Summer Haycock's daughter talks to a friend on the family's landline. Photo: supplied
Four years ago, Summer Haycock reinstalled a landline in her Auckland home. It was a grey corded phone reminiscent of a bland 1990s office.
The original thought behind it was safety: what if something happened at home and one of her four girls needed to call 111? Haycock's mobile phone could be out of reach or the battery dead.
Now, the landline has become an alternative to giving her daughters (aged four to 12) a mobile phone. The landline, a $5 add-on to the family's mobile and internet package, allows Haycock's daughters and their friends to call each other.
"My daughter is almost 12 and I'm feeling like I want to hold off on getting a smartphone for as long as possible."
And it turns out the things that many of us hated about landlines, kids love. They are delighted with the surprise of not knowing who is calling. They like learning how to answer it or how to call and ask if their friend can speak (some of the girls' friends also have landlines or use their parent's mobiles).
"They think it is such a novelty factor, which to me is hilarious," says Haycock, who remembers her home phone as a teenager and "chatting about nothing until mum kicked you off".
"It has been quite unexpected and quite fun."
The conversation around kids, smartphones and the internet has shifted dramatically in the past 18 months starting with the National government's ban on mobile phones in schools at the start of 2024.
Halfway through last year, the surgeon general, the US government's top doctor, called for tobacco-style warnings on social media and for kids to have more phone-free time. Research continues to show connecting poor mental and physical health to children with smartphones and social media accounts.
Some parents are bringing back the home phone to avoid the pitfalls of smartphones while still providing an avenue for kids to connect with friends. To be clear, landline connections are majorly declining, according to New Zealand's telco companies, so these parents are bucking a trend. However, it shows novel ways parents are delaying giving their kids a smartphone.
And it isn't the only thing Gen Z and Gen Alpha are rediscovering: physical magazines are making a comeback, polaroid and film cameras are cool and my entire wardrobe from the 1990s is on trend. Last week, my friend's kid proudly showed off his Walkman.
Holly Brooker. Photo: The Crib Collective
"I just really like simplifying life for our kids because giving our kids a phone adds more disruption and more distraction," said Holly Brooker, a parent of a 13 and 9-year-old. She is also an online child safety advocate.
Instead of an actual landline, Brooker has a "dumb" mobile phone that sits on the kitchen bench at all times. The phone, a Samsung Safe Surfer designed for kids, can only be used for texting or phone calls, but Brooker intends to lift those restrictions gradually as her kids get older. Neither of Brooker's kids has their phone despite a long bus ride to school.
"We actually have some really good chats on the phone," she added, of conversations with her son when she is out and he is at home.
Brooker works in media and admits constantly having to keep her own social media and smartphone use in check, but that can lead to open conversations with her kids about the addictive nature of technology.
Summer Haycock's daughter talking on the family's landline. Photo: supplied
So far her kids have accepted they won't be getting a phone anytime soon, even though her 13-year-old is the only one in his friendship group without one.
"Culturally it's really hard to be the outlier and not give your kids a smartphone," said Brooker, adding that most parents give their kids a phone because they don't want them missing out on the cornerstone of a modern social life.
Auckland mother Georgia had a landline installed in her home six months ago. Like Haycock, the phone's primary purpose is for emergencies. The secondary purpose is to give the kids - aged seven, four and two - a mobile phone alternative for connecting with friends as they get older. She doesn't intend to give them their own phone anytime soon.
"I am chronic at dumping my mobile phone around the house so my husband really likes that he can get hold of me when he needs to," said Georgia, of the landline's other benefits.
An Auckland mother who is currently building a new home, says she is planning to install a home phone so her four boys can stay in touch with friends. The idea was inspired by a trip to the telephone exhibit at Auckland's Museum of Transportation and Technology.
"First, they didn't even know how to hold the phone. They had the receiver upside down."
Her boys had such a great time calling each other that she looked into how she could get a home phone. She says she wants to keep smartphones out of her kids' hands to limit exposure to online bullying and social media use.
Young people who spend more than three hours a day on social media double their risk of depression and anxiety symptoms, according to a study quoted by Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, when he argued for warning labels. New Zealanders spend an average of two and a half hours on social media platforms. Many young people reported spending seven or more hours on social media each day.
For Brooker, a major wake-up call on the issue of kids and smartphones was a 2018 survey from New Zealand's Classification Office. It found that two-thirds of New Zealanders aged 14 to 17 had seen pornography and the vast majority of those had found it online by accident.
Last year, Brooker helped launch the "Hold the Phone" campaign, encouraging parents to delay or limit their child's smartphone use. She is also advocating the government to improve national internet filters to block some sexual imagery including rape, bestiality and child pornography from New Zealand screens.
The Parenting Place chief executive Dave Atkinson says that installing a landline might not be everyone's approach, but "I think it is great that parents are taking an active role in their kid's technology".
The organisation's official suggestion to parents is to delay giving their child a smartphone until year nine, but "we recognise for a bunch of reasons why that might not be realistic," says Atkinson.
It's one thing to limit smartphone use, but parents also need to consider what their kids are doing instead, calling it the "healthy mind platter".
"Are they engaging with friends? Are they doing well with school? Are they involved in sports? Are they getting exercise? Do we have quality time with the family?
"If all of those things are in place, a bit of cell phone use, a bit of online gaming is okay."
