Kids today can have complicated lives. Between after school activities and various caregivers, they may need a way to stay connected with their families as they shuffle about. The LG GizmoGadget ($149.99 plus $5 per month), from Verizon, is an excellent tool for that. As a protected children's smartwatch, it lets kids stay in touch with their families by making calls and sending text messages without exposing them to games, the Internet, or communication with strangers. I found it to be very useful in testing with my nine-year-old daughter, and she liked it a lot too. We both liked it enough, in fact, that we're giving it our Editors' Choice award. 

Physical Features

In order to appeal to the preteen set, it helps for your device to not look dumb, and the GizmoGadgetsucceeds. The red and blue color options are bold, not babyish; my daughter, who shies away from pink, found the red perfectly appealing. You can snap the functional unit out of its band and into either the red or blue band, but you can't use a third-party band, as that's where the antenna is located. 

My daughter also found the GizmoGadget more comfortable than other smartwatches and safety devices she's tried, like the Filip. The band is sized for ages 6-12 or so, although I could wear it myself on its outermost link. She didn't find it sweaty, pokey, or painful to wear, and said she "forgot she even had it on" after a commute. That's a definite plus for a device you want to make sure your child keeps on.

The 1.3-inch OLED display is a touch screen, and you can swipe right from the time to show a menu of useful functions. There's an activity tracker, a stopwatch, a timer, text messaging, and two cute, silly options: a voice changer and a button that makes silly sounds. There are no games, which means children won't get distracted while wearing the watch in class. Reading skills are required, though. Younger kids can use the LG GizmoPal, which doesn't have a screen.

Performance

To make calls, you need to press a physical button below the screen, scroll through the address book, and tap the name of the person you want to call. The watch can only be used as a speakerphone, and it's loud enough to be heard on a noisy playground—although it also transmits all that background noise, too, so you and your kid will likely be shouting at each other. Reception is quite good on the Verizon 3G network. There's no quick-access button to call 911, but in my experience with kids' devices, I've found those to generate more accidental 911 calls than anything.

On the parental side, you can set up 10 caregiver accounts that can locate the phone, and send and receive text messages with it, using the free GizmoHub app in the Google Play and Apple app stores. The first, primary caregiver must be a Verizon Wireless subscriber with a More Everything or Verizon Plan (which gets the $5/month fee added on), but beyond that, anyone can play. The GizmoHub app is also where you set up the 10 whitelisted phone numbers the GizmoGadget can send and receive phone calls from.

But it turns out that my kid wanted to text, not call. And not really just text, but send cute emoji. You can send your child any message up to 30 carriers through the GizmoHub app. The GizmoGadget lets them send you up to nine preset, customizable text messages in return, plus one of 39 customized emoji. If your child wants to send a more complex, asynchronous message—which my daughter often did—they can record a short voice message and send it via the texting app.

GizmoHub's location finding abilities has the same pluses and minuses as other similar gadgets. It's fast, but it's not exact, especially in buildings—it'll often give you an address that's a building to either side of the one your child is in, just like other location-based apps do. It's much better for tracking your child's progress across the city in a commute. You can request locations as often as you want, and you can set up to five geofences that alert you when your child enters or leaves a specific area.

If you don't need location or text messaging, you don't need the GizmoHub app; you can just call the GizmoGadget's phone number. Battery life was good for about two days of normal use. Verizon says it'll last for two hours of talk time or eight days of standby, but as I said, my kid likes emoji.

Conclusions

AT&T and Verizon currently have kid-focused safety devices. The LG GizmoGadget is more comfortable to wear than AT&T's Filip 2, and far more flexible than the LG GizmoPal. It's also easy to use, fun, appealing, and safe. For children too young to carry a real phone (or wear a real smartwatch), but who need to stay in touch with caregivers throughout the day, it's a terrific choice. I only wish it was also available for parents who aren't Verizon subscribers.