Cell Phones for Kids? Help!

[Hawkeye]

As many of you know, I have a super smart 7 yr old granddaughter who is my heart. I am considering getting her a cell phone for all the right reasons. I don't want to start a bad habit but just want to be able to communicate with her and her have the ability to contact me, Nana or her parents when she needs to.

I would consider only a phone that we could control the numbers she is allowed to contact and be contacted by. It needs to be a fairly simple straight forward phone with no need for texting function, cameras and all those those other BS functions.

We currently have 4 cell phones on our AT&T family plan with unlimited minutes to which we can add another phone for $9.95 p/mo., but I'm have trouble finding a simplistic phone as described above through AT&T. I've been looking at a phone called the "FireFly".

Any opinions and thoughts would be appreciated, pro or con.

[Honey]

Hawkeye, now-a-days it is almost a safety issue for young girls to have a phone. I don't know how many times my daughter has had to call 911 or her daddy to come help her when some idiot guy or grown man was acting inappropriate around her. I am for it. And sending texts is an option for our phones-something you have to pay for separately. And on another note, my nine year old nephew has an old phone that does not have service connected to it that he uses because you can still dail 911 if he needs it.

[Fotno]

Sounds like a good idea Hawkeye.
From a safety stand point, a cell phone is a good tool to have.

[optimistik1]

http://www.fireflymobile.com/store/

The glow phone sounds more like what you wanted...
both my older grands have cell phones, but their parents chose texting...they text each other..one is 10 and one is 8.

[pooker]

I also found the Migo

Migo is made to use Verizon’s optional Chaperon service that lets parents track the phone in real time on their handset or PC. For an additional charge, parents can set up boundaries for where the child can go. If the phone leaves the designated area, a text message alert will be sent to the parent’s phone. (Only certain adult handsets are capable of using this service.)

Mrs. Laskowski said the Chaperone service worked great. “I could see where they were when they were not home and I knew they could call if there was a problem,” she told me."


It also allows speed dials

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16044093/

[threekidspa]

If you can just find a simple LG phone, you can use AT&T's 'smart talk' system. It allows you to configure the phone numbers that that unit is allowed to place calls to, as well as which numbers can call it. It's $5/month, and you can manage it over the web via your regular AT&T account page. You can turn off texting completely, or allow texting with a content filter.

It does have a couple of limitations...for example, for it to block an incoming call, the calling device must be transmitting it's caller id. Also, if you allow text messages, putting a number on the blocked list does not prevent them from sending text messages (for some reason).

Anyways, we use it on one of our kids phones, and it works pretty well. I wouldn't worry too much about the complexity of the phone....my kids have all figured out my iPhone, and I still don't have it figured out yet.

[Hawkeye]

Just wanted say thanks to all for your help. We ended up going with an inexpensive Samsung A737 the AT&T Smart Talk Plan for our little precious one. Can't wait to give it her at her birthday party this weekend. I going to time it for an incoming call from me while its still in the gift wrapping.

Little brother is going to be jealous as hell and will be wanting to flush the thing so we thot we better give he a walkie talkie set at the same time.

thx again,
hawkie talkie

[Queen Mother]

Hawk, you and Nana are great grandparents!!!!

[bpitt]

We've been toying with the idea as well. Our 8 y.o. wants one, mainly because a lot of her friends have them. I'm like, wtf? I didn't have one when I was a kid, but then again, they weren't widely available like nowadays.

I told the wife that IF we get her one, we're getting one with the gps tracking capability. That way, we'll always know where she's at, especially when she hits those teenage years, ya know?

[Hawkeye]

I have a feeling that teenagers will have the ability to get around that GPS tracking....they ain't stupid.

It's like we use to unhook the odometer cable when I was one so daddy wouldn't know how far we'd been.

[Hawkeye]

We've been toying with the idea as well. Our 8 y.o. wants one, mainly because a lot of her friends have them. I'm like, wtf? I didn't have one when I was a kid, but then again, they weren't widely available like nowadays.

I told the wife that IF we get her one, we're getting one with the gps tracking capability. That way, we'll always know where she's at, especially when she hits those teenage years, ya know?
Pitt, the GPS tracking ability was something that we really wanted and the best phone for that seems to be the LG "Migo". However, it is offered only by Verizion which is not covered in our area. In fact, as far as I can tell, AT&T/Bellsouth is the only major service provider that does not offer any phones or service with GPS tracking ability. This sucks.

I suppose we could buy into one of the pay-go plans through Verizion on the gulf coast of Jackson area but i have no idea what kind of hassle and prohibitive costs that might involve?

Any other ideas I may be overlooking?

[threekidspa]

We could try and write a custom mobile app on our own....

[bpitt]

Disney was offering a phone service with gps, but I don't think they're still doing it. At one time, Sprint was doing it, too. I had a magazine article that listed 3 companies that offered it, but the article was like 3 years old.

[bpitt]

I just checked, Disney cancelled service last year.

Here's Sprint's Family locator plan....
http://sfl.sprintpcs.com/finder-sprint-family/moreInfo.htm