Firefly Cell Phones
Cell phones for kids? An idea whose time has come or an indecent marketing ploy?
Firefly Mobile is a unique company that occupies an interesting space in the mobile phone market. Firefly Mobile makes and designs mobile phones especially for young kids. Marketing cell phones for kids, accessories for the cool as they've become, might even be a little considered controversial to some. But a visit to Firefly's website shows a company and product that appears sincere in providing to a niche with a legitimate need. The difference here is that the phones themselves aren't being peddled to children per se but to parents to offer a certain peace of mind.
Don Deubler created the Firefly mobile phone when he tried to buy a phone for his girlfriend's young son. Discovering there were no phones aimed at younger kids with easy to use (pre-programmed) buttons, he decided to invent it.
What we end up with is a small digital cellular phone weighing 2.12 ounces. It operates on GSM 850/1900 Mhz networks and a rechargeable non-removable lith-io battery makes it a disposable accessory for your kid. The child will hopefully have outgrown it before the battery dies, a well made device with a lith-io battery loses its ability to power up the device in around 500 charges or about two years, whichever comes first. It has a small backlit monochrome LCD screen and five buttons. The buttons feature large icons for easy identification, basically speed dials for mom, dad and 911. There are also controls for mom and dad to preprogram the device for numbers, up to 20 in its own phonebook. Parents can also set it up to reject inbound calls that don't appear in the device's phonebook. There are only 12 hard coded ring tones and 5 animations to choose from.
The phones come in a variety of bright colors and look cute for the kiddies with their translucent face and backlights. The device itself was designed to light up and respond to the kid's interaction. It even has an available hands-free peripheral that plugs into the phone.
The idea is to keep kids connected and is probably best for children around seven and older. The Firefly could turn out to be a valuable security measure for kids and peace and mind for parents. It could be a way to help keep kids and parents alike connected in our busy modern lifestyles, avoiding those scheduling inconsistencies that crop up more often than not. Or are these devices an indoctrination of the young into an unhealthy stress driven, materialistic lifestyle? The choice is ultimately yours as parents to decide and to apply.