The world is at your fingertips with a smartphone. You have access to the web and can stay connected to friends, family and strangers worldwide. This could raise concern when you have a child who desires the hottest smartphone on the market. But with Kytephone you can now control what your child can access, protecting them and giving yourself a piece of mind. Check out Kytephone after the jump.
Kytephone, the mobile app that transforms Android smartphones into kid-safe devices, is officially making its public debut today. The startup had previously been in beta, following its reveal at this spring’s Y Combinator Demo Day, where founders Renat Gataullin and Martin Drashkov first revealed their company’s vision.
The idea behind Kytephone is simple. It addresses parents’ growing concerns over the access that these mobile computers (aka smartphones) offer children. Kids can surf the web, download apps, text and call anyone, snap photos and send them around to friends (or strangers) and more. But on the other hand, equipping kids with a phone is often seen as a must for reasons related to convenience and safety. That’s where Kytephone comes in. By locking down the phone, the app allows parents to give kids a smartphone for all the good reasons, without the negative consequences.
The application is built for Android because of the deep integration possibilities that the Android platform offers. Once installed and launched, the mobile app can’t be shut down by kids, even if they switch off the phone and remove the battery. The same level of control isn’t available on iPhone, unfortunately. But integration isn’t the only reason why Kytephone launched on Android, co-founder and CEO Renat Gataullin tells me, there’s also the cost. Android phones are often found at lower price points than the iPhone, so they make sense for kids’ first smartphones.
Although today, many parents are still opting to either give kids a cheap or free feature phone or just wait a few years until their child is responsible enough for their first smartphone, the world (or rather, developed markets) are rapidly moving to smartphones. Just recently, for example, a report from Nielsen found that smartphones now outnumber more basic devices in the U.S., accounting for 50.4% of all handsets.
So, yes, now is the time for a kid-friendly mobile solution. However, we should point out that the concept for parental controls and family locators like Kytephone provides are not new. Mobile carriers today offer these features as value-added services for their customers, with backends powered by companies like Location Labs, for instance. But Kytephone plans to undercut those offerings (typically around $10-$15/month) with a freemium service. Basic controls are free, while others will be premium (paid) additions.
Today, there are three key components to the Kytephone platform: location-tracking, call control (who kids can call and receive phone calls from), and application control. The latter refers to a system that allows parents to pick which apps kids can use. Apps, and more specifically games, are the primary reason kids want smartphones, explains Gataullin. “This is the main motivator as to why kids want a smartphone – it’s a big, shiny touchscreen that has lots of games,†he says. “Lots of parents don’t have issues with kids playing educational games, but they don’t want them to play aggressive or shooting games,†he adds.
