Nader group attacks kiddie cell phones

Well, I always knew Ralph was a crackhead. This just confirms it. Plus, he smells. No, really, I met him once.
The benefits of equipping kids with cell phones far outweighs any percieved risk.

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We were thinking of giving Megan a phone to keep in her backpack so she could call us for things like oh, when I've forgotten that school gets out an hour early and she's waiting for me to get her... or in case we somehow get separated when we are out and about (which hasn't happened yet, but we worry). But we're not about to buy her a phone of her very own -- we have several old phones that will take a prepaid sim card, so we figured we'd give her one of those for those occasions when she might need it. That said, the Firefly looks like a nice product for those who want to buy something kid-appropriate.

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They need to sell a red bat phone. No numbers to punch, just a receiver. Pick it up and instead of talking to Commissioner Gordon you reach Mom or Dad.

OK, maybe the Firefly phone is similar in function, but does it flash red when a parent calls?

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We're considering cell phones for our children. I just saw an ad for this in last Sunday's Target ad. I would definitely consider it, especially since we can limit who calls in and who is called.

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I agree with Nader. Marketing to kids is a HUGE business, because they are trying to win product loyalty for when they get older. Even with phone limits, kids see it as the norm and don't consider the costs behind a phone call.

My husband overheard a conversation between two moms. They had 11 year old girls. The daughter had rung up $400 worth of phone calls!

That being said, while I can't imagine my kids needing a cell phone anytime soon, I am sure there are occasions when a child would need a cell phone (jobs, camp). But just because they're in? Not for this household.

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Commercial Alert's letter to the House and Senate commerce committees on marketing cell phones to kids is at:

http://www.commercialalert.org/news-releases.php?article_id=770&subcategory_id=&category=&year=2005&month=07&day=26

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What ever happened to raising your kids and knowing where they are? Many of us were not raised with cell phones, but then again times, they are a changing, however, if a child gets a cell phone, it should not be for the child to make calls to friends and such, but should only be limited to certain people and numbers, if that is even possible. I just don't think that you should let your children go farther than you would if he/ she didn't have a cell phone. It should not take the place of good parenting. Instead of "calling" your kids to dinner, let them know what time it is and stick to it. You shouldn't have to call them to remind them, you must let children grow up and learn that they cannot be coddled all of the time. I am sure that once they get to college the professor isn't going to call up and say, "Johnny it's time for class" well maybe I am exaggerating but you get the hint. Phones are for safety and for emergencies, but for all else, just set down rules, like they used to back in the old days, when all we had were land lines.

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I had my first Cell Phone in 1990. I continued to use them until last year. I got rid of it because I really didn't need it any more. I travel 15 minutes to work and then home. I don't use it for business any more, so there is nothing non business related that can't wait until I get home. During the 14 years that I did have a phone, I used it extensively. For a 4 year period of time I had to purchase two phones because I needed the minutes. I was using 4500 minutes a month. Mostly for work. So, I know about the convienence and Versatiliy and Coolness, and just plain need of cell phones. I have a 15 year old daughtor. Does she get a phone? No. So, what changed? Well I purchased a new business that just happens to employ 30 young people from the age of 15 yrs old an up. The oldest is 33 but everyone else is younger than 24. I Have listened to the conversations that go on in my workplace. I have had to give cash advances to kids that needed money to pay cell phone bills. I have had to not schedule kids because they didn't keep up on school work etc. So now I relate one story. I had an employee that came to me and told me that she needed more hours and wanted to work a couple of double shifts on the week end. ( 9 am to midnight both Sat and Sun ) I asked her what she needed the money for and she informed me that she had gone over on her cell phone and needed the money to pay the bill. When I grilled her for more details it turns out she went over by 400.00. To make a long story short, she went over because of text messaging. We calculated it out and learned that she did most of her messaging in school. In order for her to have that kind of overage we determined that she had to send 22 messages every hour for the 7 hours she was in school. She agreed that that was about right. She was previously an A student. She said class was so easy that she could still send that many messages and still get her work done. Oddly enough one month later she came back to me saying that she needed to cut her hours that week because she had procrastinated her homework and needed to turn in 3 months worth of assignments by the next week. Hence she couldn't work until she got them done. I guess the quarter was over the next week. When I was in school if you didn't meet the deadline for homework you just got an F. You couldn't make it up later. So, here is an A student Spending all of her spare time working to pay for a Cell Phone that she uses to send 770 text messages in Class each day. Now, do you want to know what her solution was??? Get this, she changed her plan and got a plan that allowed unlimited text messages for an additional 10.00 per month. Now isn't that putting the cart before the horse. One more thing. She is not the exception to the rule. She was a senior in the 2004-2005 year. This year she is attending a school to learn how to cut hair. An A student is going to cut hair for a living. What a tragedy. My daughtor will never have a cell phone. It is an incredibly huge waste of time and money for anyone still at home. Oh one more thing. The other reason that we knew that she only sent messages during school was because she was doing IM at night on the computer. If you don't know what that is then perhaps you should check and see what your kids are doing. I have caught kids doing text messages while helping customers. Am I the only one that sees the problem with this?

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