In a world where children are growing up surrounded by screens, it’s not always easy for parents to strike the right balance between safety, independence, and healthy habits. That’s where KARRI comes in, a thoughtful, tech-forward solution designed to give children the freedom they crave, without the risks of a traditional smartphone.
At the heart of KARRI is Pete, one of the founders, a parent, innovator, and believer that technology should empower families rather than overwhelm them. With a background that blends problem-solving and creativity, Pete and his team set out to build something that not only works for kids, but also brings peace of mind to parents.
We sat down with Pete to talk about his journey, the spark that started KARRI, and his vision for a healthier relationship between children and technology.
Pete, could you tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to create KARRI?
My inspiration to create KARRI was my own frustration as a parent at lack of alternatives to giving my young son a smartphone. I desperately wanted to give him more independence and freedom, in particular to be enjoying unstructured physical play outdoors with his friends “IRL”, but still wanted to have peace of mind as a parent that I could stay in touch and know where he was if there was a problem. After trying and failing to solve my challenge with smartwatches, dumbphones and even walkie-talkies, I landed-upon the concept of screen-free, asynchronous voice Messenger with a GPS tracker, integrated to a parent smartphone app and was amazed to find it didn’t exist!
What was the moment or realisation that made you think, “Something needs to change for children and technology”?
There were a few:
- Watching a young child in my neighbourhood staring down at a smartphone while crossing a busy road and not even seeming to realise he was on the phone.
- Seeing some kids in my local bakery all sat on their smartphones together and realising they were there to use the WiFi as their parents had disabled it at home.
- Watching a young child become frantic when their parents took away a tablet from them while they were playing a game.
- Seeing kids in my son’s sports team all return their smartphones between matches in a weekend tournament and stop interacting with one another.
In your own words, what makes KARRI different from a regular smartphone?
I think most parents worry about a lot of things when they consider giving a smartphone to a young child, but 4 main things stick out: the camera, the web browser, social media apps and contacts from strangers.
KARRI is different on all accounts. The KARRI Messenger has a simple display, but not a fully distracting screen and no camera. It allows kids to begin learning how to navigate in the digital world by having voice communications with their friends and parents without the visual distractions of social media or web browser content. The Messenger does not have a phone number and so cannot be contacted by strangers, all connections are requested and then approved by the parent(s). The entire experience is audio/voice based and so it’s impossible for the child to be contacted by someone unfamiliar behind a text messaging app. Nonetheless, the KARRI Messenger looks really unique and cool and is fun for the kids to use, which is different to say a “dumbphone” or cheap smartwatch.
Can you share a story from early on in KARRI’s journey that really confirmed you were on the right track?
Yes, one of our earliest families had a young child that suffered from terrible separation anxiety. He was nonetheless desperate for his own independence to do small things like walk home from school by himself, go to karate class directly from school or go to the shop with his friends. Understandably his parents did not want him to have a smartphone so early, but in giving him the KARRI, the knowledge he could exchange voice messages with his parents and friends whenever he wanted allowed him to overcome his separation anxiety and gain the independence he was so desperately seeking.
On a fun note, after spending a long time interviewing one of our earliest parent users about how his family was using the KARRI I then began speaking to his son and asked him “So why do you like your KARRI?”, to which his answer was “Because I can send my freestyle raps to my friends”.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when developing the product, and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges is that you actually have two customers, the parents and the kids. The parents need to be convinced it’s going to address the problem they have, while the kids need to want to show it off to their friends and find it fun - solving for both in parallel is challenging.
The other is the main user being a young child. Parents are looking for something affordable, not too expensive that can get lost or broken. At the same time, it needs to be “cool”, fun, drop-proof, water-proof and super-secure from a technical perspective - it’s not easy to cram all that into a price point that’s affordable for most families!
KARRI is clearly about more than just technology, it’s about values. What are the core values that guide the company?
We have two key sets.
Independence & Empowerment: We believe that technology should enable kids and not distract them. We want younger kids to learn how to be independent and communicate in a fun and safe way before entering the digital smart world
Safety & Peace of Mind: All parents want their children to enjoy a healthy degree of independence to begin finding their own way in the world. But they’re still parents and they naturally worry about their kids when they’re not with them. We believe technology should facilitate this independence without taking away parents peace-of-mind
How do you see KARRI evolving over the next few years, and what’s your ultimate vision for it?
We believe kids, parents, schools, governments and society as a whole almost everywhere in the world have begun to realise there is a surfacing issue with children having unsupervised access to internet-connected, screens-based devices. So far a lot of the reaction has been to call for bans or restrictions of differing kinds.
At KARRI we believe that this reaction is being caused by a lack of viable alternatives to address the underlying reasons parents give their children smartphones or tablets in the first place. Our vision is that KARRI is THE alternative they are all seeking.
If you could give one piece of advice to parents who are unsure about introducing tech to their children, what would it be?
The famous quote from Jonathan Haidt is “We’ve over-protected our children in the real world, while under-protecting them in the digital one” and I could not agree more.
It’s important that children are introduced to technology and the digital world as part of their childhood, but that introduction should be gradual, not overnight. A healthy and critical part of any young child’s development is independent (e.g. unsupervised), unstructured outdoor play with their friends IRL. Try to introduce tech (e.g. tablets, smartphones, apps) gradually in a way that allows them to become familiar with it, but not addicted to it.