Ovo launches new budget phone plan for kids

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Just when you thought phone plans couldn't get any cheaper, OVO Mobile has launched a new kid-friendly plan for the astonishingly low price of $9.95 a month.

OVO was launched earlier this year with a focus on bring-your-own phone plans and a video streaming service dedicated to Australian sports.

It's an interesting combination and connects well with OVO's low-cost, high-value mobile plans - though none of the other plans has been as cheap as the new $9.95 offer.

For your money your get 1GB of data, which should be enough for kids to get on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. There's also unlimited SMS messages.

As for calls, OVO includes $200 value, though this may not go very far.

An average two-minute call costs $2.38, so $200 will fall short of the month in the life of a chatterbox, you'd think.

It is a prepaid plan, meaning that you won't be slugged with excess usage charges - you just can make calls or use data until you've topped up the account.

This will protect your hip pocket, but it might also be worth considering a plan with unlimited calls to make sure that your kids can always get through to you.

Vaya is another of the tiny telcos and offers unlimited calls and SMS, plus 1GB of data, for $15 a month.

Perhaps most interesting is that OVO has partnered with a company called Family Zone to offer customers who choose the new Mini plan free access to a service that aims to protect kids from harmful information online.

Similar to Net Nanny from years past, a Family Zone app installed on a teenager's phone gives parents the option to block specific websites, limit access to certain apps and cut off purchases from the app store.

Parents can also block use of the camera, restrict YouTube videos and even set bed times that halt phone use after hours.

Kids will hate it; parents will love it.

And when Family Zone is paired with a phone plan costing just $9.90 a month, it's a great option to consider for youngsters who find a new phone under the tree this Christmas.

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Joe Hanlon is the editor of WhistleOut.