BrickifyBrickify vs Smartphone Free Childhood
It isn't really a versus. I built a phone app, and I'm totally for the smartphone-free childhood.
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Brick phone, smartphone, or something in between? What each tool actually does
Most "parental controls" do one of three quite different jobs. Here's which is which, and which one you need.
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Smartphone-free until 14, but his friends have to text his mum
Waiting is a good choice. Here's how to keep them reachable, and in on the plans, without the whole internet.
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The 12 days steps of Christmas: setting up your child's first phone
One small job a day from 13 to 24 December. Most take ten minutes or less.
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New Year, new phone rules: resetting screen time after the holidays
Two weeks of 'it's the holidays'. Here's how to get back to normal without a row.
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A parent's guide to giving a first phone without the fear
Write down your five fears. Then let's see which ones a setting can fix, and which ones only a conversation can.
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The Christmas gift that grows with them: a phone that changes as they do
Most phones are the same phone on day one and day 1,000. This one isn't.
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Don't buy a £15 basic phone this Christmas: here's the £4.99 alternative
Before you spend money on a phone made for kids, check the drawer.
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I'm a sporty kid, this is how I use Brickify
Training Tuesday, match Saturday, phone stays out of my kit bag's way.
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I'm a theatre kid, this is how I use Brickify
Show week is chaos. My phone isn't.
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I'm a London mum, this is how we use Brickify
Two buses, one Zip Oyster, and a phone that's only a phone until she gets home.
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I do martial arts, this is how I use Brickify
Discipline in the dojo. Discipline on the phone. Same idea.
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I'm a chronic doom scroller, this is how I use Brickify
Bed at 11. Still scrolling at 1. Every night. Until the phone stopped letting me.
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I'm a boarder, this is how I use Brickify
Phone in at 8:30. Back at prep's end. Calls only after lights out.
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Brick phone or Brickify? A practical answer to phone-free schools
Schools have gone phone-free. Parents are buying Nokias. There's a third option, and it's probably in your kitchen drawer.
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Inside Brickify: how the PIN + second factor actually works
Why it takes two keys to unbrick a phone, and what happens if you lose both.
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Why I built Brickify
I didn't set out to build a parental-control app. I set out to keep a promise to my sons and keep them safe.
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6 signs your child is ready for their first phone, and what kind
Not 'what age?' but 'what for?' Six readiness signs, and four kinds of first phone.
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Screen Time vs Brickify: Why willpower isn't a strategy
Every phone rule works at 4pm on a Tuesday. It's 11pm on a Saturday, straight after a row, that tests it.
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What actually happens when a school goes smartphone-free
From 1 September, phone-free is the default in every school in England. Here's what that does and doesn't change.
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How to actually enforce a screen-time schedule (not just set one)
Setting a schedule takes five minutes. Keeping it takes these seven things.
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The old phone in your drawer is your kid's first phone (you just don't know it yet)
Too good to throw away, too distracting to hand over. How to make your old smart phone a safe first phone.
Read the post →5 things in online safety you shouldn't miss
A round up of the news that's actually moved the needle lately: a UK under-16 social media ban, an $18bn Meta settlement, a school phone-ban movement passing 190,000 signatures, and where Brickify fits into all of it.
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