Sanyo has produced a new cell phone designed for children. Japanese operator KDDI (I don’t know what that stands for, but it sounds appropriately like “Kiddie”) has designed their new mobile phone, the A5520SAII, with little hands in mind. From what I see, the buttons look like the kind on a child’s toy phone: wide and round. No doubt the operating system screen will be vibrant, colorful, and very user friendly.

There one special feature that parents will appreciate the most. In the event that the A5520SAII is shut off or battery goes dead, the phone will send out a GPS signal. This signal will inform the child’s parent or guardian (via email or other cell phone number) the location of the child’s phone.

The child can also use the phone to emanate a loud alarm or “crime prevention buzzer” that will send an alarm to the parent in the event of an emergency. When this has been activated, the phone will make an audibly loud sound that signals to an offender that help is on that way. It will also cue in bystanders that an emergency is taking place.

Three thoughts on the features:

First, it is going to be difficult to discover an actual emergency. Considering how often adults forget to charge their cell phone, you can imagine what this will be like with kids. No doubt the batteries in these phones will die constantly, and parents everywhere will be informed. Then what happens? If they go to where the GPS directs them, the child may have had a long time to move since then. How will the parent communicate with the child then?

Second, children could use the “crime-prevention buzzer” in times when it is not needed, thus creating the potential for more false alarms. The more the reports of false alarms occur, the more likely bystanders will ignore them. So in the event of an actual emergency alert, many around may assume “it’s the boy crying wolf again”.

Third, those who will want to abduct children will more than likely adapt to this new technology. They can steal a child’s cell phone and activate the emergency beacon far away from them, which will effectively throw the authorities off their trail.

The phone is not yet released in Japan, but I would imagine if it goes over well, it will not take long for us to adopt it.

Via CellPhoneNews.net