What Cell Phone Should You Buy for Your Tween?

As a parent buying a cell phone for my young tween was a very difficult decision. I knew that responsibility is so rare at that age especially with a cell phone that allows them to play games, listen to music, and talk to their friends. So I looked into several phones before I finally broke down and bought one for my daughter. Some reasons to purchase cell phones for your own tween would be first and foremost the ability to keep in touch with your child when they are at a friend's home or at school. At my daughters school there was a burglary during the day and she was stuck locked down in her class room and only the children with cell phones were able to call their parents and let them know what was happening. Also a lot of cell phones have tracking devices nowadays so giving your tween a cell phone makes sure you can keep track of where they are and if they are safe. With certain cell phones you can set up a zone that your child can be in and if they sneak out or something bad happens a message will be sent to your cell phone to let you know that something has happened giving you an ounce more of safety especially now.

Verizon used to have a great cell phone called a Meego for kids that did not allow them to do anything but call 4 numbers that were preprogrammed, however they no longer carry out. They have standard phones now but you can get the Chaperone service on any of the cell phones which will give you the zone area and be able to pinpoint where your tween is due to the tracking system. The negatives for this is that there are no checks and balances for how much they use the phone because they can call whenever and however.

Firefly phones are more centered on tweens and kids and trying to keep them from running up your cell bill. They are stylish but they also do not have a number key pad, the only numbers that you can call out to are ones that are preprogrammed by the parent. You can store up to 50 numbers or just 2. This is a prepaid phone so you have complete control of the minutes your tween uses. Some of the phones that Firefly provides also have flashlights built in and games.

Guardian Angel cell phones are basic in look and do not have any true bells and whistles except that it has one of the best kinds of GPS technology built into the phones. This is one of the best up to date systems that give you real time pin pointed maps of where the child is who has the phone.

Enfora which is not one that I had heard of from many has an odd stop watch looking phone. Its called TicTalk and it has very few buttons because it is to be programmed by us as parents and not only can you program what numbers can be called but also what numbers can be received. It does not work as much like a cell phone but more like a walkie talkie, giving it functionality but not as much fun. This is also a pre paid phone which gives you control over how many minutes your child uses as well.

A simple solution to all the commercial kids cell phones would be to get your tween just a classic prepaid phone like the ones from Cricket. They do not have the GPS systems usually but you can control the minutes used because they are completely prepaid. They are also enabled for text messaging as well. It may not have as many gadgets as some others however it is cheaper because of this usually.

When trying to find a cell phone for your tween, remember it isn't always best to get the coolest phone and even the most responsible child can go crazy and charge your bill up hundreds of dollars if they don't realize what the phone is for and when they can use it. Cell phones all in all right now for your kids are so important, being able to speak with your child when they are in trouble or track them down if they are lost. Cell phones are just another tool to help keep our children safe.