According to recent surveys, more parents are considering getting their children mobile phones for safety reasons. Mobile phone companies have also seen this growing market, selling kid-friendly wireless phones to busy parents for them to stay connected with their children. These phones are mostly aimed at "tweens" or kids between 8 to 12 years old.
Some mobile phones are designed for younger kids, with easy-to-use features and toy-like designs. Others work like a two-way radio, where kids can keep in touch with their parents and friends within a two-mile radius. Most phones basically allow parental control over the handset’s incoming and outgoing calls.
While most would feel weary of giving their child his own mobile phone, the kiddie cellphone packages provided by mobile phone companies mostly keep the parents from worrying too much about their kid’s whereabouts. They have the option of choosing from a range of practical features that they can activate in their kid’s mobile, while not stressing about breaking their budgets.
The following are the best kid-friendly mobile phones in the market today, as tried and tested by both child and parent. Most of the parental control of these phones are programmable over the internet. Parents can choose which calls could go through and assign which phone numbers their kids can dial and receive. Some of these phones also have GPS features where parents can set boundaries to the places where the child can go and easily locate their kid’s phone online.
Cingular Firefly. One of the first cellphones made especially for kids, the Firefly is the less complicated among kiddie mobile phones. The phone’s interface is limited to a few keys that even 5-year old tots can easily figure out how to use it. There are two programmable buttons, one that has a picture of a man and one of a woman. Parents don’t have to worry about outgoing calls as there’s no keypad. There’s also an added visual feature of on-screen animations and playful ring tones that the child can choose from.
TicTalk. This gadget looks more like a stopwatch than a mobile phone. The TicTalk doesn’t have any buttons and instead uses a rocker switch for scrolling through numbers and then pushing in to dial. Designed for kids of ages 6 and up, this cool phone also comes loaded with five educational LeapFrog games that any kid would sure get the hang of.
Disney Mobile. This phone caters to the older, stylish "tweens" as it is actually an LG flip phone. Compared to the other kiddie phones, the Disney Mobile is the real phone of the bunch as it isn’t made of plastic and doesn’t appear too rugged and toy-like. It is fully-equipped with a colored screen display, VGA camera with flash, and camcorder. Games can be downloaded and ring tones and screen displays can be customized to your kid’s liking. The phone also has voice-dialing features.
Verizon Migo. Like the Firefly, this bright green phone also has a simple interface which kids can easily understand. There are five programmable speed-dial buttons in front and when the child presses one of these buttons, a question pops up on the screen to ask if he wants to call home or call mom’s cell. Pushing the send button will automatically make the call. What the child only needs to memorize is which number would correspond to whom.
