelona-themed version of Snake.
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HMD Barca Fusion, meanwhile, is a custom version of HMD’s fusion hand set with 11, glow-in-the-dark player signatures engraved in the back panel. Like the 3210, the merger is also designed with Tiktok Doom-Scrollers in mind, so it has a detox mode to keep users focused on the things that matter.
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Drew Barrymore also appeared on stage on HMDS MWC headthals to tease ‘Project Wildflower’, an upcoming collaboration between the actor and HMD to tackle the aforementioned screen tide epidemic. We don’t have the details yet, but the involvement of one of Hollywood’s biggest names will undoubtedly give much needed attention to a question that HMD clearly intends to address.
