A new mobile designed for kids, the Firefly phone, is set to launch in Britain later this year, but the four year-old target audience already has adults in uproar.
The Firefly phone, a tiny handset for toddlers which packs just five buttons including “Mum” and “Dad” keys, and extensive parental controls, has been a hit in Ireland, and it set to go on sale in the UK later this year.
But the phone has caused concern amongst parental groups, with Aine Lynch, chief executive of the National Parents Council going so far as to question “where parental responsibility is going”.
“Why would kids need to be contacted by mobile phone? Why are they not in the care of their parents, teachers or supervisors?”, she said.
Indeed. Still it could be amusing to see nursery lessons interrupted by the Nokia ringtone, and we’ve seen tweens rocking iPhones before so perhaps a controlled environment is better than nothing at all. And certainly more appropriate than the Penis phone. We’ll let you know if the Firefly phone leads to the downfall of civilization or not.
This is mad, why would you need to call a 4 year old? I totally agree with the critics here that a child 4 years old should be in the care of a responsible adult anyway, so the need for having to call doesn’t seem like something you’d need to do. Even if they were at a friends house, or with relatives, surely you would just call the mother of the friend, or the relative, or babysitter, and if the 4 year old needed someone they would go straight to them, not want to pull out their mobile and call you??
Crazy crazy crazy.