Survey data
What UK parents actually want from a first phone
Everyone assumes parents buy first phones to track their kids. Our data says otherwise: just 4% of the parents we surveyed ranked GPS or location tracking as their top priority. Here is what 126 UK parents told us really matters.
By Pundarik Ranchhod · Published September 2026 · Data last updated September 2026
About this data
Based on 126 responses from UK parents who took the free Kite Phone quiz between May 2026 to September 2026. Self-selected online completion; figures update automatically as new responses arrive.
Only 4% want GPS tracking most
The tech industry sells first phones and smartwatches on location tracking. But when we asked parents to name their single top priority, GPS and location tracking came dead last. Just 4% chose it. Far more parents cared about their child being reachable at all, and about keeping the whole thing screen-free and simple. Tracking is a nice-to-have, not the reason most families buy a first phone.
50% want connection, safety and simplicity together
Force parents to pick a single priority and most refuse. The biggest group — 50% — wanted all of it at once: a child who stays connected, stays safe, and is not handed a smartphone to get there. For another 37%, staying connected came first on its own. Underneath both sits the same demand: reliable contact without the complexity and risk of a full smartphone.
88% already have reliable home WiFi
A common worry about WiFi-based home phones is whether the connection will hold up. In practice, 88% of the parents we surveyed already described their home WiFi as reliable. Only 11% reported patchy coverage, and for those homes a £20–40 WiFi extender or a short ethernet cable is usually enough. For the vast majority of families, a WiFi landline works out of the box.
39% are choosing for a child under 7
First-phone conversations usually focus on secondary-school age, but 39% of the parents we surveyed were choosing for a child under 7. Parents of younger children are actively looking for a first way to stay in touch that is not a smartphone — a home phone the child can use to call family independently, without apps, a screen, or an internet connection in their pocket.
What this means for choosing a first phone
Parents are not chasing surveillance gadgets. They want a child who is reachable, safe, and free from the pull of a smartphone, and most already own the home WiFi that makes a screen-free VoIP landline work. Out of the house it does nothing, and a stationary home phone is not meant to. Indoors, where a five- or seven-year-old spends most of the day, it does the one job these parents asked for.
Want to see where your own family lands? The quiz that produced this data is below.
Take the first-phone quiz
Answer three quick questions about your child's age, your WiFi, and what matters most. Your answer joins the anonymous data on this page.
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How many parents were surveyed?
126 UK parents completed the Kite Phone first-phone quiz between May 2026 to September 2026. The figures on this page are generated live from those responses and update automatically as more parents take the quiz.
How was the data collected?
Responses come from parents who chose to take our free online first-phone quiz. It is a self-selected sample of parents already researching first-phone options, not a nationally representative poll. No personal information is used in these aggregate figures.
Can I cite or reuse this data?
Yes. The dataset is published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence. Please credit “Kite Phone First Phone Survey 2026” and link back to this page.