New feature reduces stress and confusion in two-household families over rules for kids’ screentime and device usage
Austin, Texas (Sept. 18, 2025) – Pinwheel, best known for its popular smartphones and smartwatches for children and teens, today announced a new “Multiple Caregivers” feature that helps solve challenges for parents and kids navigating rules and permissions about tech usage at different households.
More than one in 3 (36%) U.S. children under 15 today grow up with divorced or separated parents, with many splitting time between each parent’s home. Parents’ disagreements over rules for digital device usage and screentime often leads to stress and conflict. In fact, a recent survey of Pinwheel users revealed that parents who live in different households are twice as likely to report conflicts over how to manage their child’s phone use compared to single home families. The most common areas of dispute include enforcement of screentime limits, which apps to allow, and consequences for breaking phone rules.
Pinwheel’s new feature aims to ease this tension by enabling primary parents or caregivers to grant tailored permissions to secondary parents/caregivers. This flexible approach transforms digital co-parenting from a source of conflict into a manageable system that adapts to each family’s unique needs.
Before now, parental control tools forced divorced parents to either turn over control of a child’s phone to one parent, or give both parents complete access to all phone settings. Issues may arise when one parent shuts down the child's ability to contact the other parent, allows disapproved apps, or tracks the child's location during the other parent's custody time. Some families have stepparents who are the daily managers of the child’s activities, which might cause tension with the other parent.
Instead, Pinwheel’s “Multiple Caregivers Mode” allows the primary parent to grant specific permissions to the secondary parent with three general levels of access: Edit, View, or No Access. For example, the secondary parent might be able to approve contacts but not read text messages, or set bedtime restrictions but not track location. This gives two-household families the flexibility to implement whatever digital parenting approach works for their situation—whether that's "house rules" where whoever has custody makes the decisions, or agreed-upon consistent rules across both homes.
Access to manage the child’s phone can be toggled on or off based on who has custody of the child at the moment, for example:
“From what we hear every day from Pinwheel parents, the typical cookie-cutter parent controls fail to adequately serve the reality of today’s families – a huge number of which have children splitting time between two homes. And even among these families, one size does not fit all,” said Pinwheel CEO + Founder Dane Witbeck. “Pinwheel’s Multiple Caregivers feature adapts to any co-parenting situation and can help prevent conflict before it even starts.”
About Pinwheel
Pinwheel is a leading kid-tech company that sells digital devices and services designed specifically for children and teens, including the best-selling and top-rated Pinwheel phones. Based in Austin, Pinwheel was recognized by the Inc. 5000 as one of the country’s fastest growing private companies in 2024. For more information, visit www.pinwheel.com.