Startup company releases cell phone especially for children 8-12

• It's a touchy question, best answered by parents considering their own family's needs.
• If you want a cell phone for a preteen child, an excellent choice would be the new Firefly from a startup company in Chicago named Firefly Mobile (www.fireflymobile.com).
• This is the first cell phone created specifically for ''tweens,'' children ages 8 to 12, with a design that gives mom and dad peace of mind.
• The phone operates on the Cingular Wireless network and comes with 30 prepaid minutes of talk time.
• Instead, there are only five buttons on the phone's face: a ''Mom'' button with a woman's silhouette, a ''Dad'' button with a man's silhouette, a ''Phone Book'' button for calling stored numbers, and the familiar green ''Start Call'' button and red ''End Call'' button.
• Parents can turn on a call-screening feature that prevents the phone from receiving calls other than from numbers stored on the phone.
• They hit the Phone Book button to scroll through up to 20 more numbers, such as grandparents or neighbors who can help out in a crunch.
• With call screening turned on, friends or unwanted strangers can't call in.
• The talk minutes expire in 90 days, a consumer-unfriendly policy that's all too common with prepaid wireless plans, so you have to spend at least $10 every three months.
• Minutes, at 25 cents each, cost the same as Firefly but never expire --- a big plus.
• But this is essentially a regular cell phone, without parent control features.
• Wherify, a small company in Redwood City, Calif., is promising its overdue Wherifone by September at about $150, with service plans from Cingular and T-Mobile starting at about $20 a month.
• Wherify initially promised to ship the phone in the spring of 2004 --- a track record that doesn't inspire trust in a company offering a service as vital as location tracking.