The first true cell phone for children is here. The Firefly ($199 with 1,200 SunCom minutes) is a restricted-dialing phone for 8- to 12–year-olds. Kids can call Mom, Dad, and up to 20 other numbers—and if Mom and Dad want, only numbers that have been accepted can call their kid. (Editor's Note: in September 2005 we reviewed our favorite phone for little kids thus far, the Enfora TicTalk).

What may be most appealing about this little glowing blue egg of a phone—and most useful for children of this age—is the Firefly's simplicity. It doesn't play games or send or receive text messages. It's just for talking. The company hopes that the Firefly's lack of features will provide an "in" at schools that have banned cell phones.

Mom and Dad program numbers in the Firefly using a PIN code, so the kids can't hack into the phone book. Entering numbers is painstaking, however—you have to scroll through lists of numbers and letters. The good news is that you only have to do it once. Navigating the phone's menus to change ringtones or exit the phone book is also a pain, but you get used to it.

We really like the idea of a restricted-dialing phone for kids, a concept that Wherify is also exploring. Whether kids are shuttling between divorced parents or bouncing between after-school activities, a simple phone like the Firefly could provide parents with real peace of mind.

Kids can slightly customize their Firefly. They can pick a ringtone for each phone-book entry, assign colored backgrounds to specific callers, and make the phone pulse with flashing lights on demand. The lights flash every few minutes anyway, just to remind you the Firefly is there.

We were disappointed by the Firefly's voice quality. In several tests to compare it with other Cingular phones, the Firefly transmitted more muffled sounds with more audio dropouts. And it has the world's worst ringtones: 12 keening, single-note tunes that sound as if they were generated by a 1970s waveform synthesizer.

The Firefly is one tough phone. We dropped it onto a hardwood floor a dozen times without damage, and the company says it's water-resistant. The gadget can still be pried open to expose the circuitry within, though. Battery life was good, on a par with most other GSM phones.

Firefly says its phone is for 8- to 12-year-olds, but kids at the high end of this age bracket are probably too sophisticated for the restricted dialing and very simple interface. And marketing cell phones to children under 8 has proven tricky because of fears about radiation and a subsequent British government ban. (For the record, however, the Firefly's emitted radiation levels, at 0.945 to 0.975 watts-per-kilogram maximum, compare favorably with other phones aimed at young teens, like the Nokia 3205 and Nokia 3220.)

The Firefly is available from Cingular (as of November 2005), regional carrier SunCom, regional carrier Cincinnati Bell, and directly from Firefly Mobile.

As a means for little kids to make occasional, brief calls to Mom or Dad, the Firefly pretty much does the job. But older kids and anyone concerned about voice quality will want to look elsewhere—perhaps the Enfora TicTalk or one of the two Nokias mentioned previously.