Can anyone offer their experiences with childrens cell phones? I want to get a phone for my eight year old. The preprogrammed numbers are Mom’s requirement, so I need that. I’d like to get a pay as you go type, but that isn’t really necessary.
As far as I know, here are my options:
Firefly–Firefly was the phone that was first recommended to me. Unfortunately, I can’t find them around here. Target and Toys R Us have discontinued the line.
Kajeet–Quite frankly, we don’t need a camera phone or texting, and the rates seem kind of high (Fer Chrissakes, Dad does just fine with a cheapie Virgin phone!)
Wherify–This has the one feature that I would like. A GPS locator would come in handy if my son is running through the neighborhood or if the phone is missing. Again, the rates seem a little high for me.
TicTalk–Meh. I could be wrong, but I don’t see any real features, and the rates are about in line with other phones.
We got Kiddo a phone for his 9th birthday. We just added a line to my Verizon plan for $9.99/month and got a free phone.
I programmed all the numbers he would need into it and told him that if he ever called a number not programmed without permission I’d take it away. So far, so good. It’s more there for my peace of mind than for his entertainment, and he’s well aware of that.
Thanks, but it has to be limited to calling the preprogrammed numbers. It can’t phone other numbers.
No specific recommendations (I don’t have a kid) but Disney has a children’s cell phone service.
Do you have a direct link? The home page only shows standard-feature phones. I couldn’t find childrens service on their website.
It was my ex-wife’s suggestion. I think that she just wants the security, but it’s not worth it to me to inquire.
Have you checked with your own service provider? I have Verizon and, when I was last in a store, I remember seeing some sort of GPS-style kid system advertised. There were specific phones available which went with that system. Maybe your provider has something similar? It would definately be cheaper than getting a whole separate contract.
When my son was that age and out gadding about the neighborhood, we got a pair of long-range walkie talkies. IIRC they had something like a two mile range, which was just about his gadding limit; if he was farther away than that then he was at somebody’s house and could use their phone. They’re initially rather expensive - I think ours were somewhere around $60 - but they ran on rechargeable batteries.
My bad - I had just gone to the page and posted the link for you without reading in-depth. Last time I had looked (last year), they had a very nice service. There’s a little link at the bottom of the homepage that takes you to a press release about them discontinuing the service.
However, it looks like they have teamed up with Verizon and offer their “family” services through them now, which is what Jess mentioned.