The Be a Good Dad blog has made a very thoughtful response to my Cellphones and Children post, and in fact disagrees with me on one of the points I made.
Be a Good Dad contends that SMS text messaging won’t ruin a child’s spelling and grammar skills, and will in actuality help them know when to write with slang and when to write formally. This is an interesting argument, and if a careful eye is placed on children, could indeed work. As a side note, Be a Good Dad seems like a very good blog for fathers to read, so be sure to check it out.
Someone should introduce Be a Good Dad to the Firefly and Migo handsets though, as well as other available handsets for kids, as they answer almost all the features the article requests in a handset for kids.
Thanks for mentioning my site.
I’ve heard of the Firefly. My kids are 3, so I have a few years until I have to worry about it. One of the things I don’t like about those kid targetted phones is they never have the ability to be turned into real phones. If I had a 10-12 year old that I wanted a scaled down phone but new that in a year or two I would be okay with them having a real phone, I would be hesitant to buy anything. I want something like a V-Chip for cell phones, I guess. Does anything like that exist yet?
I know that most people replace their phone about every two weeks, but I keep my phones for quite a while. The one I’m using now is about 4 years old and will only get replaced when I lose it or get the freebie when I renew my contract.
I think the Disney Mobile handsets would fit you better, as they can be limited, but can be used as regular handsets as well. It might depend on whether or not your kids like the cutesy Disney designs though.
I guess using as many phones as I do, I forget that some people like to keep them for a while