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child posts

Mental health clinic treats children for cellphone addiction

by Darren Murph posted Jun 21st 2008 @ 8:52PM

Not like we haven't seen individuals diagnosed with cellphone addiction before, but two kids in Spain were so badly obsessed with their mobiles that they weaseled money from relatives to buy more airtime, began to fail classes and eventually wound up in a mental health clinic. The kids, aged 12 and 13, were reportedly spending around six hours per day talking, texting or playing games, presumably making them the perfect candidates for Sprint's Simply Everything plan. All jesting aside, doctors in the institution suggest that it could take a full year to wean them off of the "drug," as they each have become practically incapable of living a "normal" life without constantly interfacing with their handsets. Ai caramba.

[Image courtesy of PocketPicks]

Texting generation carrying spelling habits to birth certificates?

by Darren Murph posted Mar 7th 2008 @ 10:25AM

It's bad enough when exams have to cater to horrific spellers due to their SMS-based vocabulary, but we're doing everything we can to make ourselves believe this latest report simply isn't true. Reportedly, a social analyst in Australia somehow believes that the wide range in spellings in a few popular names is due in large part to the fact that we spend way too much time as a whole conjugating and hyphenating in order to get text-based messages across. Said analyst was even quoted as saying that "the use of a 'y' instead of an 'i' has hit epidemic proportions, as has the use of 'k' over 'c'." Realistically, we're not about to believe the SMS craze is actually affecting children's names en masse, but please, do your next born a favor and give him / her the vowels they deserve.

[Via textually]

MummyWrap fends off radiation from fetuses

by Darren Murph posted Oct 2nd 2007 @ 12:06AM

As the ongoing battle between the naysayers and the paranoid continues, Neil Bullock is making sure that those situated squarely in the latter camp have a way to "protect" their unborn child(ren). MummyWrap is a "sleeveless, loose-fitting garment for pregnant women made from a light-weight copper-based cotton fabric known as Swiss Shield," and according to its creator, it can "minimize the risk of electro-magnetic radiation (EMR)" warping your kid's brain before he or she ever sees the world. 'Course, we're not going to step in and suggest that you do / don't need this, but for those who'd rather be safe than sorry, you can order one now for $69.95. As an added bonus, it should go great with your Isabodywear underwear.

[Via Textually]

AT&T suspends parental controls after uncovering 911 issues

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 24th 2007 @ 8:20AM

AT&T's Smart Limits parental control package has been temporarily taken offline after the carrier discovered a little catch-22 with the service: if a user of a Smart Limits-controlled phone dials 911 and gets disconnected, the emergency operator is blocked from calling back. Obviously, this is a case of Smart Limits being just a little too smart (or too dumb, depending on how you look at it) for the user's own good -- we don't think parents are too concerned about their young 'uns spending hours racking up anytime minutes on the line with a chatty 911 operator -- and AT&T clearly did the right thing by pulling the service until it gets sorted out. Shouldn't take too long, we imagine.

[Via mocoNews]

Firefly's glowPhone gets FCC'd

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 11th 2007 @ 1:07PM

Okay, we figure we don't have too many regular readers in the 5 to 8 year old category (by all means, give us a shout out in comments if you fall in that range), so we're looking straight at the parents in the crowd with this one. As we found out a few days ago, Firefly Mobile's upcoming glowPhone is targeted at a very young demographic, and it's got the feature set to match; like the original Firefly, it lacks a traditional numeric keypad, instead offering dedicated Mom and Dad keys plus navigational and send / end controls. There are some games and wallpapers built in, too -- though they aren't detailed in the user's manual -- and a "Flashlight" feature glows all the keys simultaneously (hence the "glowPhone" name, we suppose). It's a dualband GSM set and it'll likely be offered through a prepaid service of some sort when it launches next month for $50, though it's unknown whether Firefly will again be partnering with AT&T for the offering.

AT&T gets Smart Limits, details emerge on two new Firefly models

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 10th 2007 @ 2:11PM

Never been a better time to be a parent looking to equip their tykes with kid-safe phones and services, it seems. AT&T recently launched its Smart Limits service, a $4.99 monthly add-on that gives moms and dads a pretty unprecedented level of control over their little ones' mobile usage, including voice, text, and purchase allowances, daily usage schedules, allowed / blocked contact lists and internet usage restrictions. That's all well and good, but check this: the same Wall Street Journal article also sheds some light on a couple new Firefly models, one of which we'd seen not long ago up in the FCC's business. The glowPhone (pictured) seems to be the simpler of the two, targeted at ages 5 through 8 with a nice, low $49.99 price point when it drops in October. The more interesting of the two is the flyPhone, designed with ages 9 to 12 in mind with support for downloadable goodies and that crazy dynamic keypad we'd mentioned before. That one's gonna run $129.99 and will be available with a prepaid service of some sort, though there's no word whether Firefly's relationship with AT&T is going to continue when these hit the street.

