12 August, 2011

Do 5 year olds need a cell phone

My 5-year old came up to me yesterday and asked if she could have a cell phone. Apparently some girls at her kindergarten already have cell phones. It got me thinking, do 5 year olds really need cell phones? They don’t have to make important business phone calls like adults and it’s not very likely that they will be talking on the phone for long like teenagers do. On the other hand, it could be quite useful when the child calls the parents to pick them up early if they were let out earlier than usual. Also, the child could encounter any situation where they need to call an adult or for help. I started looking at cell phones and mobile plans designed for kids. Fireflymobile.com has cell phones from $49.99 and they are designed for children. One of them caught my attention. It’s mainly for making phone calls to parents so it has mom & dad keys. It seems like text messaging isn’t one of the features.
I also looked at the plans they offer. You can pay 15 cents per minute or sign up for a monthly plan of 145 minutes for $21.75 or get an unlimited plan for $65. The price seems pretty reasonable and I thought it was cute that the phone has mom and dad keys. I’ll have to discuss it with my husband but I went from thinking ‘5 year olds don’t need a cell phone’ to ‘it can’t be bad for them to have one in case emergency happens’. What do you guys think?

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