The best kiddie phones around

Many parents are ambivalent about giving their child a cell phone, worried that their child will turn into some kind of horrific miniature yuppie, or spend all their time chatting to their friends and racking up massive phone bills in the process.

The Firefly, with its bright, cartoony design, and large Mum and Dad speed dial buttons, is the current market leader in this field. It features a 20 number address book which can be locked with a PIN number, so you can restrict the numbers of incoming and outgoing calls to only those that you have pre-approved.

Parents who get nervous when their children are off on their own might want to have a look at the Wherifone, which features a GPS function that allows you to see where your child is at any given time via a computer connected to the internet. This can also come in quite handy if the phone gets lost, as the GPS can tell you where it is to within an accuracy of a few metres. It also features all the usual parental controls that you would associate with phones aimed at the younger market.

If you want to be quite specific about when your child can use a phone, and what for, then the LeapFrog TicTalk could be the phone for you. As well as providing all the usual phone functions, it also doubles as a handy camera, and a personal organiser to encourage your child to get their affairs in order.

The Disney range of mobiles are aimed at slightly older kids, with features such as a flip top design, text messaging, and content downloading. They still, however, feature all the parental controls that you might expect from a unit of this type.

The Tracfone is a cheap, durable phone with a pay as you go service, which makes it suitable for kids, although it lacks the brightly coloured stylings and parental control options of child specific cell phones, making it one for the older kids.

If you are really worried about racking up astronomical phone bills, but you want to get your child a phone of some kind, then the ChatNow phone could be right up your street. These do not use the mobile cell phone network at all, as they are really two way radios with a text messaging feature, so they can be used to make an unlimited amount of calls without it costing a penny.

Visit Vodafone today for your next mobile or for a greatsim only deal.