Parents grapple with the modern day question of whether to give their kids phones for staying in contact and keeping tabs on their whereabouts, while also navigating the realities of too much screen time and shielding them from the corrosive effects of social media.
AT&T just introduced its own answer, the AmiGo Jr. Phone, a Samsung smartphone with an AmiGo app that applies parental controls at the device level. Parents use an AT&T AmiGo app on their iOS or Android phone to manage apps, settings and screentime limits on the kid's phone; the AmiGo software works only with this AmiGo Jr. Phone.
The AmiGo Jr. is a Samsung Galaxy A16 phone with a 6.7-inch display, 128GB of storage and a 5,000 mAh battery. It has a trio of cameras on the back: a 50-megapixel main camera, 5-megapixel ultrawide camera and 2-megapixel macro camera. The phone is available only in black.
The phone is available now online at AT&T, in AT&T stores and via the MyAT&T app, and priced at $3 a month for a 36-month contract. Parents also need to purchase an unlimited data line on their phone plan for the phone starting at $61 a month, plus pay a $35 activation fee.
Offering an inexpensive older camera for a child's use isn't new -- it's how parents often set up devices for kids. The Galaxy A16 was released in January 2025. What makes the AmiGo Jr. different is the AmiGo app implementing parental controls at the device level under Android 16, according to an AT&T spokesperson. Beyond the parental control features offered in Android, the AmiGo software adds Safe Zones that generate alerts when the phone has entered or exited them and a School Mode for restricting features during times when their attention should be focused away from the screen.
"After extensive, candid conversations with parents, we heard a clear message: This isn't just a device decision -- it's a deeply personal one about trust, safety and staying connected," said Erin Scarborough, AT&T senior vice president of revenue management and commercialization, in a statement. "Creating a kid's phone was the natural and overdue next step for us."
The company cited the fact that 40% of its current customers are parents as incentive to develop the AmiGo Jr. Phone. And based on its own research, 60% of parents of kids up to age 12 consider a smartphone to be a safety essential.
Building phones for kids is not a novel concept; CNET's Katie Collins looked at the HMD Fusion X1 at last year's Mobile World Congress, for example. And system-based parental controls have also become more robust in recent years, even as a recent study suggests that parents should wait until the age of 13 to give their kids a phone.
Also available now is the AT&T AmiGo Jr. Watch 2, a more durable smartwatch that ties into AT&T's AmiGo system.
