Cell Phones for Kids

With the camera, kids can take pictures of a friend and use that image as a photo caller ID. The handsets store up to 30 images and come with ten ring tones. For text messaging, kids can tap letters via the keypad or choose from simple, preset messages. Much like regular walkie-talkies, the $75 ChatNow package will include two handsets. ChatNow should be in stores this fall.

Service Plans Geared for Kids

Some folks may find ChatNow, Firefly, TicTalk, and Wherifone too toy-like and would rather go for the real thing. Enter Disney Mobile and Mattel.

Next year Disney plans to launch a wireless service using the Sprint PCS network. No doubt Disney will offer handsets and entertainment content that tout popular Disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie, and Daffy. Sprint will supply the back-end technology and Disney will handle the rest, including product development, distribution, marketing, customer relations, and billing.

My Scene Faceplates

Meanwhile, Single Touch Interactive offers handsets and prepaid phone service using Mattel's My Scene brand. The company provides a Nokia candybar-style handset and lets tweens personalize their phones by choosing one of three My Scene faceplates. Kids also get My Scene wallpapers and ring tones.

Your Call: Convenience or Headache?

Several children's advocacy groups, including Alliance for Childhood, Commercial Alert, and National Consumers League, are asking Congress to investigate the marketing of mobile phones to kids. They are concerned about children's safety, privacy, education, and health. Privacy advocates worry that pedophiles may use cell phones to contact children. They also argue that cell phones will become a vehicle for showing advertisements to children and ultimately reaching their parents' wallets.

Advocates also worry about potential health risks. The British National Radiological Protection Board, which has recently joined with the UK's Health Protection Agency, warns of the possibility that mobile phones could cause benign tumors of the ear and brain. The NRPB urges parents not to provide cell phones to children under 8 years old.

Some of the phone makers, including Enfora, market their phones to children as young as 6 years old. That's awfully young. I'm not a parent, but if I were, I would shy away from giving my kid a phone. Some parents may disagree, and the manufacturers point out that a cell phone could help kids in an emergency--which is certainly true. If you'd like to share your opinion, write to me.

Senior Associate Editor Grace Aquino taps into the world of mobile phones and services--and provides tips on how to make them work efficiently.