Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids • Hacker News Board

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#91

Post by ale42 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

mememememememo wrote: post #64

jkestner wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dug out an old Motofone (the $40 eink candybar) for this reason, only to discover that it’s 2G, which has been decommissioned. Too bad, would’ve been fun to watch the kid learn T9.

2G to 3G converter ftw!

Is there such a thing? Given it's radio waves in regulated radio spectrum, I'm not sure such a device would even be allowed to operate without a license. This said, there are 3G Nokia dumbphones (e.g. C2-01). I just had to stop using one because my operator tore down the 3G network here, like in most of Europe. (2G was already down since some time).

Edit: there are even 4G-VoLTE dumbphones by the way.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#92

Post by hellweaver666 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #84

This seems to be begging for a DIY project, doesn't it? A 3d printed case, a little SoC, perhaps a Raspberry Pi Zero, as the brains with asterisk and some additional open source software providing a web interface running on it.

Would i require some public server side component to handle the call routing etc? (or could you just use something like Google Voice?)

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#93

Post by ale42 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 8:35 AM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #11

gnabgib wrote: post #5

Discussion (197 points, 8 months ago, 132 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44587018

Thanks for linking to it. Folks, before you rush to offer your genius ACKSHUALLY ideas about how Google Voice will let you do "the same thing as Tin Can for free", please, please, think about what GV does and, more importantly, does not (Hint: Whitelist).

Just put a Google Voice line behind a FreePBX or Asterisk and you get all the call filtering you want. You can even make your internal numbers or whatever.

I first found the Tin Can cool, but now seeing their privacy policy, it's definitely nothing for me. I'd just use a normal VoIP cordless phone (e.g. Gigaset makes various models), or even a normal corded phone with a VoIP ATA. Some of them might even have integrated whitelisting, but I didn't check.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#94

Post by worldsayshi » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 8:38 AM UTC

quijoteuniv wrote: post #66

I like the idea. We tried with licence free walkie talkies, but it did not catch on. What it worked is the xplora watches. Only approved contacts and we can also contact our kids and check GPS position . They are a bit buggy sometimes but mostly fine

Yeah I've seen some parents use this to great success. Seems to also allow them more freedom to allow kids to explore a bit more on their own. Like it's the 90's.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#95

Post by kleiba » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 8:39 AM UTC

> she's found another way to put off getting her [8-year-old] daughter a cellphone

I don't live in the US but my child, who is 9, does not have a cell phone nor does any of his school mates. They "chat" when they see each other in school, or when they hang out together to play after school.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#96

Post by janfoeh » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 9:20 AM UTC

bit_logic wrote: post #68

Why does it seem like many parents are unaware that a hand me down iPhone can be heavily locked down with screen time settings? A list of things you can do: - allowed list of apps, can reduce it to just phone, imessage, and utilities like weather app - effectively permanent downtime, just set the end time less than start time such as 3:00 am to 2:59 am (technically 1 minute of non downtime). This blocks apps except f…

For some people like me, iOS parental controls are utterly and completely broken. I have tried to make it work over three or four years and just as many iOS releases - no dice.

About a dozen times in those years, the system silently failed open either completely or partially (eg. some restrictions still applied, but whitelists in Safari were no longer enforced, the app store was suddenly accessible again or time limits were no longer in place). Not once was there any indication on the parent device.

Several times, the only way to reenable broken restrictions was to wipe the device, because changes to parental controls simply stopped syncing.

Here's long-time Mac developer and blogger Michael Tsai describing the same thing: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/09/24/screen-time-brokenness/

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#97

Post by alexchengyuli » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 9:27 AM UTC

Funny enough, China already ran this experiment. Kids' smartwatches started as call-only devices for safety. Then they added friend lists, status updates, like counts, popularity rankings. Little Genius now has 48% of the global kids' smartwatch market [1]. Kids delete real-life friends for not having enough likes on the watch. Once a device enters a kid's social life, there's no market incentive to keep it simple.

[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3328227/move-o...

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#98

Post by digital_af » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 9:33 AM UTC

If you live in Germany and have a Fritz!Box router, you can just buy a second old-ish Fritz!Box and a simple landline phone (from the likes of eBay, Kleinanzeigen...) and hook them up via WiFi.

Voilà, telephone service as it used to be. No proprietary payphone with questionable ToS and privacy policies needed.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#99

Post by choo-t » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 9:36 AM UTC

light_hue_1 wrote: post #71

bit_logic wrote: post #68

Why does it seem like many parents are unaware that a hand me down iPhone can be heavily locked down with screen time settings? A list of things you can do: - allowed list of apps, can reduce it to just phone, imessage, and utilities like weather app - effectively permanent downtime, just set the end time less than start time such as 3:00 am to 2:59 am (technically 1 minute of non downtime). This blocks apps except f…

Parents are aware. This is a horrible solution. What's going to happen immediately is that kids with equivalent phones will compare, realize that one has a lot of restrictions and the other doesn't, and it becomes a nightmare. They know that all you need to do is unlock it for them. It's the same mental distinction between "For $200 we'll install rear seat warmers in your Tesla" and "For $200 we'll 'unlock' the alrea…

> What's going to happen immediately is that kids with equivalent phones will compare, realize that one has a lot of restrictions and the other doesn't, and it becomes a nightmare. They know that all you need to do is unlock it for them.

Don't you think they will as easily realize their newly purchased TinCan is far more restricted than the 10 year old phone theirs friends received from their parents/siblings?

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#100

Post by M95D » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 9:48 AM UTC

choo-t wrote: post #99

light_hue_1 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents are aware. This is a horrible solution. What's going to happen immediately is that kids with equivalent phones will compare, realize that one has a lot of restrictions and the other doesn't, and it becomes a nightmare. They know that all you need to do is unlock it for them. It's the same mental distinction between "For $200 we'll install rear seat warmers in your Tesla" and "For $200 we'll 'unlock' the alrea…

> What's going to happen immediately is that kids with equivalent phones will compare, realize that one has a lot of restrictions and the other doesn't, and it becomes a nightmare. They know that all you need to do is unlock it for them. Don't you think they will as easily realize their newly purchased TinCan is far more restricted than the 10 year old phone theirs friends received from their parents/siblings?

It's not restricted. It's less capable. Entirely different thing. And they'll view it as a completely different device for different purpose (voice calls vs. doom scrolling).