Barnluren - Press

About Barnluren

Barnluren is a private phone network designed specifically for children. Founded in Stockholm in 2025 by Greg Chrystall and Ivan Soltic, it gives children aged 5 and up their own landline phone at home — connected only to contacts their parents approve. Family members anywhere in the world use a free app to call and receive calls. The network is fully closed: no connection to the public phone system, no internet access, no screen.

Barnluren was born from a simple frustration: children today have lost the phone independence that earlier generations took for granted. The family landline disappeared, and nothing replaced it. Barnluren is that replacement — a private voice network that gives children the tools to build real social relationships, without a smartphone.

Key facts

Founded: 2025, Stockholm
Team: 2 co-founders
Product: Private voice network for children — closed network, parent-controlled contacts, no Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connection
Mission: Improve childhood.
Market: Sweden (expanding to EU)
Status: Pioneer beta
Company: Barnluren 555 AB (Org.nr: 559480-7827)
Website: barnluren.com

Founder quotes

The following quotes may be used freely in press coverage.

"It's the first thing I've built where the user is someone I tuck in at night, and that changes how you build."
— Greg Chrystall, Co-founder

"We will never compete for your child's attention. A thirty-second call to plan a play in the park is a success."
— Barnluren

"I want my child to grow up in a world that hasn't outsourced its attention to a screen, and that doesn't treat children as commercial beings to be exploited."
— Ivan Soltic, Co-founder

The story

Barnluren started when co-founder Greg Chrystall tried to help his eight-year-old daughter arrange a playdate with a school friend. What should have been a simple phone call turned into a chain of messages between four parents across two countries. He realised that when smartphones replaced landlines, children lost the ability to make independent social connections — the kind of everyday phone calls that earlier generations took for granted. He tried buying a regular landline, but they no longer exist in a meaningful way. So he paused his AI startup and built one. Three months later, his daughter was making her first calls on the Barnluren network.

Press releases

Barnluren launches Pioneer Beta Program

April 2026

Swedish startup Barnluren invites 10 families to pioneer a private phone network for children

Stockholm, April 2026 — Barnluren, a Swedish startup building a private voice network for children, today opened applications for its Pioneer Beta Program. The company is seeking 10 families to be the first to introduce Barnluren to their communities.

Each selected pioneer will receive 10 Barnluren devices to distribute among connected families — children in the same school class or friend group. The program is designed to validate whether a network of children using simple landline phones can build the kind of independent social connections that disappeared when the family landline was replaced by smartphones.

"Somewhere along the way, we threw the baby out with the bathwater," says co-founder Greg Chrystall. "Children lost the ability to pick up a phone and call a friend. Barnluren is how we give that back."

The pioneer program is free for three months, including the device. Barnluren is a closed private network — no connection to the public phone system, no internet access, and no ability for anyone not on the parent-approved contact list to reach a child. Family members use a free iOS or Android app to call and receive calls.

The program comes as Sweden prepares to implement a national school phone ban in August 2026, and amid growing international momentum to delay children's smartphone access. Grassroots movements such as Ki-DS (Sweden) and Smartphone Free Childhood (UK) now represent hundreds of thousands of parents across dozens of countries.

Barnluren was founded in 2025 in Stockholm by Greg Chrystall and Ivan Soltic. The company designs its own hardware and firmware and is working with Mitac AB to manufacture devices in Sweden.

Families can apply to the Pioneer Beta Program at barnluren.com/pioneer.

Press contact: [email protected]