A cellular Apple Watch SE managed from your own iPhone. Your kid gets calls, texts, and location with an approved contact list, and there is no browser, no social media, and no new vendor or monitoring company in your family's life.
Watch from about $250, plus roughly $10 a month for the watch line
Works only if a parent carries an iPhone and your plan is with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile; most budget carriers cannot activate a family watch, and activation support is famously hit-or-miss. The watch also shows you your kid's location around the clock. Decide before it arrives how often you actually want to check, because trust is hard to demonstrate if you're always tracking your kid.
A locked-down phone, watch and home router with heavy monitoring built in, for families who want maximum control in one package.
Device plus a monthly plan
This is surveillance. Constant monitoring buys short-term safety at the cost of trust. A kid who knows they are watched will learn to bypass your mechanisms rather than self-regulate.
Parental controls
A small tap-to-block tile that lives by your door. Tap your own phone on it and the apps you chose disappear until you tap again, which turns willpower into a physical act. This one is for you, because kids copy what they see.
$59 once, no subscription
It only works if the brick stays somewhere inconvenient, and the app can undo everything if you're having a weak moment. Also, iPhone software updates occasionally break blocking apps for a few days.
A tablet with a paper-like display and no color video, aimed at reading and writing rather than watching.
Around $730
Costs as much as a laptop and is a niche purchase. For most families a library card and a paperback do the same job for nothing.
Starter phones and a wrist device with no browser and no social media, which solves the logistics problem most families are actually trying to solve.
Device plus a monthly plan
Requires a monthly plan. Location tracking is worth thinking about carefully, because it creates constant visibility, which can erode your child's trust.
Parental controls
A kids' watch with calling, texting, and location for an approved contact list, no social apps, and no third-party monitoring layer. Garmin is a large public company, so the service behind the watch is unlikely to vanish.
$299.99, plus $9.99 a month
That is real money for a device a kid outgrows in about two years, and the battery lasts roughly two days, so it dies exactly when nobody is watching the charger. Like every kid watch, it shows you your kid's location around the clock; decide how often you will check before it arrives.
A home router with parental controls built into the network itself, so time limits and filters cover every device in the house at once, including the ones with no kid settings of their own. This is the router lever from our settings guide, in one box.
Around $299; advanced features about $90 a year
Some of the best features are part of the yearly subscription, but keep in mind that its safeguards don't leave your home, so a phone on LTE or on a friend's wifi isn't subject to your rules.
A line of mostly wooden outdoor toys designed by two Dutch fathers who thought childhood had moved indoors.
From about $10
Small, cheap and easily lost in long grass. Treat them as consumables rather than heirlooms.
Outdoor and clothing
A camera that prints, so a photograph becomes a tangible object on the wall.
Camera around $80, film about $1 a shot
Film is a running cost and it adds up quickly with an enthusiastic seven-year-old. Buy film in bulk and set a per-week limit before it becomes a source of conflict.
An e-reader purely for reading. There's no apps, no video or messages, just books on a paper-like screen, in a kid-proof case with a two-year warranty that covers accidents. The kids' edition hides ads and blocks the store and browser.
Around $160 to $230 depending on sales
It ties your kid's reading to an Amazon account, and the bundled six months of Amazon Kids+ auto-renews at $7.99 a month unless you set a reminder to cancel. If you want out of Amazon entirely, the Kobo Clara BW does the same job for $160 and borrows library books easily, without the kid-proof warranty bundle.
A phone that makes calls and sends texts and does close to nothing else, for a teenager who needs to be reachable.
About $800, plus a plan from roughly $25 a month
Expensive for what it does, and the lack of a group-chat experience is a real social cost for a kid whose friends coordinate that way. Maps and music exist but are deliberately basic.
A circuitry kit that turns fruit, playdough or anything conductive into a game controller, invented by a father who teaches this stuff.
Kits from around $60
It needs a computer to work, so this is screen time with a purpose rather than time away from screens. Worth being honest with yourself about that.
An ordinary feature phone with real buttons, for a teenager who needs calls and texts and nothing more.
Around $90 outright
Texting on a keypad is slow, which teenagers notice immediately. It also still has a browser, so it is less locked down than it looks.
Wooden blocks that play music and stories when stacked, aimed at the youngest end where a device with buttons is already too much.
Sets from around $80
A small catalog compared with Yoto and Tonies, and firmly for toddlers, so it is outgrown quickly.
Toys and play
A screen-free audio player using yarn figures and cards, with more interactive and quiz-style content than its rivals.
Player around $100, figures and cards extra
The interactive content nudges toward a subscription, and the extras cost more than the Yoto or Tonies equivalents.
A wifi landline for the kitchen wall, so a child can call approved friends and family without anyone owning a mobile.
About $10 a month
It is a landline, so it does nothing outside the house. That is the point, and it will not help you reach a kid who is out on their own.
The same idea as Yoto for younger children, with figures instead of cards, which suits hands that cannot yet read labels.
Box around $100, figures from about $15
Figures are licensed and pricey, and the catalog leans heavily on brand tie-ins. Best paired with a library card.
Audio without a screen, controlled by physical cards a child can choose from a shelf, which keeps the choosing analog.
Player around $100, cards from about $10
The card library adds up fast. The device is a screen-free win, but it still creates a small collecting habit worth watching.