He does not need me, or HMD (human mobile devices), to tell him that there is an epidemic of screen time among young people, but the new research of the latter about the subject highlights how badly, smartphones (and specifically social networks) are actively damaging a whole generation.
Of 12,000 teenagers surveyed by the Nokia phone manufacturer for a recent study, more than half said they are worried that they can be addicted to their phone, and 52% said a stranger online approached them. 53% said they have seen something they would not have, which for most respondents were sexual or violent content, and 56% said they have seen cases of bullying. The gloomy statistics continue.
Parents also know that these problems exist, but existing smartphones of smartphones such as screen time applications are easily eluded by any curious teenager with access to YouTube or Reddit. To address this, HMD has been associated with the Smartwatch Xplora manufacturer to develop the ‘first smartphone for adolescents’, an apparently regular -looking phone that gives parents greater control over the intelligent telephone experience (potentially first) of their children.
Launch in May for £ 229 (the international price has not yet been confirmed), the HMD Fusion X1, when purchased together with an Xplora subscription, will allow parents to enable, disable or limit access to applications of their choice. This subscription also includes the follow -up of the continuous location at intervals of 20 seconds, SOS of emergency required by the adolescent of smartphones, as well as low battery alerts and remote access to the devices for the parents.
In addition, a dedicated school function will minimize distractions during school hours blocking specific applications and characteristics as desired, and HMD has also confirmed that its Safetonet software, which uses AI to detect and block harmful content before reaching the user, will begin to implement compatible devices (fusion X1 included) later this year.
I know what you are thinking: no teenager would voluntarily give this level of control over their smartphone. And that may have been true a few years ago. But young people are becoming absolutely more aware of the dangers of addiction to social networks (HMD findings are not anomalous) and if the raffle of ‘Only one more displacement’ is too strong to resist, perhaps adolescents are now more willing to give someone else the keys (after all, ‘brain’ was named the word of Oxford 2024 of the year for a reason).
In fact, as the founder of HMD, Jean-Francois Baril, put it in MWC, the Fusion X1 is “the phone that adolescents want, with the security parents they want.” Nor will it have a childish design, with the company mocking a conventional industrial style phone in MWC.
HMD also has two new phones with characteristics on the way: the HMD Boca 3210 and the fusion of Barça HMD. The first is a renowned version of Nokia 3210, with exclusive notes with the theme of Barcelona and Easter eggs such as an engraved logo, hidden messages of players, personalized wallpapers and, yes, even a version of Snake with Barcelona’s theme.
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Meanwhile, HMD Barca Fusion is a personalized version of the HMD fusion headset with 11 shine player signatures in the dark recorded on its rear panel. Like the 3210, the fusion is also designed taking into account Tiktok Doom-Scrollers, so it has a detoxification mode to keep users focused on the things that matter.
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Drew Barrymore also appeared on the stage at the HMD MWC Keynote to cause ‘Wildflower’ project, an upcoming collaboration between the actor and the HMD to address the aforementioned screen time epidemic. We still do not have the details, but the participation of one of the most important names of Hollywood will certainly bring very necessary attention to a problem that HMD intends to address.
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