Many parents want their children to have the safety and convenience of a phone, without the anxiety of giving them the internet in their pockets. I recently discovered a way to do exactly that, using a surprising tool from Apple.

How it started

About two years ago, I read an article by Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic about the impact of smartphones on childhood. I was stunned by the research he had gathered and blown away by how clearly he explained a problem many of us have felt in our bones but struggled to articulate.

Since then, I have become active in encouraging low phone use within our family, families in our friendship circles and in our kids' schools. It has become something of a fascination for me and an endeavour which, if we get right, I think can have outsized positive outcomes for our kids.

Bringing Back the Home Phone

Some time back I started a conversation with a friend about reintroducing a home phone.

We thought: Wouldn’t it be great to have a home phone again? A simple way for our kids to call their friends, to build the confidence to say, “Hi, Mrs Grey, please may I speak to Ben?” and to rediscover the art of conversation and connection rather devolving into a species of emojis, gifs and one line text messages.

About a year ago we tried it. We bought a Nokia. It lay unused in a drawer, ran out of battery, we couldn't find the charger and when we found it, we couldn't remember how to load airtime. Our Nokia experiment went nowhere.

The Search for a Better Way

Then I read a blog post by developer in the US who wanted to reduce his own distractions. He started by buying a dumb phone, a Nokia 3310, but soon realised he still needed and wanted some modern conveniences like Uber, Google Maps, and Strava.

He did not want Instagram, X, or TikTok, but even without installing them, they were always just a tap away through the web browser or available to be reinstalled in an instant via the App Store.

Finding a Modern Alternative

So he dug deeper and discovered Apple Configurator, the same tool Apple uses to manage iPhones and iPads in stores.

With it, you can decide exactly which apps are allowed on a device. You can remove the browser, remove the App Store, even disable the camera if you like.

A Phone Without the Internet

When I realised this was possible, it felt like a breakthrough. For parents, this might be what we have been looking for — a phone that is not a gateway to the internet yet still does the few things we actually want it to.

You can decide exactly what you want your phone to be able to do. For example, you can set up a phone to make calls, run Uber, play Spotify, send messages, and nothing more. No rabbit holes. No infinite scrolling.

Even as a tech-oriented person, I have always found traditional parental controls overwhelming, and was often left wondering whether I had closed every loophole. This new approach feels clean and calm. For decades I have marvelled at how the Kindle just does one thing without any other distractions. Well, now it seems it's possible to have an iPhone that achieves the same thing.

How to Do It

Below are the steps to set this up. It involves using a Mac computer, an iPhone that you're happy to wipe clean and an app called Apple Configurator.

If you are not technically inclined, this may feel daunting. If that's the case you're welcome to join an online workshop we run once a week where we can guide you through the process step by step.

I hope this is as useful to your family and your extended friendship group as it has been to ours.

The Pros of Apple Configurator

1. High friction equals strong protection

Making changes once your phone is configured is hard. And this is a good thing! You must physically connect your iPhone to a laptop, open Apple Configurator, and navigate a fairly unintuitive workflow. There is no quick override, no four-digit code like with Screen Time, and no impulse to “just install this one app.” This friction is a feature.

2. You can completely disable the App Store

This is a huge win. Kids are creative, with many downloading apps they shouldn’t, using them, then deleting them before anyone notices. Removing the App Store removes the temptation and the cycle of download–hide–deny. If reducing distraction is the goal, losing the App Store is a massive step forward.

3. Control the web, or turn it off

You can remove the browser entirely, or allow access only to specific sites. For example, we allow our kids to use Google. My son checks football and F1 results, so our phone allows access to only google.com and its results, but every link he clicks goes nowhere. This means no rabbit holes and no accidental detours into the wilds of the internet.

4. Disable the camera

Many schools struggle with cameras. When every child has a recording device, more silly or risky behaviour appears because it “makes good content.” With Apple Configurator you can simply turn the camera off, solving the problem before it starts.

The Cons of Apple Configurator

1. It requires a factory reset

There is no way around it. To use Apple Configurator you must start with a completely reset iPhone. Hopefully you have an old one lying around or can get your hands on an affordable second hand version.

2. Setup is not plug-and-play

Getting your setup right can take patience. You will probably configure your phone, realise you forgot something, reset again, tweak, repeat. It feels clunky compared to tapping around Screen Time or the App Store. But keep going because once you've got it right, it is rock-solid and absolutely worth the effort.

3. You have to have a Mac to use Apple Configurator

If you're a PC family, there is bad news. In order to use Apple Configurator, you have to have a Mac. But the good news is that if you have a friend with a Mac, you can do this setup by borrowing their machine for 30mins.

The How-To Guide

If you want to do this yourself, it’s going to take a 2-hour initial commitment, and about 2 weeks of tweaks to get everything set up just right.

In the first 2 hours, you will factory reset your phone, and set up Apple Configurator. As those two weeks progress, you’ll tweak your restrictions so you have just the apps and the websites you actually need.

Okay, let’s get into those first 2 hours!

1. Factory reset your iPhone

Time to reset your iPhone. Go to Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase all content and settings.

This is the first, and the scariest step. Do it, and you are on the journey 🫡

2. Install Apple Configurator

Now head on over to the Apple and install Apple Configurator. Open the app and click ‘Get Started’

3. ‘Prepare’ your iPhone

We can then prepare your device for configurator. Connect your iPhone to your laptop. You should see it show up in Configurator. Once you do, Right click and click “Prepare”:

Select “Manual Configuration”, with “Supervise devices” like so:

You can skip “Sign in to Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager”. Just press Next.

Now enter an “Organization”. Since this is just for yourself, you are an organization of one : ). I use my name:

In “Configure iOS Setup Assistant”, select “Don’t show any of these steps”

Click “Prepare”

Aand you’re ready to go!

Your phone is now ready for Configurator.

4. Set up your iPhone

Before we start adding restrictions, let’s set your phone up. Go through Apple’s setup, and make sure you do not restore your iPhone from an iCloud backup. This will undo the supervision stuff we just did.

Once you set things up, go ahead and install all the apps that you’ll need. As a way to jog your memory, here are the apps that I ended up installing:

5. Create your ‘Profile’

Now it’s time to set up your restrictions! You’ll create a new Configurator ‘Profile’.

Click ‘File’ → ‘New Profile’.

You’ll make three changes

General

Under ‘General’: For ‘Security’ and ‘Automatically Remove Profile’, set ‘Never’:

Content Filter

Head on over to ‘Content Filter’, and click ‘Configure’. For ‘Filter Type’, select “Specific Websites only”:

Enter some of the sites you want to use. To jog your memory, here are some sites I added:

Restrictions

‘Restrictions’ are where we will disable the App Store. Click on ‘Restrictions’ → ‘Configure’.

Keep everything as it is, just uncheck ‘Allow Installing Apps’

With that, save your profile. Once we install this profile on your phone…you’re done.

6. Add your profile!

So let’s install this profile to your iPhone.

Right click your phone on Configurator, hit ‘Add’ → ‘Profiles’, pick your profile, and you’re ready to go!

When you load your phone, you should no longer see an App Store!

An on/off switch

After a while you may realize you need to install some new apps. When you want to do that, connect your phone, ‘Right click’ → ‘Remove’ → ‘Profile’

Once you remove your profile, you’re back to a restrictionless world. Make all the changes you need, and then add it back.

Fin

And with that, you have an iPhone dumbphone! I hope it’s as useful for you as it has been for me.

If you follow the instructions and have any issues or changes to make, please send me an email.