Cell phones for Kids, currently the cell phone is not a strange and expensive items, from small children to old people have a mobile phone. 7 years ago may still be foreign goods and not many people that have the phones.
For those of you who want to give your child the cell phone, there are several things that must be considered. Especially for safety and simplicity of the mobile phone. Allison Merlino give a review a few offers from reputable companies.
First cell phone for children is Verizon Wireless LG Migo. LG Migo has five number keys only each with an assigned person/phone number. Its physical design is suitable for tiny hands. This phone is equipped with a speaker phone option, vibrate mode and polyphonic ringtones. Notably, there is no setting to restrict incoming calls. This does give the parent a little more freedom however, to reach their child from various locations. The phone is an option for the Add a Line Family Plan at ten dollars per month. More about LG MOGO here.
Second phone, Cingular Firefly. The phone was designed for very young children. It has two symbol keys and no numeric keypad. The parent can set the cell phone to reject incoming calls from anyone but those in the phone book which they can program online. Cingular Firefly is $119.00 and the calls are 25 cents a minute unless you are a Cingular customer.
Third, Enfora Tic Talk. The Tic Talk is the most non cell phone looking cell phone of the bunch. You talk into it like you would a walkie-talkie. The phone has been criticized for being inefficient as you need to hit a couple of buttons in order to complete a call and then keep in mind not to put the phone to your ear or it makes a strange buzzing sound. it is designed specifically for voice calls omitting text messaging, email, voicemail, pictures and the web.
Here it is Allison Merlino’s suggestion. For your grade-schooler: you could purchase the LG Migo. It has a rugged design and is small for small hands. It has a couple of cool features like vibrate mode and polyphonic ringtones. And it will not restrict the parent by being blocked when calling from a non programmed number. For the preteen and older: Add a line on Verizon’s family plan for ten dollars per month, take advantage of the phone promo, purchase insurance for four dollars per month incase of loss or damage.
Nice, but I think kids grow out of these phones too fast. We just got our two kids (12 & 9) a NET10 prepaid phone each. Easy to understand, they quickly figured the phones out and have no problem with using the phones to their full capability. I don’t think kids younger than that need phones at all. The great thing about prepaid is that they can’t spend a lot accidentally and they actually learn quickly to manage their minutes. It becomes a good tool for teaching financial know-how.