Reading time: 11 minutes | Updated: 6th August 2025
Choosing the best SIM-only deal for a child or teenager in your family requires careful consideration. Their needs are often very different from an adult's. Beyond searching for a cheap SIM-only deal for kids, you will also want peace of mind regarding safety and spending.
Our comprehensive guide at SIM-Only Finder will help you examine the options, from prepaid SIMS for kids to more flexible mobile plans for teenagers. We have gathered together some of the most child-friendly SIM deals currently available, which offer essential features like capped limits to prevent overspending, strong parental control options, and family SIM plans for convenience.
Whether you need a basic first-time PAYG SIM or a mobile plan with data usage control for kids and younger teenagers, we have broken down the best choices to ensure you find a safe SIM for kids that perfectly fits your family's needs.
Great Value SIMs for Young Users
Value often comes at the top of the list when considering the perfect SIM only for children. You want an affordable SIM for kids without compromising essential features. Here are some of the best budget options, offering a fantastic combination of value and flexibility.
Smarty - Simplicity Meets Affordability
Smarty consistently offers some of the most competitive and cheap SIM-only plans for kids on the market. These no-contract, 30-day SIM cards are ideal for those who prefer flexibility. As a network powered by Three, Smarty provides strong coverage and premium features like Wi-Fi Calling and VoLTE.
A standout offering is their 'data discount' plans, which actually refund you for any data your children don't use. This is a great way to ensure you only pay for what your child uses, without paying a flat rate for data they don't use.
Smarty also includes standard parental control features. If the data runs out, access ceases until the next billing cycle, or you can purchase well-priced add-ons, which allow you to stay in control of spending and eliminate the risk of unexpected high data charges.
iD Mobile - Rollover Data and Spending Control
iD Mobile uses the Three network and presents another excellent choice for children's phone deals, particularly with its data rollover feature. This feature means that any unused data left over from one month will automatically carry over to the next, which is helpful for kids whose data usage can fluctuate.
All iD Mobile plans also come with Bill Capping, a crucial feature that provides you with a SIM with set spending limits, ensuring no surprise bills. Content filtered SIM options are easily enabled via your account, adding another layer of parental control for safe mobile network usage.
Sky Mobile - Flexible Plans and Extended Data Rollover
Sky Mobile (running on O2's reliable network) is a good choice for those looking for a SIM deal that offers exceptional flexibility. Its data rollover feature allows unused data to accumulate for up to a year. This makes it an ideal first-time SIM only for children with varying data needs, with heavy use one month, followed by a quiet month with little use.
Another good feature for parents is that this rolled-over data can be shared among family members on a family SIM plan, offering incredible value for multi-SIM deals for families with more than one child who needs a phone.
While these plans have a 12-month term, you can adjust allowances up or down as needed, making it one of the most adaptable kids' mobile phone plans available. It is ideal if you have two or more children of varying ages with different phone needs. Like the others mentioned here, Sky Mobile offers optional parental controls and spending caps, ensuring children have a safe, monitored SIM.
Secure SIM Options for Prioritising your Peace of Mind
The primary concerns for many parents when choosing a SIM are ensuring their child's safety and managing their digital exposure. These child-friendly SIM deals come equipped with parental control features, making them ideal for a child's first phone or safe mobile plans for teenagers.
ParentShield - The Ultimate Child-Specific Network
ParentShield is a mobile network designed exclusively for children, primarily targeting ages 6-12 but suitable for broader use. It's 'Roaming SIMs' combine the coverage of every UK network, ensuring your child always connects to the strongest signal available.
You can block all anonymous calls coming through, or customise call blocking to specific numbers. Importantly, 'home numbers' can be called or texted even when the available minutes or texts have run out, acting as an essential emergency call SIM.
A valuable feature is that all calls and texts can be recorded for review, and you receive alerts for concerning messages or new contacts. With spending controls and time controls, you can decide when the phone can be used (though emergency services and home numbers remain accessible).
While ParentShield's plans are not the cheapest kids' SIM-only options, they are without a doubt the most feature-packed option available for keeping children safe.
EE's 'Safer SIMs' - Designed for Under 18s
EE has taken a significant step by introducing mobile plans tailored explicitly for under-18s. These Safer SIMs are 30-day rolling plans (some available as Pay As You Go SIMS for kids), all featuring content-filtered controls of varying strictness, scam call protection, and unlimited calls and texts.
Data allowances are capped at 10GB, with options for lower limits and even low-speed data, which is a deliberate feature to help limit excessive streaming if this concerns you. Stay Connected Data means kids retain basic data access even after their allowance runs out, ensuring they can always stay in touch and reach you in an emergency.
These EE kids SIMs provide the most advanced child-safe mobile network features from a major UK provider. (Note: These plans are set to launch in August 2025.)
Tesco Mobile - Default Child Filters and Capped Contracts
Tesco Mobile is powered by O2's very reliable network, making it another excellent choice for parents who consider network coverage a good safety feature. By default, all users on Tesco Mobile plans have content access restricted to under-18s. This child-safe setting can only be overridden by verifying age using a credit card.
Tesco Mobile also offers flexible capped SIM-only deals with spending limits, which you can easily set up during purchase or at any time thereafter, to help prevent your children from running up unexpected bills. If you are struggling to manage multiple SIM cards, Tesco Mobile also provides family SIM plans with monthly perks, which add further value and convenience for multi-SIM deals for families.
Entertainment-Focused SIMs for Young People
For older kids and teenagers who love to stream and stay connected, certain SIM-only deals for children offer fantastic perks designed around entertainment use. These are excellent mobile plans for teenagers because they provide plenty of data to run popular apps while offering peace of mind for parents.
