Mobile phones and talk time may be about to replace the weekly allowance as a reward for good grades and clean rooms.
In the latest entry into what is quickly becoming a crowded market, wireless company Enfora LP and educational-toy maker LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. are about to unveil a cellphone especially designed for kids. The new phone, called TicTalk and aimed at kids ages 6 and up, joins a growing lineup of competitors that includes Mattel Inc., Hasbro Inc., Firefly Mobile Inc. and Walt Disney Co.
By next year, all of these companies expect to have launched products that aim to give kids a phone of their own – with limits.
While the services vary, most of these devices offer some sort of parental control. Both the currently available Firefly phone and the new LeapFrog model, which will be widely available in mid-August, lack keypads. Only numbers preprogrammed by parents can be dialed. And the Hasbro offering is really a walkie-talkie system that lets kids talk and exchange text messages only with friends who also have the devices.
