On Modrý koník, a Czech parenting forum, one mum asked in 2023 whether to buy her son a smartwatch with calling or an old button phone so he could travel on his own. And she added straight away: ‘Isn’t a dumbphone a bit of a joke these days?’ The first reply: ‘sadly, the button phone really was just a joke’ (thread).
That short exchange sums up the whole dilemma. Parents don’t want their child glued to a screen, but they do want to be able to reach them. And the child doesn’t want to be the only one in class with a ‘brick’.
Most Czech children have a phone in their first years at school
According to a survey of more than 6,000 Czech pupils by the company Ecobat, 80% of children aged 6 to 9 and 98% of those aged 10 to 12 have a phone (CNN Prima News, 2025). So in the Czech Republic, a child’s first phone usually turns up around the time they start school. Palacký University noticed the same thing back in 2018 in a survey of parents: most children get a phone between the ages of 7 and 9, ‘in connection with the move to primary school’.
The reason is almost always practical. The child starts going to school on their own, to after-school club, to activities. And parents need to know they’ve arrived.
What the experts say
The recommendations point to a different age from what happens in Czech homes:
- Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Anxious Generation (2024), advises against giving children a smartphone before the age of 14. He doesn’t rule out a phone for calls, though: ‘Let them have a flip phone, but remember, a smartphone isn’t really a phone.’ (CNBC)
- In January 2026, Finland’s national education agency, together with the national health institute, recommended that children under 13 shouldn’t have a smartphone of their own (OPH).
- Sweden’s Public Health Agency recommended the same in June 2026, adding that if a child does have a phone, it should be a simple one without internet.
- In the UK, hundreds of thousands of families have signed up to the Smartphone Free Childhood initiative. Parents agree not to give their children a smartphone before 14. The idea is that the whole class agrees together, so no child ends up the only one without a phone.
None of this advice stops a child calling home. What it warns against is everything else a smartphone brings with it.
What a smartwatch gives your child
Exactly the practical thing most first phones are bought for:
- Calls. Your child can call you and you can call them. With KLOKI, only approved contacts get through, so strangers can’t ring the watch.
- Location. Check the app to see where your child is, without ringing them in the middle of training.
- Voice messages. ‘Mum, I’m here.’ For a child who can’t type quickly yet, it feels more natural than a text.
- SOS. One button for the moment a child is lost or frightened.
The watch stays on your child’s wrist. It won’t get left in the changing room or slip out of a pocket onto the pavement. One reply on Modrý koník puts it even more simply: ‘the watch stays on their wrist and they don’t have to work out where to put a phone’.
Above all, there’s nothing on the watch to keep a child hooked on the screen. It comes up a lot in reviews. Martin H.: ‘It’s a great thing, a sort of first phone. Especially as it hasn’t got all the rubbish kids don’t need. The last thing I want is another addict at home.’ And Lukáš, about his daughter: ‘We didn’t want to give her a button phone, and this struck us as a brilliant alternative.’
A smartwatch isn’t a mini phone – and that’s a good thing
There’s no internet, no games and no group chats on the watch. For a young schoolchild, that’s a plus. They don’t have to keep up with whatever’s being posted in the class group chat, and nobody can send them something they shouldn’t see. They only talk to the people you’ve approved.
A few calm years before the first smartphone
There’s no perfect age for a first phone. But the experts agree that it’s better to wait before giving a child a smartphone. A smartwatch buys you that time: your child can walk to school on their own, go to clubs and play out with friends, you know where they are, and you can hold off on the smartphone until they’re really ready.
Picture a six-year-old in their first year at school. They walk 400 metres to school on their own, and Grandma picks them up in the afternoon. They don’t need a phone. They need to be able to call Mum if plans change, and Mum needs to know they got there safely. That’s exactly what a smartwatch is made for.
‘It’s too early for a phone, but this is a brilliant solution.’ (Karolína B., KLOKI review)
We cover what to look for in our article How to choose a kids smartwatch: 8 things that really matter. For a first watch, there’s KLOKI Moon; KLOKI Star does more, such as photos, video and music. And you get 30 days to try it out.
