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.