Phones With Online Safety Features for Kids
Three of these eight phones start with no web browser at all. The Gabb Phone 4 ($209.99) and the Wisephone II ($399) never get one and block social media, and the Pinwheel Slim 6 ($199) ships without a browser but lets a parent switch on the Google Play Store and approve apps one at a time as a child grows into it.
What separates the rest is how much a parent gets to see. The MMGuardian Phone A17 and Pinwheel let you read messages, the Bark Phone sends alerts instead of transcripts, and the Apple iPhone 17e and Google Pixel 10a read nothing: their protection lives in settings (Screen Time, Family Link) that a teenager can argue you out of. The other divide is the bill. Gabb, Troomi, Bark and Wisephone come with their own required plan, while Pinwheel, MMGuardian, the iPhone and the Pixel work on a carrier you already pay.
Our picks
- Starting strict and loosening up later: Pinwheel Slim 6. No browser by default and social media blocked, with the Google Play Store ready to turn on app by app when a parent decides.
- Reading every text, not just flagged ones: MMGuardian Phone A17. $289 unlocked, with a portal that shows every text plus messages from popular social apps, for $9.99 a month on your own carrier.
- No internet, no exceptions: Gabb Phone 4. No browser and social media blocked, with only a short curated app library, for $209.99 on its own required plan.
- Only websites a parent has approved: Troomi Samsung Galaxy A17 5G. Its browser opens only domains on a parent's list, though browsing and apps come only with the top Discover plan.
- A family already on Apple devices: Apple iPhone 17e. $599, with Screen Time web filters, approval for every app download, and nudity blurred in Messages, though nobody can read its texts.
At a glance
| Option | Price | Monthly plan | Web access | App store | Social media | Operating system |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $209.99source | Gabb's own plan is required, from $24.99/mo for the Starter tier (Gabb quotes $29.99/mo with no contract)source | No internet browsersource | Curated app librarysource | Blockedsource | Maker's own operating systemsource | |
| $199source | $17.99/mo for the Caregiver Portal if you bring your own carrier; Pinwheel Wireless is $29.99/mosource | No browser by defaultsource | Curated library plus optional app storesource | Blockedsource | Android-based, customized by the makersource | |
| $10/month for 24 months for the phone, plus a Bark wireless plan starting at $29/monthsource | Filtered browsingsource | Parent approves each appsource | Allowed with monitoringsource | Androidsource | ||
| $249.95source | Troomi's own plan is required, from $24.95/mo with no contractsource | Parent-approved sites onlysource | Curated app librarysource | Blockedsource | Android-based, customized by the makersource | |
| $289source | $9.99/month for MMGuardian's software, plus an airtime plan from any carrier you choosesource | Filtered browsingsource | Parent approves each appsource | Allowed with monitoringsource | Androidsource | |
| $399source | A WiseOS subscription is required; the Essential 1GB plan is $24.99/mosource | No internet browsersource | Curated app librarysource | Blockedsource | Android-based, customized by the makersource | |
| $599source | None from Apple: the phone is sold unlocked or with a carrier, and you choose the plansource | Full web with parental filterssource | Parent approves each appsource | Parent can allowsource | iOSsource | |
| $499source | None from Google: the phone is sold unlocked, so you pick any carrier and plansource | Full web with parental filterssource | Parent approves each appsource | Parent can allowsource | Androidsource |
How much of the internet each phone lets in
The Web access column covers the whole range. The Gabb Phone 4 and Wisephone II have no browser, and the Pinwheel Slim 6 has none by default. The Troomi Samsung Galaxy A17 5G opens only the website domains a parent approves. The Bark Phone and MMGuardian filter an otherwise open web, and the iPhone 17e and Pixel 10a give the full web with parental filters, which on the iPhone can be narrowed to approved websites only.
Two of those cells depend on the plan you buy. Bark's $29 starter plan is talk and text with no internet and no apps; the web filter and the Play Store arrive with higher plans. Troomi's approved-sites browser and its app store come only with the Discover plan at $34.95 a month, so its cheaper tiers are talk, text and location.
Reading your child's messages, or only hearing about trouble
MMGuardian's portal shows every text and messages from popular social apps, not only the risky ones, and Pinwheel's Caregiver Portal makes every message readable. Troomi includes text and image monitoring on every plan. Bark takes a different line: it tells you when something looks concerning rather than handing over transcripts. Bark and MMGuardian both build their controls into the system, so a factory reset does not get a child around them.
The iPhone 17e and Pixel 10a both let you approve each app download, and Apple's Communication Safety blurs detected nudity in Messages and FaceTime, but neither lets a parent read texts. The Wisephone II has no dashboard for messages or location either. It keeps a child safe by leaving almost everything off the phone, which makes it a simplicity tool more than a way to supervise.
The price tag versus two years of service
The Price column is the phone alone, from $199 for the Pinwheel Slim 6 to $599 for the iPhone 17e, and it flatters the brands that bundle service. The Gabb Phone 4 is $209.99 plus a $30 activation fee, and its plan runs from $24.99 a month on a contract or $29.99 without one; cancelling a contract early costs $100 to $150. Troomi is $249.95 plus at least $24.95 a month with no contract. The Wisephone II adds a $39 activation fee and a $24.99 monthly plan to its $399. Bark has no one-time price: the phone is $10 a month for 24 months, plus a plan from $29.
On the phones that use a carrier you already pay, the extra monthly cost is smaller or nothing. MMGuardian is $289, or $259 if you prepay a year, plus $9.99 a month for the software. Pinwheel's portal is $17.99 a month on your own carrier. The Pixel 10a ($499) is supervised through Family Link, which is free, and Google promises seven years of OS and security updates for it.
