Well, it’s time for another story designed to make you go, “Huuuuuuuh?!” Doing my normal scan through the news feeds to find anything interesting, this story popped up on Pocket Lint.
Yep, you read the title right. It’s a mobile phone designed for toddlers.
Called the Zeki, it was launched in Korea as a “kid-use digital toy phone” by Young Toys. Ok, that in itself isn’t so weird, we have toy phones in this country. It’s just that ours usually just make beepy noises.
The Zeki on the other hand, uses NFC (Near-Field Communications… think ‘baby-monitor’…) to allow the kid to actually have a mobile phone conversation with his mum, up to 80 metres away. Ok, so it’s a glorified baby monitor, then?
Well, no… because it also has an mp3 player built in, and it can send and receive text messages (presumably to mum, again, not the toddler’s other toddler friends from the creche). Young Toys state that it’s made from harmless materials (yes, the toddler will try and eat it, that’s just what they do) and it’s massively over-shielded to prevent even the possibility of electromagnetic waves entering the kid’s head.
So it looks like Young Toys have thought of everything. Except for one thing…
THEY’RE TODDLERS! WHY DO THEY NEED A MOBILE PHONE?
Now, you know they’ll say, “Oh, it provides mums with a way of monitoring their children.” Erm, they already do that. Which means it is an out and out toy for the kid. So, why do they need it? What’s so wrong with Bob The Builder toys?!
[EDIT: Unless of course, they're forming a secret toddlers-mafia, and they plan to use mobile phones to coordinate their actions and take over the world?]
I don’t think we should make our kids grow up too fast! Let them enjoy being kids and just playing with nonsensical toys, for a change! By all means, when they get older, buy them a proper mobile phone, something like a Nokia 2310.
But please don’t try to turn them into phone-wielding adults at the age of 3!
Technical Markus feels very strongly that kids should be allowed to have a childhood, instead of being forced into adulthood early. He also collects Transformers at the age of 30. That says a lot about how long his childhood’s lasted… Leave us a comment and have your say!
November 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am
[...] whose read this bog in the past may remember I did a post, ages ago, about the Zeki phone, aimed at toddlers. And you may remember my sentiments from that story, which can be summed up [...]
March 31st, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I’m 52 and I don’t even have a mobile phone. This is ridiculous. I think I’m going to buy this phone, so I can keep in touch with my family that live downstairs.