Auckland, New Zealand – Mobile company 2degrees and advertising agency TBWA\New Zealand have partnered to launch a new programme that teaches kids the good and bad ‘tings’ about their first phones.
The programme is designed to provide children and parents with the tools and resources to understand the risks and rewards that come with owning a phone and going online.
In this new programme, ten key things (tings) were identified as essential for first-time phone owners to learn. These things are translated into a specially designed box that unveils a new lesson on phone safety when each layer is peeled.
The box then ends with an agreement for kids and parents to support each other as they navigate changes in phone usage in the future. This unboxing experience for kids and parents is available for free at 2degrees, as the company recognises that a huge number of parents worry about their kids’ safety online when using mobile phones.
Together with the free first phone boxes, the programme also releases a track that is available on Spotify and a music video on Scrufizzer’s YouTube channel. It is a specially written grime track promoting the ‘Good Tings and Bad Tings’ about phones and online safety.
It is also accompanied by an information hub available online as well as educational content on how to use the boxes with any new phone size or any hand-me-down phones.
The programme is also backed by New Zealand-based online safety experts, Netsafe.
Dave Pearce, GM of Marketing at 2degrees, said, “As a major telco and the telco known for fighting for fairness in New Zealand, we recognised we have both a responsibility and a great opportunity to help parents and children have conversations about being safe online. I’m also a dad with kids moving into First Phones territory, so it was also an issue we were navigating at home.”
He added, “We wanted to create a programme that was easily accessible and engaging. We wanted to speak to kids on their own terms and be part of the exciting moment when a kid is handed their first phone, whether it’s new or a hand-me-down phone.”
Speaking on the programme launch, Shane Bradnick, chief creative officer at TBWA\New Zealand, also shared, “Grime is an artform that’s all about speaking the truth and is a genre that’s gaining more and more attention in New Zealand. It’s the cultural language of youth, which is why we chose to use it to spread our First Phones message to the next generation of New Zealand phone owners. We also identified that unboxing your first phone is as much of a milestone as your first day of school or driving your first car. So, being part of that unboxing moment to help kids and parents remember the 10 ‘tings’ and agreeing the right boundaries for their first phone usage is really important. THINK packaging worked with us to turn a first phone unboxing into a unique learning experience.”
“The experience teaches the ten things, provides a contract for parents and their children to agree on around their phone use, and stickers with reminders for kids to sticker bomb their tech with. This is making information that’s usually hard to discuss fun and engaging for kids and adults. I know how hard it is to get through to kids about how risky it can be out there, but it’s important that the “don’t talk to strangers” chat we all had as kids applies to the online world now too,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sean Lyons, chief online safety officer at Netsafe New Zealand, said, “With 87% of parents worrying about what their kids are viewing online, smartphone safety is a major concern. Getting your first phone is an exciting moment, but also marks a time when you’re likely to start getting unrestricted access to the internet, phone calls, and text messages. It’s critical we educate kids in a language they understand and bring parents and children together to have the right conversations about online safety at the right time, before smartphones start being used.”