The options in detail
Gabb Phone 4
A phone that looks and feels like an ordinary Android but simply cannot reach the open internet: no browser, no app store, and only Gabb's own messaging, music and maps apps plus a short curated library a parent can enable. Gabb aims it at roughly ages 9 to 14 and sells it with its own cellular service, so you cannot bring it to another carrier. The catch is commitment. The cheapest monthly rates are the one and two year contract rates, and cancelling early costs $100 to $150. It is also a hard ceiling by design: when your child outgrows it, the answer is a different phone, not a looser setting.
Pinwheel Slim 6
A Motorola handset running Pinwheel's own Android-based software, built for parents who want to start strict and loosen up over time. Out of the box there is no web browser and no social media, only approved numbers can call or text, and every message is readable in the Caregiver Portal; when you decide your child is ready you can switch on the Google Play Store and approve apps one at a time. Pinwheel is the only one of these brands that lets you keep your own carrier, and it is unusual in letting a second household share the controls, which matters in a split family. The trade-off is that the parent portal is billed on top of whatever cellular plan you already pay for. Pinwheel also sells the cheaper Genesis 4 at $119 and the 5G Plus 6 at $299 with identical software.
Bark Phone
A Samsung Galaxy A16 with Bark's monitoring built into the operating system rather than bolted on as an app, which is why a child cannot uninstall it or reset their way around it. It is the most adjustable phone here: the $29 starter plan is talk and text with no internet and no apps at all, and higher plans progressively add a web filter, the Play Store with per-app approval, and mobile data. Bark's approach to messages is alerts rather than transcripts, so you are told when something looks concerning instead of reading everything, which some families prefer and others find too hands-off. Bark publishes no outright price for the phone: it is a $10 monthly device payment over 24 months on top of the plan, so it is cheap to start and awkward to compare with phones you buy once.
Troomi Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
Troomi puts its KidSmart software on a current Samsung Galaxy A17 and sells the phone and service together with no contract. Its distinctive piece is the Smart Browser, which works from a list of website domains you approve rather than filtering an otherwise open web, alongside a curated Troomi app store instead of Google Play. Text and image monitoring is included on every plan, and only approved numbers can reach your child. Read the plan tiers carefully before buying: browsing, apps and mobile data only come with the top Discover plan, so the cheaper tiers are effectively talk, text and location.
MMGuardian Phone A17
A Samsung phone with MMGuardian's controls built into the system so that safe mode and factory resets cannot undo them. It is the pick for parents who want to read rather than be alerted: the parent portal shows every text and messages from popular social apps, not only the ones flagged as risky, alongside web filtering, app approval and location history a child cannot switch off. Unlike Gabb, Troomi and Bark it is sold unlocked, so you add the line to the family plan you already have and pay MMGuardian only for the software. It is the most expensive kid-phone here up front, though prepaying a year of service brings the phone down to $259.
Wisephone II
A Samsung handset running a deliberately locked-down build of Android that strips the phone back to calling, texting, camera, maps, music and a handful of vetted apps you can add from a tool drawer. There is no browser and no social media at all, and a web portal lets you or another trusted adult decide which features stay switched on. Techless sells it mainly to adults doing a digital detox, but prices its cheapest data plan as the one for teens, and several families use it as a first phone for exactly that reason. Two honest caveats: it costs $399 plus a $39 activation fee before any service, and there is no parent dashboard for location or message monitoring, so it is a simplicity tool rather than a supervision tool.
Apple iPhone 17e
The cheapest current iPhone, and the sensible answer for a family already living on Apple devices. None of the safety work is in the hardware: it happens in a Child Account and Screen Time, where you can set web content to block adult sites or allow only approved ones, require your approval before any app is downloaded, restrict apps by age rating, and approve new contacts before your child can message them. Find My handles location, and Communication Safety blurs detected nudity in Messages and FaceTime. What you do not get is message monitoring. Apple's privacy model means no one, you included, reads your child's texts, and every restriction is a setting a determined teenager will keep asking you to relax.
Google Pixel 10a
A mainstream Android phone supervised through Family Link, the same free tool that works across most Android devices, so nothing about the phone is kid-specific. A parent can block sites in Chrome, require approval before a new app installs, set daily and per-app time limits with School Time and Downtime schedules, and see the phone on a map. It is sold unlocked, so there is no special plan to buy and no early termination fee to think about, and Google promises seven years of OS and security updates. Family Link does not read texts, and because it is a normal phone underneath, it gives a teenager far more room to negotiate than a purpose-built kids phone does.
How we researched this
The eight phones fall into three groups on purpose. Five are purpose-built kids phones (Gabb, Pinwheel, Bark, Troomi and MMGuardian), the same brands the child-safety sites Protect Young Eyes and SafeWise name as the common US first phones; no sixth US brand had a real product with a published price. The Wisephone II stands in for phones with no internet by design. The iPhone 17e and Pixel 10a are here for their parental controls, one per platform, since a second mainstream Android would have repeated the Family Link row. Sibling models running the same software, such as the Pinwheel Genesis 4 and Bark Phone Pro, did not get rows of their own.
Also left out: the Light Phone III ($899, sold by reservation, no parent dashboard, marketed to adults), the pre-order Light Flip, HMD's Fuse and XploraOne (no US price published), Wi-Fi home phones such as Tin Can, and kids' smartwatches. Prices are the regular list price for the phone alone, not the promotions several brands were running in September 2026, and Bark's Price cell is empty because Bark publishes only its $10-a-month installment. A few operating-system cells cite SafeWise's spec tables because the makers' own pages do not say. Plan tiers and prices shift, and Apple's families page describes per-site approval in Safari coming with iOS 27, so the plan page and what each tier actually unlocks are the two things to reread on the day you order.