Can't Find Little Johnny? Ring His Cell
By David Pogue

Some people, no doubt, are shocked by the very question. Why on earth would an elementary schooler need a cellphone? Whatever happened to responsible parental supervision, making children earn their rewards, and sending them to play stickball outside?

But millions of other parents see the appeal immediately. They'd argue that in the modern world, parent-child separations occur almost every day, brought about by play dates, after-school activities, getting lost at the mall, parents working late and the shuttling between divorced spouses. In these situations, a cellphone could be a nerve-calming lifeline.

But not a traditional cellphone. Security is one reason; you don't want heavy-breathing strangers calling them up and luring them to shadowy places. Complexity is another; goodness knows there are plenty of adults who find modern cellphones overwhelming.

And then there's the service cost. These days, cellphones are sellphones, black holes for money spent on ring tones, photos and text messages.

No, if you're going to issue your child a cellphone, it had better be ultra-simple, ultra-limited, ultra-rugged and ultra-parent-controlled.

In other words, something like the Enfora TicTalk, the Firefly or the Verizon LG Migo. Each can dial only a handful of phone numbers that you, the all-knowing guardian, have programmed. They're designed exclusively for voice calls; they can't download ringers, send text messages, do e-mail, take pictures, check voice mail or get on the Web.

The Firefly, for example, is a tiny capsule clad in blue translucent plastic ($50 after rebate and two-year Cingular contract, or $100 from Target or fireflymobile.com). Two big buttons bear icons resembling the gender symbols on public restrooms. A lost or lonely tot can press the female-looking button and then Talk, and presto: it's Mom on Line 1.

A book-icon button summons a list of 20 additional numbers, each identified by a one-word label (DADCELL, GRANDMA or whatever). There's also a small emergency button on the side that when pressed for several seconds and then confirmed by the Talk button, dials 911.

Otherwise, your young executive-to-be can't call anyone else. In fact, you can even limit incoming calls to those preprogrammed numbers.

Each number can set off a different cheesy, single-note ring tone and a different backlight color on the two-line L.C.D. screen. There's also a Firefly button that does nothing but start a tiny show of multicolored L.E.D. lights that shine through the case.

VERIZON'S Migo ($100 with two-year contract) is also a great-looking, diminutive capsule designed for small hands. Instead of Mom and Pop icons, though, it bears four big buttons labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4. Your offspring will just have to learn which button dials which person.

Dwarfing them all, though, is a central button that's preset to dial 911. It may be a marketing move intended to calm neurotic parents, but it's a bad technological move; your child will live in terror of hitting it by accident. If you're smart, you'll exploit the option to reprogram it so that it dials you instead, making it, in effect, a fifth speed-dial button.

The Migo is by far the most cellphonish of the group. It has a speakerphone, a vibrate mode, polyphonic ring tones, and much better sound quality than its rivals. It's also a Verizon phone, meaning it stands the best chance of working anywhere in the country. (Then again, who cares about national coverage on a kiddie phone, as long as it works in your neighborhood? Even these days, it's rare to see unaccompanied second graders making business trips.)

Parents should know, however, that the Migo receives all incoming calls, not just those from numbers in its own phone book. Anyone can call in. On one hand, clever yakaholics can therefore bypass all the parental limits by simply asking their friends to initiate the calls. On the other hand, it means that you can still reach your darling even when you don't happen to be at your regular phone.

The third phone for tots, the TicTalk ($100), takes a radically different approach. It doesn't look anything like a phone; in fact, it most resembles a stopwatch - a cheap-feeling, plastic one. You're supposed to hold it out like a walkie-talkie, not up to your head. (And if you do hold it to your head, a loud electrostatic buzzing interferes with the conversation.)

The TicTalk isn't for any old young people; it's a phone for young nerds. You've never seen a less efficient phone operating system. It takes two steps just to turn the thing on.

But that's nothing compared with the hassle involved in placing a call (there are no speed-dial buttons). You press one of two unlabeled buttons to summon the main menu, scroll down twice to highlight "Phone-Anytime" in a menu, push the scroller to open the list of preprogrammed numbers (up to 12), scroll down to the one you want to call, and finally push the scroller to dial. Try remembering how to do all that while you're lost, chasing a missed bus or being kidnapped.

Truth is, the TicTalk's primary mission has nothing to do with emergencies. Instead, it's designed, believe it or not, as an educational tool. It has six simple Leapfrog math, spelling and science games with Space Invaders-style graphics and recorded spoken instructions. High scores earn "reward minutes" that are good for nonessential phone time spent gabbing with friends. (A separate parent-approved phone book lists up to 10 of these secondary contacts.) It's the cellular version of "No dessert until you eat your broccoli."

Now, quick-witted readers might already be thinking: "Hold on. If there's no number pad, how are you supposed to enter the approved phone numbers?"

The TicTalk's Web site (mytictalk.com) lets you type in the authorized phone numbers using your computer keyboard. Your changes magically appear on the phone a minute later.

The site also lets you set up off-limits hours - so that the phone won't even operate during the school day, for example, and reward calls end at bedtime. You can also plug weekly classroom spelling words into the TicTalk's Hangman game, program To Do or Calendar items (which appear when the phone turns on), or even send one-way text messages to the phone ("Big Brother is watching you! Love, Dad").

Programming the Migo and Firefly doesn't require a computer, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Instead, you have to plug in the names and numbers right there on the phone - which, remember, doesn't have a number pad. On the Firefly, you cycle through the numbers and alphabet by pressing the <- and -> buttons about six thousand times; on the Migo, you use the 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons, pressing each several times to cycle through a set of numbers or letters. To enter Verizon's toll-free number (800-922-0204), for example, you'd press 3344333111141142. Get it?

All three phones have headphone jacks, which is a little scary; the world may not be ready for 6-year-olds conducting those demented one-way conversations in public, like their un-self-conscious parents in the business world ("No can do! Fax it ASAP!").

And speaking of maturity: Firefly says its phone is intended for "8- to 12-year-olds." Truth is, though, these phones won't fly with anyone for whom cellphones are symbols of status and independence. Or, as one tweenager put it in an online review: "No kid in their right mind would carry around this cellphone. They would get made fun of every second of the day!" So, 5 to 10 is a more plausible age group for these phones, as Enfora and Verizon suggest. (Then again, these limited, idiotproof phones might also appeal to certain technophobic or disabled adults.)

If you've accepted the concept of kindergartners' packing cellphones, your next challenge is coping with the pricing. You have to pay in advance for TicTalk talk time, and it's expensive: 25 cents a minute. The minutes expire after 90 days. You can pay for the Firefly either using that prepaid 25-cents-per-expiring-minute scheme, or by signing up for a regular Cingular voice plan. To use the Migo, you sign up for any existing Verizon plan; most people make it part of a family plan (that is, $10 additional a month).

The TicTalk's educational slant and organizer features may provide academic encouragement to budding gadget freaks; the Firefly's bold Mom and Dad icons (and incoming-call restrictions) may make it the best bet for very young callers. But Verizon's stylish Migo offers the best phone construction, sound quality and phone features.

Whichever you choose, you should accompany the gift with a chat about responsibility, safety and caring for possessions. This is one toy you don't want left on the bus.