The Firefly coming to Canada, specifically targeted at the 8-year old travelling salesman demographic.
What do I think?
I thinking I’m starting a pool on the first complaint to a Human Rights Commission.
The Firefly coming to Canada, specifically targeted at the 8-year old travelling salesman demographic.
What do I think?
I thinking I’m starting a pool on the first complaint to a Human Rights Commission.
Bad link
thanks.
You’re welcome and thank you for the prompt response.
I kind of like the idea.
Add in GPS, which will soon be standard and you could have a link to website for tracking your kid.
When i was growing up we would roam from home all day and be out of touch. I recall kids being called in for dinner with bells, whistles even a bugle.
If the cost was right (with Rogers?)i would like to be able to reach the kids as needed.
I wish there was a MOM/DAD key on my daughter’s cell phone, and she’s 24! Hey Missy – if you’re reading this, CALL HOME!
Firefly: Those heteronormative bastards!
The Firefly cellphone is a poor design for the modern Canadian pre-teen….
Not to mention- punching off a twelve hour shift in a plant with a background noise level of over 100 decibels, crawling onto public transit to come home, ( the bus is empty- good), and at the next stop, a guy gets on the bus, comes back and sits directly beside you, !?! hauls out a cellphone, and starts shouting into it in what appears to be an Ethiopian dialect, while the thing is parked around six inches from my face !?!
(Can I do him now?) welcome to ‘multi culti’.
Few years ago, my ladyfriend came back to Canukistan from Hong Kong, and we were windowshopping and stopped to look at a Bell Cell shoppe. She said I should have one, ( didn’t want one), she dragged me into the store and bought me one, ( didn’t want one), and then she told them to set it up so I could use it. The salesflunky goes onto the computer, sez I gotta bad credit record, and wants a 1,000 dollar security deposit to set me up. ( I don’t want it)- girlfriend gives him a thousand bucks deposit, and goes back to Hong Kong.
About a month later, she calls me on my landline and asks me how I am doing with my new cellphone? Told her I had never used it, never read the instructions, don’t know how, and she sez: “I paid a thousand bucks for that- if you are not going to use it, cancel the thing and get the deposit back.” Took me over four months to do that!?! Still have the useless cellphone, so gave it to my daughter- turns out that cellphone can only be set up and used by Bell Cellular, (headquarters-Montreal). Told her to toss it in the garbage…………
Tracking your kids by GPS? Creepy. Part of growing up, especially in your teens, is having some space and freedom to make mistakes. I wonder what kind of psychological problems will be caused by the constant surveillance of our kids?
Just ducky, I see another excuse for a parent cop-out when 10 year old Sally/Johnny is found attacked/robbed/involved in gang activities at 2am. “It wasn’t my fault, they had the Firefly”.
Although thinking about it, the “V chip” hasn’t stopped lazy people from complaining to broadcasters that their little angels saw a nipple (the horror!) while watching a program that their parents could have easily prevented them from watching in the first place.
I can see this as the Cabbage Patch Doll/GameBoy/ Gotta have it for the Christmas commercial retail season.
Damn, I remember talking to friends about this idea yonks ago – nice to see that I wasn’t just imagining the “nuclear toaster” or the “GPS booklight”.
I guess.
Frankly, I can think of dozens of ‘rents who’d buy the thing for their little dears, especially now that supervised play, legions of underpaid, mostly illegal nannies, and a whole curriculum of expensive activities have effectively replaced just letting the little beasts disappear with their friends between breakfast and lunch, lunch and supper.
Of course, there’s the inconvenient fact that there are studies on the ill effects of cellphone radiation on kids’ heads. I’m assuming the Firefly uses a weaker signal, or lower radiation, or something, or else we can expect the hand-wringing articles on the dangers of the kiddie-cell in five, four, three, two, one…
Beware anything Rogers. Carpetbaggers from the sugarcane fields where workers owe the company at the end of the month for *supplies* and *shack rent*.
Surprises and hidden extra fees. What fun. 73s TG
I’m wondering why any parent would allow an 8 year old to be out of their perimeter without being in the perimeter of another responsible adult.
8 years old is young to be completely unsupervised but what about 10 or 11 or 12? What age does it kick in that they have limited freedom to explore? As a 10 year old boy with my bike, we would be going quite far. I can imagine what it would be like growing up in a rural area.
A cell phone is just another tool. This firefly seems to limit who they can call which seems the main feature. Cost is going to drop until they are almost disposable.
As far as GPS think of if a child goes missing. Track location of abduction or actual location of child. Creepy? I want to know where my children are. Are baby monitors creepy?
“I’m wondering why any parent would allow an 8 year old to be out of their perimeter without being in the perimeter of another responsible adult.”
Give the lady a cigar! It’s a shame that you’re not a parent, Kate. You’re well qualified for the position.
“Creepy? I want to know where my children are. Are baby monitors creepy?”
It’s definitely creepy if your infant is free ranging enough that you need a GPS to track it. You should bloody well know where your 8 year old is without a cell phone. For older kids, time-tested parenting skills will work just fine. Let’s leave the tracking bracelets for inmates.
I noticed that the buttons have icons for Mom & Dad. In light of recent Liberal social changes in the definition of marriage, should that not be some sort of universal non-specific politically correct symbol representing partners that are not gender specific? Maybe a stick man or something? Suggestions?
The GPS also raises the spectre of who, exactly, is doing the tracking — the parent, or some high-tech stranger the kid met on the internet?
Maybe a stick man or something? Suggestions?
Stick “person”
When my 11-yr-old takes the dog for a walk (without me or with a friend), she takes my cell. When I let her and her same-age friend bus downtown (10 min) to go to a movie, she took my cell. Has my cell been forgotten at the playground? Once, but she remembered half-way down the block and raced back for it.
