July 24th, 2005
Young and Wireless
By Michele Orecklin
Time Magazine
While most Americans past eighth grade seem to consider cell phones as vital as air, kids under 13 have remained largely unfettered. That may be changing. The Walt Disney Internet Group announced in early July that it is teaming up with Sprint to develop a line of mobile phones, due out next year, aimed squarely at preteen children. Meanwhile, the market is already filling up. In March, Firefly Mobile debuted a model designed for the lunch-box set. Later this summer, a company called Wherify will debut its Wherifone, and in September, Enfora will introduce its version, the TicTalk.
These kid-centric-phone makers insist their devices are not intended for tots who want to kick back in the sandbox, chatting with friends. Rather, they are designed to help children let their parents know about, say, school scheduling changes or to reassure parents that they can reach their kids at any time. Instead of the standard numbered keypads, the kid phones have a limited number of oversize keys and controls that prevent children from dialing or receiving calls from numbers that parents haven’t programmed in. Wherifone comes equipped with a global-positioning system (GPS) so parents can find their kids via a website, on which a map showing their location appears. Enfora’s TicTalk uses different technology that alerts parents by a text message sent to their cell phone if their child has wandered out of a prespecified area. (Unlike Disney, none of these companies have partnered with major phone carriers, so make sure they offer coverage in your area.)
Some critics say the phones are unnecessary because kids so young are rarely left unsupervised by responsible adults. Others complain that the marketing campaigns play on parents’ fears and that the phones are an intrusion on childhoods already oversaturated with technology. Think of them, says Gary Ruskin, executive director of the consumer watchdog group Commercial Alert, as “entry points to parents’ wallets.”
Comments
- Posted by Eric on August 1st, 2005
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Posted by Zeke on August 1st, 2005
You mention ‘the company’s committment to children’s safety’. With all due respect, are you kidding. Do you actually think this company or any other is or would be concerned with children’s safety? If so, why are they in this business and not some other concerned with the safety of children?
Companies use phrases such as ‘concern for children’s safety’ only as a marketing ploy, to sell their products. They are and must be (if they are corporations, they are required to be concerned with ) the bottom line. Any mention of concern for children, the environment, elderly etc., is just to assuage the consumers’ guilt. We must take note of all such statements, eg that ‘we (any corporation) are concerned with children/environment/elderly etc etc. and make them accountable for such propositions, rather than, as now, using them as a marketing tool.
thank you for reading, and please do not take this as a personal attack.
sincerely,
zeke
As a soon-to-be parent and an employee of the wireless industry for over 10 years, I see a true value in phones for tweens. In these times you have to be security conscience and there is no such thing as being overly cautious when it comes to the safety of our children. But, I back the phone manufacturers of handsets that employ GPS as a tracking feature over those that don’t. Of the handsets on the market or in development I am only aware of one that will include this feature. The Firefly handset is only a basic handset with a pin driven feature that allows parents the ability to lock out other phone numbers but I feel that this handset does not truely show the company’s commitment to children’s safety. I feel that the company has failed in their marketing and research to bring a truely useful product to market.
To sum up my comments, I feel that if handset manufacturers and wireless carriers show a true commitment to my child’s safety and well-being, I completely back their attempts at selling and marketing these products....but to the parents.