TIM DOWLING offers 10 reasons not to buy any sort of mobile phone targeted at four-year-olds. He makes his case in G2, offering observations about the Firefly phone that are worth repeating. "There can be no earthly reason why a child of four would need a mobile phone," he writes, and then explains why in the reasons below.
- It is not possible to conduct a fruitful phone conversation with a four year old, as you will know if you have ever tried.
- Four-year-olds rarely, if ever, have information to impart of such significance that it cannot wait until they are five.
- A Firefly costs £60. Without SIM card.
- Your child should always be in the company of a responsible adult who has a phone you didn't have to pay for.
- A four-year-old with its own phone will spend all day attempting to contact Pocoyo.
- Four-year-olds never hang up.
- 52% of children between the ages of five and nine already own a mobile. Chances are you will have to buy the child a phone next year anyway, and they won't want a pink toy that doesn't do YouTube.
- If you don't know where your four-year-old is, there is no point in ringing him. He doesn't know where he is either.
- For much less money you can get tiny T-shirts with your phone number and the word REWARD printed on them.
- Four-year-olds are enough trouble as it is. The last thing we want to do is give them the means to organise.
Tim Dowling -- "A mobile for your four-year-old? What a bad call." in The Guardian G2, 25 June 2009.
Sent mail2blog using O2 Typepad service from my Nokia E90 over coffee in Henry's of Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland.
