Some countries are only discovering 3G just now (LOL) while others are offering phones even to kids! NTT DoCoMo and FOMA present a really cute round phone for kids. Japanese parents prefer to give their kids a phone to provide it security when they come home between 7 and 10pm and have to wander through the dark streets, instead of picking them up… one really starts to wonder why there are so many kidnappings… The Oscar goes to Vodafone though. They are running a TV ad in which two 5-6 year old kids with their 12 year old sister see their parents off at the trainstation leaving for some remote part of the country and have a (Voda)phone to reach their parents in case of problems. I totally flipped when seeing that ad… but anyway, let’s get back to the phones, with this SA800i for Japanese kids. On top of this, they call like crazy, stack up huge bills and I remember this horrible story in which three 14-15 year old girls ganged up to force a fourth one to prostitute herself in order to pay for their 2000 EUR telephone bills! The poor little girl got raped by a 54 year old man and she jumped out of a window on the third floor because she could not take it anymore.

So thank you, NTT, for reinforcing the insecurity and irresponsibility of the parents in Japan!