Kurio Phone – Kids Android Phone with Parental Control [CES 2014]

Straight from CES 2014 from the Mandalay Bay at CES Unveiled, Techno Source and KD Interactive unveiled their latest device aimed for kids, the Kurio Phone. The Kurio Phone comes from a lineage of kid-specific Kurio products, and brings a level of parental control that’s refreshing to the concerned parent.

Kids are getting smart phones at younger and younger ages. Would you want your 13 year old having an SGS4? How about your 7 year old? That’s where Kurio Phone steps in. It’s a fully-functioning 4.2 Jelly Bean Android phone with Google Play and works just as you’d expect an Android phone to. Specs are low-end at best including a 480×800 4″ LCD display, dual cameras, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, removable battery, and a more-than-likely dual-core processor, but has all of the usuals too including 3G (GSM), WiFi, FM radio, SD slot, removable battery. Specs on this device aren’t the point though, its selling point is that pretty much every aspect of the phone can be controlled, locked, filtered, or tracked by watchful parents. Kids can have a fully-functioning Android smart phone and still be safe.

A full list of controls includes:

Contact Management

Parents can manage a child’s contacts, allowing or blocking certain contacts. If parents choose to maintain a safe list of contacts, kids may add contacts to their device, but they won’t be able to call or message them until mom or dad adds them to the list of allowable numbers

Primary Contacts

Parents can create up to five primary contacts that aren’t subject to any restrictions and can also receive alerts. For example, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa and older siblings.

Phone Use

Parents can set daily, weekly or monthly call-time limits and also limit the child’s number of text messages. They can also access the child’s call log, text message and Internet browsing history. In order to respect the child’s privacy, the content of MMS and text messages is not displayed. Though, Kurio Genius will provide tools to control message content.

Application Management

Parents can choose which applications are allowed, blocked or restricted by the calendar. Newly downloaded applications are blocked by default.

Calendar

Parents can set restricted times by day of week during which calls, SMS messages and restricted applications are to be blocked.

Geolocation

Using Kurio Phone’s GPS tracking technology, parents can monitor their child’s position every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, including his or her current position or last known position.

Geofencing

Parents can also pre-define secure and danger zones on a map, and set the days and times when these zones are activated. If the child leaves a secure zone or enters a danger zone, the parent will receive an alert.

In Case of Emergency (I.C.E.)

Parents can store the child’s information, including date of birth, allergies, blood type, as well as doctor’s name and phone number, which can be accessed on the device in case of emergency. A child can alert emergency services and their primary contacts in case of emergency, and also trigger a silent alarm by repeatedly pressing the “power” button when in danger.

Theft/Loss

In the event of theft or loss, parents can remotely trigger an alarm on the device, block the phone completely so that it cannot be used, erase the device’s data, set it to take a picture at phone start up, display a message on the device’s screen, and even track the device’s current location.

Other Alerts

Parents can also receive alerts via SMS or e-mail notifying them when the child’s phone is turned on/off, when it has a low battery,  or even when the device’s SIM card has been changed.

Coming in under $200, the Kurio Phone is a perfect child companion for the concerned parent. It adapts to what would be appropriate for a 13 year old or a 7 year old; each parent can customize the Kurio Phone to their child’s needs. It can be controlled from a web interface or mobile app, all subscription free.