How do you stay connected with your children and teenagers while also keeping them safe from predatory technology? The most basic solution is the home land line. This is a safe and reliable way to communicate, and it’s something many families are already paying for. But there are limitations. It can only be used at home, there’s no texting, and it’s easy to lose track of. And if the batteries die while you’re searching for the handset, your only hope at that point is Saint Anthony.
The flip phone or dumb phone is another option. Cheap and easy to use, there are no worries about internet access and children can utilize basic texting. What are the drawbacks? Texting is slow and clunky on a flip phone, and you have the same issue of batteries running down and someone losing the phone. And the clamshell mechanism on a flip phone is prone to breakage.
One of our friends is a policeman, and he was just telling me the other day that his sons wear smartwatches. Intrigued by this approach, I partnered with Lightspeed PR and TickTalk to give this option a test drive.
Let’s take a quick look at the TickTalk 5 Smartwatch.
TickTalk 5 is a parent-approved smartwatch built just for children. It has no social media, no games, no browser and no content streaming. Instead, it offers useful features like GPS tracking, 2-way video calls, encrypted messaging, and a myriad of parental controls.
The Watch
There’s an obvious advantage to having your child’s communication device on his wrist; he’s much less likely to lose it! The TickTalk 5 has a durable build and comes in four stylish colors. The unit is blocky and a bit heavy, so it’s not comfortable on my younger children with their skinny little wrists. It fits my 12 and 14 year olds just fine, and they are main ones who use it.
Performance
Overall, coverage has been great, and we’re even in a rural area. We haven’t skated by without any quirks and hiccups, though. There appears to be a lag between my notifications (“you have a message”) and my receipt of texts. It’s by no means instant like my smart phone. We also discovered, after having the voice-to-text feature quit working completely, that we have to reboot the watch every day for a fresh start. Odd, but doable.
Like most technology solutions for children, parents must install an app on their end. To further protect children, TickTalk also requires that anyone who wants to text your child must also install the app and set up an account.* Some will find this an inconvenience. Or, if they use a flip phone or dumb phone with no app capabilities, they are out of luck. This is the case with their older brother who has a Gabb phone; they can’t text him at all using the TickTalk smartwatch.
The battery life on this smartwatch is superb and the cute little charger works fast to get the watch all ready to go again.
Oh, and it has a free iHeart radio family plan. My children were so excited about this feature; we are big music lovers!
* As of November 4, 2025, TickTalk has lifted the embargo! This update allows users to send and receive SMS text messages to or from any cellphone, even if friends or family don’t have the TickTalk app installed.
Customer Service
As of now, there’s no online chat option with TickTalk. That’s the quickest and easiest way to get help when you’re in a bind, so I hope they’ll add this in the future. You can email, or try their phone number, but sometimes you have to leave a message if there’s no one to answer the phone. But everyone I’ve reached out to has been kind, helpful and patient, and all of our questions have been answered promptly.
Plans
TickTalk is a very affordable option. You can choose:
- Basic Plan for $9.99 per month with 1GB of data, 1,000 minutes, and unlimited texts OR
- Unlimited Plan for $19.99 per month with unlimited data, minutes, and texts.
How to Get Started
If you’d like to try TickTalk for your family, there’s an excellent sale going on right now!
- TickTalk 5 + Power Base Bundle
- MSRP $159.99 → Sale Price $127.99
- Automatic Savings for Prime Shoppers of 20% OFF
- TickTalk 5 Accessories
- Automatic Savings for Prime Shoppers of 20% OFF
- TickTalk 5 + Power Base Bundle
- MSRP $174.99 → Sale Price $127.99
- 20% Off ($32 Savings) with coupon code: PRIME20
- TickTalk 5 Accessories
- Automatic Savings of 20% OFF
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