Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Best Cell Phone for Young Kids

Just think of this scenario. Your kid has been bugging you all day and night for their own cellular phone, but you are apprehensive since, well, they are kids. Nevertheless, you cannot deny the fact that cell phones are indeed a good way of keeping in touch with your kids and keeping track of them when you are out. They can also prove to be highly invaluable when emergency happens within the family.

On the other hand, cell phones can mean responsibility. They have to keep track of their phone and need to be very mindful of any allotted minutes. They should also stay away from any expensive add-ons like swapping images or text messaging.

The Firefly phone can be the simplest phone that you may probably encounter. There are no keypads, no cameras, no MP3 players, and no video playback. Who needs them anyway? Instead, your kid will be treated to an almost candy-bar style. It is highly compact and very lightweight, which makes it perfect to your kid’s pocket or kiddie bag. Also included in the package are a backpack clip and a lanyard.

The monochrome display is very small, so if your kids are having eyesight problems, you might give the phone an initial test run. The screen also shows the battery life, time, date, caller ID, and signal strength. And despite being a very small and limited phone, there are still a wide variety of choices when it comes to style. By default, the phone comes with its very cool see-through case. But you can also choose other extra color skins which you can purchase through Firefly.

What makes Firefly an ultimate kiddie phone is the kind of control parents can have over their children through their phone. The phone book, for example, can contain as much as 20 contacts, not to mention the designated numbers for both Mom and Dad. So for your kids not to go into a calling frenzy, you can protect the phone book and the call-screening function with a PIN. This means that when call screening is active, your kid can only receive phone calls from numbers that are stored only in their phone book—no unknown number can contact them. No numbers can be added to the phone book unless you enter the PIN, and even if the phone is capable of displaying a missed calls and call timers list, your kid cannot accept any voice mailbox messages.

Aside from these, the phone is practically barebones. There are no organizer and messaging applications, yet Firefly tries to compromise this with other functionalities. For example, you can choose from a wide variety of colors for backlights as well as screen animations. You can also activate the light while you are charging the phone. There are 12 monophonic ringtones which you can designate for every contact in your phone book, including those of Mom’s and Dad’s. Your child will definitely enjoy the varying lights sparkling every time the phone rings.
It may not be easy to teach responsibility to kids, but a Firefly phone can help you out. And with a price of $100, it is definitely worth every buck.


Milafel Hope Awe is a writer, copy editor, SEO specialist, and entrepreneur. She is currently sharing cell phone reviews and cell phone accessories at Cell Phone Review.

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