LG

I went to us cellular today because my daughter needs a new phone. She wanted the UX840Tritan, but was told you have to purchase the internet plan or the phone simply won't work--they said the phone is totally useless without the internet, pretty much would be more useful as a paperweight--is this true?

The part of the internet is true. You must have a data package when you purchase the phone. Now the part about being a paper weight is a little extreme. I am an advocate though of people paying for a phone that you will take advantage of and use the full capability of the phone that you paid for. The data is an integral part of this device.

I think it is ridiculous that there isn't a decent phone that teens can use without having to have the internet. My daughter wants a touchscreen, but I don't want her to have the internet. If there was a way to do parental controls, I may consider it, but US Cellular really does not offer any options in this area. I have found an LG UX830 (Glimmer) on Ebay for her. It was a good option for the kids, but they only carried it for a short time. They need to get up to speed on this.

I think that some sort of filtering service is a great idea. I have also seen this posted before on this forum. So, hopefully the demand is there and we will see something developed. Especially as we see kids younger and younger using data on cell phones.