Would I get her a cell at this age? If she was taking public transit to school, possibly, but I would hesitate specifically because of the radiation concerns mentioned above (and because I know it would be used for a gazillion calls to friends to show how cool she is).
GPS tracking will only help if the phone is actually ON the child when kidnapped/abducted. How long will it take for the bad guys to check for that and ditch the phone first thing? (not very)
Candace,
Your concern with calls to friends is why this phone may be attractive. The ability to lock who calls can go to.
I have concerns with the radiation too. For me, if the cell does not have an antenna i will get a headache after 10 seconds use. I can imagine what it is doing inside.
I have been on a mystery novel kick lately. The abductor tossing the phone leaves evidence at the abduction site or where the phone was tossed. Not perfect but might be a possibility.
I am a tech geek. I like to use technology. This is tech that is going to happen. I remember how horrifed i was when i saw 15 year olds with pagers. Wouldn’t give a second thought nowadays to a teen with a cellphone.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Egale took the manufacturer to the Commission. Nor would I be surprised to learn that I’m paying for them to make the complaint, if there’s a cost involved. If it went to the SCC, I know there are costs, and guess where the money comes from? Ever wonder where all these challenges by special interests to the SCC get their money? Ultimately the taxpayer. The feds give it out to the special interests, right? They in turn then use the $$ to pursue the social reengineering the Liberals are too chicken to do the constitutional way and face the electorate for what they’ve done, whether right or not.
Your money. Their special interest supporters. That’s the way it works. I’d be shocked if anyone could prove otherwise.
For heaven’s sake, why doesn’t Egale simply paint the dress-clad figure over and replace it with another non-dress clad figure or vice versa? It’s much easier and doesn’t cost other people anything! Then everybody’ll be happy!
I’m not sure which is more offensive – the depiction of “mom” in the Amish dress than the homophobic separate-gender parents. Surely there should only be a single button depicting a village.
I bought my son a cellphone when he was 11 for his trips on the train during his access visits, it made him feel comfortable travelling alone and he could call me whenever he needed to hear my voice. I knew when the train was late before Via Rail did because I’d get a call from my son to tell me the train hit a car or something, so did all the other parents who were waiting for their kids under the same circumstances.
bty Candace, blogger comments is down I wanted to forward you a link to a mental health report research for Ontario’s system. you might find it interesting. It’s called the Kitchen Table Report, it’s the last post for today
HR
WTF – whatever happened to common sense parenting. Thank-god I’m 40 and this technology didn’t exist 25 years ago.
“I’m wondering why any parent would allow an 8 year old to be out of their perimeter without being in the perimeter of another responsible adult.”
Seriously, Kate? Maybe not in the city, but I thought you were a small town kid. I certainly had some freedom to roam at that age; ball at the school grounds, biking around town, exploring by the creek. My son’s not at that age yet, but it would make me sad to think times have changed so much he couldn’t hop on a bike and head off to the playground with a few friends by the time he’s 8.
Our perimeter at that age was the farm, which included riding our bikes to our grandparents place a mile distant. But there were rules that were defined by the likelihood of danger (the grid road was off limits, for example), and we knew to be in for meals, etc. Thus our perimeter was established by the geographical, temporal and expect-a-spanking-if-you-disobeyal.
When a kid is living in an urban environment, risk assessment is going to determine his perimeter in a different manner. But there still has to be a perimeter, and if you need a cell phone to feel confident in their safety, you probably need to narrow and enforce it.
Fair enough, Kate. I obviously read your reference to “perimeter” a lot more narrowly than you had intended.
Here is your cell phone.>>>Big Nanny/Sister is here now.Is Bell listening in?>>>>>>>
Still, I didn�t believe what he said about spies using his cell phone as a bug. If the cell phone is off or just sitting there it isn�t transmitting a signal.
Looks like I was wrong. Julian Sanchez at Hit and Run points out this chilling excerpt from a story in last week�s Guardian.
The main means of tracking terrorist suspects down has been the monitoring of mobile phone conversations. Not only can operators pinpoint users to within yards of their location by “triangulating” the signals from three base stations, but – according to a report in the Financial Times – the operators (under instructions from the authorities) can remotely install software onto a handset to activate the microphone even when the user is not making a call.
instapundit
I�m sure the police love this feature. Police states apparently love it, as well
What a good marketing tool! As if the kids need a shove to get hooked on life-long cell phone usage. This one is parent-driven. While we are at it, the GPS feature should be augmented by the ability to listen in at any time to what the little darling is doing. Get the kid desensitized to being spied upon at an early age.
The whole thing about cell phone brain damage has no grounds in scientific fact. Deal with it. Cell phones are a tool, not a social accessory to be embedded in one’s life. (Just think of those “important” conversations you have overheard.)
“Mom” and “Dad” icons will never go over. Most kids, I think, do not have both. And somebody will complain about the idea that parents come in one of each sex.
I thank my lucky stars that I grew up in the fifties in a rural area, not in The Brave New World!
The cell phone only lets you know where the cell phone is.
In case of foul play, do you suppose abductors would toss the cell phone?
It’s the chip implant that actually tracks the child in any event or misadventure.
Ok, that’s just over the top, even for the purpose of debate.
A shoe implant may be an idea. There is room for adequate antenna and battery power. It is discreet and the youngster does not have to dial or give it’s presence away.
A flat plastic envelope sewn into or clipped under a child’s collar could be voice activated and require no hand dialing at all.
Voice activated, the communicator could be keyed by a word like *report* or *water*.
OK techno-guys, no-hands lapel phones will sell like hot cakes. 73s TG
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