Parents don't want their young kids to have cell phones, but reaching parents in an emergency situation is critical. How about child cellphones that are restricted to dialing only a handful of numbers (pre-determined by parents with an access code) to Mom or Dad's office/home/etc. or emergency facilities. This way you don't have to get your 7-year old a cellphone, but you have added security about his or her safety. Also, the phone could be programmed to only receive calls if a pre-determined access code is entered when the phone is dialed, sort of like a password to make the phone ring. This way unwanted calls can't get to the phone, but as a parent, you could get to the phone from any other phone by entering the password.
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The relatively recent phones I have (had) around here could be configured for that.
This sounds like a good market for the "disposible cell phones" I heard about some time ago. They would have to be fairly durable construction, yet cheap enough to be replaced when lost or stolen. Good idea.
I never had a cell-phone as a child, and I found myself in emergency situations bi-weekly. How did I survive? It's called "having a supervising adult make the phone call for them." Don't leave your child with anyone that doesn't know how to contact you in an emergency, and there will be no need for children to carry cell-phones.
I often see adults unable to determine what is an "emergency", the woman in line at the grocery store shouting at her friend on the other end of a cell-phone about what they're doing saturday night, for example. If most adults are unable to use the technology responsibly, what makes us think children will be able to?