HOMEWOOD, Ala. (WBRC) – Jenna Dorlon was scrolling through Instagram when she stopped on a colorful ad for Tin Can.
“I thought it was really interesting, so I clicked on it and read about it and realized this was the solution to a lot of my problems.”
With that solution, though, came a new, simpler yet humbling, problem: explaining to her daughters, who are 8 and 6, why their new phone had a cord and was plugged into the wall.
“When they saw it, they were like, ‘What is it?’,” laughs Dorlon.
The idea first came to Chet Kittleson when he was talking with other parents about managing their kids’ social lives.
“In that moment, I made the connection… It was sort of a spontaneous thought. When we were kids, the landline was our first social network. The kids don’t have that,” said Kittleson, CEO and Co-Founder, Tin Can.
In 1990, 95% of Americans had a landline. Now, only 13% of households with children have one, according to federal data.
“As a society we advance, it’s in our nature,” said Kittleson. “A lot of times advancement is really good. Sometimes advancement is not, and I think in the case of shedding the landline, there was a lot of beauty that came from that…But we also left something really magical behind.”
That loss was increasingly apparent to Kittleson after reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, which suggests a phone-based childhood impacts social and neurological development, and links social media use to the increased rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues among teenagers.
“I started to recognize this challenge is only going to grow because on one end, we’re trying to actually push back the age where we give a kid a cell phone. And on the other end, we don’t want our kids to be isolated. That’s not the intent of not giving them a communication device. And so, it started to feel like a very important thing.”
Kittleson and his co-founder got to work creating the first prototype of the Tin Can with an old phone from Goodwill and a laptop.
Their first customers were their neighbors in Seattle, and the first 50 phones were delivered by hand.
In less than 14 months, Tin Cans are ringing in tens of thousands of homes in every state across the country.
“I don’t think we could have predicted what it would be [like]… but it was obvious right away that we were solving a problem.”
It’s been nearly 20 years since Steve Jobs announced Apple was releasing its first iPhone. The iPad followed three years later. Shortly after the launch, Jobs told a reporter for The New York Times his kids hadn’t used the tablet.
“We limit how much technology our kids use at home,” he told the paper. Instead, his biographer said Jobs prioritized dinner with his family where history and books were often discussed.
In 2024, 75-80% of parents surveyed for Common Sense Media’s Common Sense Census, which measures how children 8 and younger use and are engaging with technology, reported being concerned about screens impact on their kids.
Even still, the survey found 40% of children had their own tablet by age 2, and nearly 25% had their own cell phone by age 8.
Pew Research Center found in 2025 that 40% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 are online almost constantly, up from 24% a decade ago, and down slightly from last year.
Another survey by Pew Research Center found teenagers’ views of the impact of social media on their peers has grown increasingly negative.
“We’ve done a lot of survey work and members of Gen Z have a lot of regrets that they grew up on phones,” said Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, in an interview with CNN. “We’ve surveyed younger members of Gen Z. They say they’d rather play outside than sit on their phones. Kids aren’t desperate for social media, [what] they’re desperate is to not be left out. And when everyone else is on social media, they feel they have to be, and that puts every family in America, every family in the world practically, into the same darn fight over it. ‘No, you can’t.’ ‘Yes, everyone else has it.'”
Haidt’s book, and its warnings about excessive screen use, led Holly Moscatiello to create The Balance Project.
“I had this realization that if we don’t change the culture, and if we don’t change the norms around this, no matter what I do in my home, it could not be enough,” said Moscatiello from her home in Little Silver, New Jersey. “This is when I said, I cannot let this happen.”
She started by reaching out to a group of parents in her neighborhood to talk about how to handle technology with their young kids. Her oldest daughter was 6 at the time. She publicized the first meeting and 60 parents showed up.
“We shared with them, you know, some of the statistics and some of the research. And then we opened it up for conversation, and we invited people to join us on the journey. This was November 2024, and very quickly, the word spread, and the community next to us wanted to be involved, and next to that wanted to be involved.”
