A word from our partner Mumsnet a year into their landmark campaign:
“This month marks one year since Mumsnet’s Rage Against the Screen campaign began - and what a year it’s been. We started this campaign in January 2025 because Mumsnet users told us that they were increasingly worried about the effect of smartphones and social media on their kids, but felt powerless to tackle the problem in the face of Big Tech’s billion dollar efforts to keep them hooked.
So we set out to raise their voices - we’ve met with MPs, lobbied Cabinet Ministers and used our insight to hit the headlines. Not to mention working with Nothing and SafetyMode to create the Other phone.
We’ve recently seen real progress on efforts to better protect kids. The Conservative Party have come out in favour of a ban on social media for u16s, and we had the chance to sit down with Kemi Badenoch MP to talk about what that means. The House of Lords also voted in support of a ban this month and the government has announced a consultation on how best to protect kids from the damaging effects of smartphones and social media.
None of this has happened by accident. It’s happened because parents spoke up, shared their experience, and refused to be told they were overreacting. One year on, there’s still a long way to go. But this month shows how far we’ve come.”
Words became Actions, Actions created Solutions.
The Other phone was built according to the principles of Mumsnet incredible campaign: putting parents first, creating a practical solution for a pressiing social problem that affects everyone, and making technology work for young people rather than against them. The Other Phone puts their campaign into action and puts control back into the hands of parents, because nobody looks out for children better than their Mum and Dad.
Other Phones’ solutions:
Live content blocking, scanning and reporting within apps - prevents arguments over app usage, creates family discussion, gives parents insights into their child’s behaviour as they learn to live online. In-app blocking gives parents and children more freedom to enjoy the benefits of the internet without the same drawbacks.
Unparalleled customisability - parental controls that allows parents to create a bespoke experience for their child’s needs, personality and interests.
Built for children - the SafetyMode software is designed for childhood only, and expressly refuses means to lock teenagers and under-18’s into cloud services and subscriptions before they’ve had a chance to make a choice for themselves.
Cutting edge hardware and beautiful design - Nothing makes tech fun again, and puts good design into the hands of children to promote trust and connect smartphones with principles of value and responsibility.
The choice parents were never given
For years, parents have been asked to take responsibility for their children’s digital lives without being given meaningful tools to do so. Concern has been framed as a parenting issue, while the systems shaping children’s online experiences have remained largely unchanged.
The result has been an almost binay set of options:
- Either children are given unrestricted access to devices and platforms designed for scale, engagement and emotional pull, and for adults.
or
- Access is restricted so heavily that participation in everyday online life becomes difficult.
Neither approach reflects how families actually work, or how children learn to navigate the world. Both approaches cause argument and anxiety. Parents recognise the value of connection, creativity and shared culture. They also see the pressures that come with constant exposure to attention-driven systems.
The difficulty has never been about identifying risk. It has been the absence of a practical way to manage it.
This tension sat at the heart of Mumsnet’s Rage Against the Screen campaign. Parents described a sense of powerlessness that did not come from indifference or lack of care, but from being asked to mediate complex digital environments with blunt tools. They were expected to manage outcomes without influence over design.
Power without agency
Modern platforms are built to reward time spent, emotional engagement and habitual return. These dynamics apply equally to adults and children, yet children encounter them earlier and with fewer defences. Parental controls have tended to operate at the edges, limiting screen time or blocking entire apps while leaving the content within them largely untouched.
This places parents in a reactive position. Harm is addressed after it appears. Boundaries are enforced broadly rather than selectively. Children are either closely monitored or abruptly restricted, neither of which supports independence or trust.
Offline, parenting rarely works this way. Responsibility is introduced gradually. Guidance is adjusted in response to behaviour. Intervention happens when it is needed, not constantly. Online life has struggled to offer the same flexibility.
Rage Against the Screen reframed this imbalance as a structural issue rather than an individual failing. It recognised that parents were navigating environments optimised for growth and retention, not childhood development.
From voice to action
Campaigns create momentum by making private concerns visible. They also raise expectations for change. Parents are being asked to make decisions for their children now, not at the pace of policy or regulation. They need tools that reflect how children actually grow, learn and make mistakes.
The partnership between Mumsnet, SafetyMode and Nothing emerged from this gap. It represents a shift from critique to construction, from naming the problem to building something that responds to it.
The Other Phone is designed around childhood as a phase with a beginning, a middle and an end. Its purpose is not to initiate lifelong platform use, but to support children as they learn to engage with the online world.
Restoring nuance
The introduction of live content blocking within apps changes how parental control works in practice. Rather than treating entire platforms as acceptable or unacceptable, it allows parents to shape experiences at the level where risk actually appears.
This restores a more natural rhythm to family life. Parents receive insight when something requires attention, rather than being asked to monitor constantly. Children retain access to social spaces while being protected from material that is inappropriate or harmful.
Control becomes adjustable rather than fixed. Boundaries can shift in response to maturity, context and trust. Conversations replace confrontation. Responsibility is shared rather than imposed.
This approach reflects how children learn in every other area of life. They are guided, supported and corrected as needed, rather than being confined or left entirely alone.
Choice, returned
What parents have lacked is not awareness, but agency. The ability to make informed, specific decisions rather than defaulting to extremes. The Other Phone offers that agency by focusing on content, behaviour and development rather than on permanent restriction.
SafetyMode is designed to be difficult to bypass and easy to adjust. It can be softened over time and removed entirely when it has served its purpose. This recognises that childhood does not require permanent solutions, only thoughtful ones.
Hardware design plays a role here too. Giving children a well-made device that is clearly theirs signals trust and responsibility. It frames technology as something to be cared for and understood, rather than consumed and replaced. That's where Nothing have been instrumental, designing phones that look and feel both fun and well-made.
A different direction
One year into Rage Against the Screen, the conversation has shifted. Parents are being heard. Policymakers are engaging. Most importantly, a practical alternative now exists, with the founder of the internet Tim Berners-Lee singling out our product in response to the challenge parents face today.
Families are no longer limited to turning access on completely or switching it off altogether. They can shape how technology enters their children’s lives, adjusting the flow rather than fighting it.
The Other Phone places parental judgement back at the centre of the digital experience. It acknowledges complexity without being paralysed by it, and offers a way forward grounded in care, realism and trust.
