With my oldest soon turning nine, I’ve realized that it will likely soon be time to find him a cell phone of his own. For the moment he gets by without one just fine since we live in a small town. He can walk or bike anywhere he needs to go, he knows the house number if he needs to call me while he’s out and his circle of friends is small enough that the parents all have each other’s phone numbers anyways.

But soon Zackary will be reaching the point at which a smartphone becomes a device for social interaction as much as for phone calls. Texting is a huge communication form for his generation and not being able to join in means that he will potentially be left out of activities planned through text. And as if that wasn’t enough of a motivation, my boys and I are moving later in the year as well. Zackary doesn’t really need a phone in a town as small as ours, but our new home is going to be in a significantly bigger area.

The problem, of course, is that even though I know my kids having phones one day is inevitable, I’m not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on one. As careful as my oldest son is with his electronics, I know how easy it is for accidents to happen and the idea of having to replace an expensive smartphone for my child just doesn’t sit well with me. That’s why I was so excited to learn that Alcatel OneTouch, one of the top ten phone manufacturers in the world, had recently come to Canada. [Read more…]