OUR STORY
TOVI began in a family, not as a product category.
We are parents who have always leaned towards giving our children more freedom and more time for real life — friends, movement, boredom, nature and their own thoughts. TOVI is a continuation of that thinking.
Why it became personal
No family can solve this alone.
At home you can restrict apps and screen time. But when friendships and conversations move into apps your child isn't part of, restricting can also mean leaving them outside the group. It is a genuinely hard parental dilemma — and not one a single family can solve.
Algorithms are powerful even for adults. If we find it hard to resist products designed to hold our attention, it is unrealistic to expect perfect self-control from children. That is not a reason to blame anyone — it is a reason to build better environments.
When the same rule applies to everyone, no child has to choose between their phone and belonging to the group.
A summer place on an island
An island where the signal barely reached.
At our family's summer place on an island, phone reception was weak to nonexistent when we were growing up. At the time it didn't feel like anything special. Only later have we understood how valuable it was that, for long stretches, there was simply no reason to look at a screen.
The cliffs, the sea and the long days did what a good environment always does: life happened elsewhere. There is something of that same idea in TOVI — not a ban, but a place where the phone isn't needed.
Our mission
Time for real life.
We want to give children back time for real life — friends, movement, boredom, nature, conversation, imagination and their own thoughts.
We don't want to decide for other families how phones should be used. We want to make one thing easier: creating times and places where phones simply don't need to be used.
At school, a shared rule means no one is the only one without a phone. Everyone puts it away on the same terms — and together, it's easy.
Finland and Europe
The same question is now on many minds.
We were thinking about this as parents before the debate gathered pace. Finland has now given schools clearer authority — and responsibility — to restrict phone use during the school day. Across Europe, countries and regions are moving in the same direction towards more phone-free schools. The question is no longer whether something should be done, but how to do it well.
That's why TOVI exists.
TOVI School helps schools keep the day phone-free with a shared rule — without anyone being left out.
Tovi is a Finnish word for a little while — and a little while is all we ask.