Mums claims ‘Grayscale’ trick puts your kids off from using your phone

IT IS almost inevitable that your children will eventually have a smart phone, but for parents hoping to keep their kids screen free for longer there is a genius hack.

Australian parenting site Mamamia recommends switching your own phone to Grayscale to make it less appealing to youngsters – and adults too.

By switching your phone to 'grayscale' you could put your children off wanting to play with it — By switching your phone to ‘grayscale’ you could put your children off wanting to play with it

Go Gray is hoping to reduce people’s phone ‘addictions’ by making their mobiles completelely black and white.

The company explains: “Grayscale mode makes your phone less addicting. Go from bright and shiny to gray and calming.

“It’s like turning your favourite dessert into your least favourite vegetable.”

The parenting site featured the tip on podcast Mamamia Out Loud and many mums were quick to compliment the tip.

Go Gray says that switching your phone to a black and white setting makes it less appealing to children and adults

One listener commented: “My kids’ interest in my devices has also dropped dramatically!”

Another added: “I think it’s very effective for the scrolling and have made the shortcut so I can quickly turn back to colour to check my Whatsapp etc.

“And yesterday at swimming lessons my youngest asked to look at my phone, saw the colour and said “it’s broken” and gave it back! So that’s a win.”

Parents who have tried the trick say their children have significantly lost interest

Adults have also found it equally effective with one Reddit user writing: “I’ve been doing this a month now and my phone usage has dropped dramatically. It’s back to being a tool and not a reward system.”

IPhone users can activate Gray Scale by going to Settings, General, Accessibility, Display Accomodations.

From there turn on colour filters and switch to ‘grayscale’ which will turn all apps and photos black and white.