Vodafone - Bundled Entertainment and Flexibility
Vodafone's SIM-only plans include subscriptions to popular services like YouTube Premium, Disney+, or Amazon Prime on select tariffs. This makes them an excellent choice when choosing a child-friendly deal to keep kids entertained with shows and films without impacting their core data allowance. If you prefer your kids to get less screen time, opt for a plan without these bundles at a lower cost.
Vodafone also offers unlimited data plans and flexible 30-day SIMs, which are ideal if you prefer to choose a no-contract SIM for kids (though these shorter plans do not include entertainment subscriptions). Optional spending caps and content-filtered features are available, giving parents excellent data usage control for kids.
VOXI - For Unlimited Social, Video, and Music
VOXI is powered by Vodafone's 5G network, which is a fantastic option for data-heavy teenage users. Many of their kids' SIM plans include 'Unlimited Social Media' on popular platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, meaning usage on these apps doesn't count towards the data allowance.
Select plans also offer 'Unlimited Video' for services like YouTube and Netflix and 'Unlimited Music' for Spotify and Apple Music, ensuring your child can stream freely. VOXI also provides parental control options and capped SIM-only deals; if data runs out, you must manually purchase an add-on or wait for the plan to refresh. Parents like this option because it prevents unexpected bills and makes it a safe SIM option for kids who like to stay connected.
Essential Factors for Choosing Your Child's SIM
Selecting the right SIM-only deal for children goes beyond finding the cheapest option. A truly child-friendly deal balances affordability with essential safety features and data limits designed to give you peace of mind. Here are the key considerations to think about when choosing SIM-only deals for teenagers or when selecting a first-time SIM for children.
Spending Caps and Budgeting for Managing Expenditure:
A spending cap is one of the most important features to look for in a kids' SIM plan. Setting a maximum spend limit is invaluable for preventing your child from accidentally racking up significant data bills. Some networks offer these capped SIM-only deals by default, providing immediate protection, while others require you to activate them manually.
Unfortunately, some networks do not offer this option at all, so it is worth taking the time to check the terms and conditions for a deal before you commit. For a truly safe SIM for kids, choosing one with spending limits you can set yourself is essential to ensure no overspending on data. This helps you maintain a fair balance of data for your children and keeps costs under control.
Parental Controls for Ensuring Safety:
For many parents, particularly those with younger children experiencing their first-ever phones, parental control features are non-negotiable. A number of networks now offer basic controls, such as blocking adult content, to create a more child-safe mobile network environment.
Beyond network-level filters, consider setting up controls within app stores (Google Play Store or Apple App Store) to help prevent in-app purchases. Some providers offer a more strictly monitored SIM option for children with call blocking features, content filtering options, and even SIMs that come with built-in time controls, allowing you to manage how and when their phone is used. This valuable feature can give you peace of mind that your child isn't accessing the internet at night when they are supposed to be asleep.
Understanding Usage Allowances:
Parents often struggle to determine the right amount of data and minutes when buying SIM cards for kids for the very first time. If the phone is primarily used for entertainment—streaming YouTube or Netflix—and much of this usage occurs away from home, a higher data allowance of 15GB or more might be necessary.
However, if the main purpose is for them to stay in touch and keep them safe while away from home, a significantly smaller data allowance should suffice. While you will still need some data for messaging apps like WhatsApp, 3-4GB is often plenty and can help limit screen time exposure if this is a concern for you. It may be worth considering a SIM-only deal with no data for very young children who only need emergency call capabilities.
Pay Monthly vs. Pay As You Go Payment Flexibility:
Choosing between a Pay-Monthly or pay-as-you-go SIM for kids depends on your priorities and available budget. Pay-monthly plans generally offer better value and often include extras not found on pay-as-you-go options.
Opting for a 30-day Pay Monthly plan with a spending cap provides similar flexibility and protection against overspending as a Pay As You Go option. However, for strict control, choosing a Pay As You Go plan offers total control over your child's usage and spending, as they can only use what is topped up. The main drawback of this option is the risk of them running out of credit and being unable to contact you in an emergency, and these plans are typically more expensive per MB or minute.
Contract Length Commitment Levels:
Consider the SIM-only contract length that best suits your needs. If you want to trial run a SIM option or are unsure about choosing the ideal allowances, 30-day flexible SIM deals for kids are excellent. This provides the freedom to adjust or cancel as needed easily. However, 12-month or longer contracts often offer more affordable options for better long-term value for children.
Data Rollover for Maximising Data: While not universally offered by all providers, choosing SIMs that offer data rollover can be incredibly beneficial, especially if your child's data usage varies month to month. Networks like Sky Mobile excel here, allowing unused data to be banked for up to a year without loss and even allowing for sharing on family SIM plans.
Alternatively, some networks, like Smarty (on select plans), offer a unique approach by refunding you for unused data rather than rolling it over. This adds another layer of value, especially if cost is a concern. This ensures that the data you pay for is not wasted.
Family Plans offer Convenience and Savings:
If you already manage multiple mobile accounts for your family members, exploring family SIM plans is worthwhile because they can be incredibly convenient. Many networks allow you to add a child to a mobile plan; some even offer discounts or perks when you add their SIM to your existing account.
Choosing a family plan can make billing easier (one bill for family mobiles) and potentially lead to multi-SIM deals for families that offer more value for money than buying individual SIMs. While it might mean aligning your child's network with your own, the benefits of convenience and potential cost savings can be significant.
