There were eight children among the four close-knit families in their Seattle neighborhood, and by last fall, the oldest child — who was almost 9 — had already started asking for a smartphone. But the group of parents had made a communal agreement: They would keep their children away from smartphones for as long as possible.

There was strength in that solidarity, says Lauren Zemer, a Seattle-area therapist and mom of two: “We had agreed that we were going to share these values.” But she and her neighbors also wanted their children to feel connected to their peers and to develop a sense of social independence. So in October 2024, when one of the parents heard about a local father who had built a prototype for a kid-specific, adult-controlled landline phone — and had created a waitlist for

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