Kids Drop Cell Phones for Old-Fashioned Landlines

For decades, Americans have excitedly embraced the latest and greatest technology. From creative social media platforms and innovative smartphones to groundbreaking drones and artificial intelligence (AI), there has always been something new on the horizon just waiting to compete for everyone’s attention. Yet, in a world dominated by ever-advancing technology, one old-school device is making a comeback with a modern twist: landlines.

01Landlines for Kids

The landline revival is being driven largely by parents looking for a way to give their growing children a little more independence without giving them access to modern cell phones. One of the most popular products designed to do just that is called Tin Can.

Marketed as “The Landline, Reinvented for Kids,” Tin Can isn’t quite the same as the landlines of the ‘90s. Instead, the modern version being embraced by parents operates through Wi-Fi rather than traditional phone lines. But like the landlines of the late 1900s, Tin Can has a long cord and must be plugged into the wall. The phone has large, tactile buttons and — here’s possibly the best part — no screens. Parents control calls through the Tin Can app by creating a list of approved contacts, so they don’t have to worry about unwanted calls coming in or inappropriate calls going out.

For Tin Can co-founder and CEO Chet Kittleson, the idea behind the throwback product is simple: give kids a little taste of the childhood their parents remember. “We just want them [kids] to have a simpler childhood like many of us had, and a landline provides that sort of source of connection,” Kittleson said.

02Developing Communication Skills

So much of modern communication now takes place through smart devices, and it’s having a negative impact on childhood development. A study shared by the National Library of Medicine examined the connection between speech delays in children and smart media use, including smartphones, tablets, televisions, computers, gaming devices, and other electronics. Researchers found that “extended exposure to electronic media for children was negatively associated with expressive vocabulary and language skills in children, in addition to decreased language scores and speech delays.” The good news is that abstaining from devices for six months led to improved speech skills in affected children. “These findings highlight the need to balance interactive screen time and other forms of interaction to enhance speech development,” the researchers noted.

As many parents are discovering, landlines offer children the benefits of modern communication without exposing them to the same potential risks to language development associated with smart devices. “Your kid has to learn to use just their voice to talk about what happened at school or to share about what happened at the baseball game they played in the day before,” Kittleson said.

03Why This Matters

American households have been ditching traditional landlines for years, but that shift has also left many parents feeling like they have to hand their kids a cell phone sooner than they would prefer. Wi-Fi-enabled landlines offer a useful middle ground: Children can call friends, grandparents, and emergency services without being exposed to inappropriate content, texting, and social media.