[Via mocoNews]

Read - AT&T Smart Limits
Read - Wall Street Journal, "Keeping Junior on a Wireless Leash"

Omego's call saucer for kids

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 17th 2007 @ 11:52AM

We look at this thing, and frankly, the term "phone" just never crosses our minds. Handsets designed specifically with children in mind typically look nothing like traditional cellphones, but Omego's self-titled debut may just take the cake. Looking like a table coaster with an LCD display, the 83 gram device runs on T-Mobile MVNO Toucan Mobile in the UK, offering "educational games," an organizer, a 40-number phone book, an obligatory lack of numeric keypad (although Firefly might be looking to change all that), and the obvious full suite of parental control. It runs £15 a month (about $30) on an 18-month contract plus £5 per megabyte (ouch!) over the handset's GPRS modem. Then again, what are 8 year olds consuming data for?

[Via El Reg]

Update: PC Magazine's Sascha Segan has pointed out that this weird thing is a rebranded Enfora TicTalk from back in the day. No wonder it looks so old school!

AT&T and Verizon kick kid phones to the curb

by Darren Murph posted Apr 13th 2007 @ 12:33PM

In an announcement sure to make tweens scream and parents sigh, both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have seemingly simultaneously decided to stop featuring their respective kid-centric handsets. Folks interested in Verizon's Migo will now be shown LG's 3450L flip-phone instead, as the company claims that its texting abilities and Chaperone capability will lend itself to being an effective youth-oriented option. As for AT&T, its Firefly mobile will now be sold solely online, but there was no mention of what the carrier planned on offering when paranoid parents showed up looking for a highly controllable device in-store. Of course, both of these phones should remain available in other mass market channels for those still interested, but we're sure your nine-year old kid will be lobbying for something a bit more sophisticated in a few months anyway.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Imaginarium's Cam1 brings video calling to kids

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 19th 2007 @ 9:50AM

Imaginarium's telephony devices for children haven't typically looked like phones -- though we reckon that's by design -- and the trend continues with its latest, the Cam1. The rather beefy looking Cam1 is focused on video calling, giving parents an opportunity to get some visual confirmation that their children are safe and sound (though we're wondering what the toddler in the press shot here is doing far enough away from her parents to require a video call). Other features include 20MB of onboard memory, microSD expansion, and big, colorful buttons that we kinda want to press.

Softbank releases 812T for the kiddies

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 14th 2006 @ 3:41PM

Softbank and Toshiba have teamed up to release another ~~electronic tether~~ GPS-enabled phone for children, the 812T. The pastel clamshell is visually distinctive, thanks to (what appears to be) a rather large ring for attaching the phone to clothing, backpacks, or keychains -- but the real draw here, of course, is the GPS receiver that parents can use to watch their little ones traverse the streets of Japan from the comfort of their softly-glowing computer monitor. Other features include a 1.3 megapixel cam, a QVGA internal display, microSD memory expansion, and Yahoo! Messenger support (this is Softbank, after all, purveyor of Yahoo!'s Japanese 'net service). We're also guessing those clear lenses on the phone's front cover some strobe lights for criminal-blindin' action when necessary. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Akihabara News]

Imaginarium's Mo1 kiddie phone

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 11th 2006 @ 4:08AM

The Imaginarium Mo1, which seems destined for Spain, doesn't appear to sport any unique features that distance it from the young'un mobiles that've launched here in the US: limited keypad, comprehensive parental controls, kid friendly design. It also packs tracking functionality (though we're not sure how we feel about 6-year-olds -- part of the target demographic -- being allowed to wander off far enough for their parents to require such a feature), and in our humblest of opinions, it's a little neater looking than either of our domestic offerings. Look for it this December for a reasonable sounding €59 (about $75) -- if you're on the other side of the pond, that is.

[Via Mobilewhack]

FCC docs go up for Disney Mobile's D100

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 9th 2006 @ 12:54PM

It seemed pretty obvious that Disney's family-oriented Disney Mobile MVNO was in desperate need of a kidproof handset, having initially come to the table with only a pair of middling clamshells for the little 'uns. Enter the pod-shaped D100 -- now granted, we can't say with certainty that they'll be marketing this toward parents with young children when it launches, but c'mon, it's got Winnie the Pooh on its backside. The usual parental controls are present on the device, but more interestingly, the numeric keypad can be replaced with a simpler four-button design if numeric dialing isn't needed (try texting on that, kiddies).

[Via phoneArena]

Update: In speaking with Disney Mobile, it turns out this lil' pod won't be seeing duty here in the States -- it's destined for South America as a general consumer device.

Sprint enables existing phones for child tracking

by Paul Miller posted Apr 13th 2006 @ 1:10PM

Instead of launching a separate child-friendly handset or just farming out the idea altogether, Sprint is launching their new "Family Locator Service," which involves software to enable existing Sprint phones for tracking. A total of 28 GPS-enabled Sprint phone models can be located with the service, and a bit of downloaded software is compatible with 17 of their phones to track up to four handsets, and even display a child's location on a map. The service is $10 a month, and it's based on software by WaveMarket Inc., which can also be used on your PC. Sadly, we missed the press conference, which somehow managed to involve Sprint getting all defensive about this being a "Big Brother" tool, and stating: "It's not about tracking. It's not about monitoring." Uh, right.