On August 21, 2025, Human Mobile Devices (HMD)—the company best known for revitalizing the Nokia phone brand—unveiled a device that could mark a turning point in digital parenting: the HMD Fuse. Billed as the world’s first smartphone built specifically for children and equipped with AI-powered content blocking, the Fuse is designed to shield young users from the internet’s darker corners, particularly sexually explicit imagery, while giving parents unprecedented control over their child’s mobile experience.
At the core of the Fuse’s promise is HarmBlock+, an artificial intelligence technology from British safety tech company SafeToNet. Unlike traditional parental control apps that can be bypassed or disabled, HarmBlock+ is woven directly into the phone’s operating system. According to Bhaskar English, this AI was “ethically trained on over 22 million harmful images” and works entirely offline, blocking nude content in real time across all apps and even within livestreams. “HarmBlock+ can’t be removed, tricked, or worked around—it just protects every time, across every app, including VPNs, with zero loopholes,” emphasized Richard Pursey, founder of SafeToNet, in a statement to the press.
The Fuse’s launch comes at a moment when concerns about children’s online safety are at an all-time high. In Australia, a looming federal ban on social media for users under 16 has sparked heated debate about the dangers of digital platforms. Research cited by HMD and reported by Gizmodo Australia paints a stark picture: 32% of Australian children aged 8 to 15 have been shown sexual or violent content on social media or messaging apps, and nearly half (49%) said they felt scared or upset by what they encountered. The country’s eSafety Commissioner found that 74% of children aged 10 to 17 have been exposed to harmful content online.
The Fuse is HMD’s answer to these anxieties. Rather than simply blocking websites or apps, the device aims to be “nudity incompatible”—it prevents children from viewing, sharing, or even capturing explicit images, regardless of the source. In a pre-launch demonstration, attempts to access nude images via web browser, messaging app, or even the phone’s camera were instantly stopped by a full-screen warning that could only be dismissed by leaving the content. “This is the first step in rewriting the rulebook on family tech,” said James Robinson, Vice President of HMD Family, in the company’s announcement. “We’re not just giving kids access to technology; we’re teaching them how to navigate it safely.”
The Fuse isn’t just about blocking content; it’s also about giving parents a toolkit for gradual, guided digital independence. Out of the box, the phone operates in what HMD calls “brick phone” mode: it can make calls, send texts, and be tracked for location, but little else. As children mature and demonstrate responsibility, parents can unlock additional features—messaging apps, web browsers, streaming services, and even social media—step by step through a modular operating system. “Every step is a conversation between parent and child. And HarmBlock+ is there the entire time, quietly protecting in the background,” Robinson explained to Bhaskar English.
Parental management is granular. Parents can remotely approve or block app installations, control who the child can communicate with, and monitor the device’s whereabouts. The phone user can only call and receive calls from pre-saved contacts, making it nearly impossible for strangers to reach the child. According to tech expert Trevor Long, quoted by 9News Australia, “This is a great smartphone, great camera, great screen, the difference is the apps installed aren’t accessible to the child.”
Of course, all of this comes at a price. In Australia, the HMD Fuse retails for $799 AUD, with a 12-month subscription to HarmBlock+ included. After the first year, the ongoing subscription costs $26.95 to $28 per month, depending on the market. In the UK, Vodafone is the exclusive launch partner, offering the device at £33 per month with a £30 upfront fee, and plans are in place to expand availability to Australia through retailers like Harvey Norman and Officeworks, as well as Optus in the near future.
The phone’s hardware is equally robust, featuring a 6.56-inch 720p display, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset—the same as the company’s $499 Fusion model, albeit with slightly less memory and storage. It boasts a 5,000mAh battery with up to 33W wired charging, a 108MP main rear camera, a 50MP front lens for selfies, and even a classic 3.5mm headphone jack. The Fuse ships with Android 15 and promises two years of operating system updates and three years of security patches. In a nod to sustainability, the packaging includes two “outfits”—one casual and one with a foldable LED ring for better-lit selfies—both made from recycled TPU.
The launch has generated both praise and skepticism in the tech world. Alex Kidman of Alex Reviews Tech noted, “The $799 HMD Fuse’s big selling point is that it includes a subscription to a service that claims it’ll block all nudity—not just outright ‘adult material,’ but nudity, period—from phones, in order to protect younger users.” While acknowledging the innovation, Kidman and other commentators raised concerns about the ongoing subscription cost and the lack of notifications for parents about blocked content, which could hinder open conversations between parents and children about digital risks. “Nudity is not always automatically tied to sexuality and even for those parents who do want that kind of service, the fact that there’s an ongoing subscription cost and a lack of notifications is highly problematic in terms of ongoing discussions around these issues with your offspring,” Kidman wrote.
Still, the HMD Fuse arrives as a response to an urgent need. A 2024 survey by HMD found that one in five secondary-school-aged children (11–17) have felt pressured to share explicit images, often leading to emotional distress and cases of images being distributed without consent. By making a device that is “safe by design,” HMD hopes to give parents peace of mind as their children take their first steps into the digital world. “We’ve created not just a new phone, but a new category—now you have peace of mind that there’s protection in place even when you can’t be there,” Robinson said.
Whether the Fuse’s approach becomes the new standard for children’s smartphones remains to be seen. But in a world where digital threats are growing more sophisticated and children are getting online younger than ever, HMD’s bold gamble on AI-powered protection is likely to spark conversation—and competition—across the tech industry.
For families navigating the complex intersection of technology and childhood, the Fuse offers a new, if imperfect, tool—one that could help parents and children alike learn to navigate the online world a little more safely.