She added, “We realized that this was something that people were yearning for and looking for. And so we very quickly kind of began doing things in our community and also setting up the foundations to broaden to other communities. Now we’re in over 170 communities across the country.”
The Balance Project encourages more “real world” play.
“A lot of our programming is centered around that, you know, creating different opportunities for different age groups to get together, play. We do play clubs. We have a mind and body wellness class that we started. We’re talking about doing some really exciting summer programming where we’re teaching kids to fish or to woodwork. And so, we are trying to bring back kind of those analog, you know, tactile ways of experiencing life to teach kids that you can get natural dopamine highs from things outside the screen. And it’s probably actually going to make you feel a lot better in the long-term and it’s healthier for your brain and your development.”
Mosctiello is seeing the impact of The Balance Project in her community through more kids biking and walking to school, parents pushing back the town norm of children getting a cell phone at the start of middle school, and kids making plans by calling each other on their Tin Cans.
“We had about 30 to 40 kids get Tin Cans for Christmas.”
Dorlon started telling her friends about the Tin Can last summer. The idea came at the right time for Carrie Pirtle, whose 7-year-old daughter Evelyn already asked for a cellphone.
“I said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s not anytime soon.’ And I just, you know, there’s so many things on the cell phone that they can’t access. I had concerns about wanting to protect her from that,” said Pirtle. “She’s just not at an age yet where she’s ready to navigate a cell phone. That’s how my husband and I feel… So, when Jenna mentioned the Tin Can, I just thought that that would be a great solution for her to be able to call and reach out to her friends.”
Caylen Bean, a mother of three, signed on too.
“My oldest is 9 and he’s ready for, he thinks he’s ready for a phone,” she said with a smile. “But even with all of the app blockers, there’s just the, if there’s another way to solve this problem… being able to be somewhat connected and feel somewhat independent before having a phone, then we’re going to keep chasing these things down to figure out, you know, what works for our family.”
“I think for a lot of us moms, especially here in Homewood and in the neighborhood, we want to be screen-free and have our kids have, you know, the experience that we had as children. And instead of, you know, FaceTiming, which is great and it’s the future, but just call them on a landline and, you know, learn how to speak to your peer, how we were taught,” said Shelley Grissom, who bought a Tin Can for her daughter in the 2nd grade. “I want to keep my child as shielded from dangers as possible. And I felt like this phone was the perfect way to do it.”
The Tin Can works off Wi-Fi. Every call in and out has to be approved by parents through the Tin Can app. Calls made Tin Can to Tin Can are free. The Party Line Plan is required to make external calls, like a parent’s cell phone.
Creator Kittleson said the phone is designed to work for kids, and Dorlon’s daughter approves.
“It’s fun because now I don’t have to ask my mom, ‘Can I call Claire, can I call Evelyn, can I make a play date or something’,” said Olivia.
Her friend Evelyn agreed the phone has simplified their lives.
“If you just call me on the Tin Can and let me know if you want to come to breakfast, we can come pick you up,” she said to Olivia.
“Before, my mom would [have to talk with Olivia’s mom] to discuss if [our plans are] okay or not.”
Sitting in Dorlon’s living room, this group of moms reflects on the difference they’ve already seen in the children with just a few weeks of Tin Can conversations.
“If my daughter comes and gets my phone to call one of her friends, and she’s going to go sit in the seat and then get distracted by something else like coloring in the notes or maybe like a YouTube or something like that,” begins Grissolm. “And I’ve seen since bringing the Tin Can, you know, in on Christmas Day, they’ve been outside more. They’ve been playing with their friends. They’ve been making play dates. We’ve been going outside. It’s been more in-person interaction than just being on your phone.”
“It’s unlocked a level of independence,” said Dorlon.
“I mean, our girls have played more together in the last week than they have, I think, ever, because of the Tin Can,” she said to Bean.
“Now they’re planning outfits and now they’re making plans to go ride scooters and meet each other in the park,” added Bean. “It’s been really fun to see that very nostalgic like piece of my childhood safely repeated for our kids today.”
“It’s funny how the world has advanced so much that we’re sitting her talking about our kids getting a landline,” said WBRC 6 News’ Morgan Hightower.
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