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What age is too young for a mobile phone?
Renegade:
Apparently, the age is getting younger for marketers:
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/09/02/kids-with-cell-phones-how-young-is-too-young/
Many metro Detroit kids headed back to class on Tuesday with the pencils, pens, notebooks and lunch — but what about a mobile phone?
How young is too young?
A study by the National Consumers League says 60 percent of U.S. parents offer cell phones to 10 and 11-year-old children.
...
“So by the time they turn 6, 7, 8, they’re very comfortable with the mobile devices.”
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More at the link.
But, one of those things to think about. e.g. How many adults actually know how to manage a mobile device properly? :P
40hz:
I'd suspect the feeling is it's never too young now that incidents like Sandy Hook School are behind us.
Simple suggestion - remove the numeric keypad & restrict inbound callers. Problem solved.
Parents really want something like this:
From a parent's perspective, most small kids don't need a full fledged phone. They need the functional equivalent of a StarTrek communicator. They need to be able to communicate with "The Bridge" of "StarFleet" for instructions; to ask or get permission; to request a beam-up; or (worst case) to scream for help.
If the mobile market were smart, for little kids, they'd create a simple "phone home" model that only had three buttons: (1) call home, (2) call mom/dad's mobile; (3) call 911. And this same phone would require either a PIN entry or a number previously stored on the phone to connect an inbound caller. That way only people authorized to call the kid would be able to do so.
Older kids would get a scrollable directory of numbers they were allowed to call instead of a few simple buttons. Inbound restriction to authorized numbere and PIN callers would still apply.
Do This and the average parent would likely get a phone (and pay for an account) for everybody in the household - including their newborn and the family dog.
wraith808:
They already had them. They apparently didn't take off as much as you intuit they would. It says something about the market when Disney can't even market this niche.
40hz:
They already had them. They apparently didn't take off as much as you intuit they would. It says something about the market when Disney can't even market this niche.
-wraith808 (September 03, 2014, 12:30 PM)
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I'm talking more like one of those "life-alert" type gadgets.
And yeah...
But it was Disney who pooched it royally by attempting to push their content and other crap as part of their kiddie-mobile service. It was a complete turn-off for most parents. Even the ones with half a brain soon saw it for what it was - a "wedge" product Disney could use to "upsell" your kids with once they got one. That poisoned the well a bit. And unfortunately, several other mobile providers attempted to follow in Diz's footsteps. Some even stooped so low as to pitch "your first real phone" directly to the kiddies themselves. Soon, your kid's "street cred" took a serious hit in the cut-throat K-3 world if their classmates saw them haul out a Firefly. The cool kids all had real phones - or at least their Dad's hand-me-down.
But I was talking more like one of those "life-alert" type gadgets. And I still think (if marketed honestly) it could sell - provided the price point was right for the device and the subscription. Otherwise, might as well just get a standard smartphone bundle and put one of those "parental control" apps on it. Which is what has seemed to have happened.
J-Mac:
I'm beginning to think that 60 might be too young! :o
And I think that when an incident like Sandy Hook occurs, the cell phones serve mainly to cause a whole lot of parents showing up and crowding an already dangerous scene.
BTW, "incidents LIKE Sandy Hook" should be read as "all the school lockdowns that turn out to be due to a first grader drawing his finger too much like a gun".
Jim
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