It's also a time travelling device, look at the date of the call from Mum!!!

Surely 'kiddie-friendly' is a relative term? IIRC, the government still warns against children's use of mobiles because of the proximity of a source of microwaves to their developing grey matter. A phone that only allowed texting might be a better solution.

There is this, of course, but it might be somewhat lacking in street cred...

http://www.teddyfone.com/about_teddyfone.shtml

If your child is under ten and you have to ring them to find out where they are, you're probably not doing a good job of being a parent?

Having one of these phones for your 10 and under child doesn't necessarily mean you aren't doing your job as a parent, and in ways this could be put to good use to increase your awareness as a parent. I have 2 step-daughters under the age of 10 and to put it lightly my wife and I deal with a very hostile father's family. During scheduled visitation and summer breaks from school while they are not at home we may not have contact with them for days or weeks because they screen the mother's calls and won't pick up, and they won't let the kids use the phone to call us if they need anything. So this would be great to let them bring with them so they could keep in touch when they want to. They are also old enough to go out with friends if their parents go with. Some of our kids friends don't have cell phones, and are unreachable.

And you think their call-screening father's family isn't capable of confiscating these phones while looking after the children?

"Some of our kids friends don't have cell phones, and are unreachable."

Just like everyone, before they were invented. "unreachable by mobile phone" != "unsafe".

Cheaply built (judging by the product shot), tacky design (looks like something that fell through a timewarp from one of the more benighted parts of the 70s), horrible colour. Are kids actually supposed to want to be seen with one of these, or am I wrong and cheap grey plastic is the new black in playgrounds this year?

In any case call restriction is surely something that's more sensibly implemented at the level of the service provider. Don't UK phone companies offer such services?

They've pitched this completely wrong. They should be marketing it as a tamagotchi-esque device with phone capabilities, rather than a crappy phone with a few 'educational' games.

The kids are much more likely to want to carry it around with them.