Over the past few years there have been a number of attempts to create the perfect kids’ phone. Firefly, Migo , Wherify, Tic Talk, and others come to mind. But you know the old rule of kids, don’t you? The kids don’t want the kids’ phone! They want the cool phone. Kajeet, a new telephone offering for pre-teens and teens, created by three dads, is hoping to appeal to kids because they’ll be using regular cool telephones from name manufacturers like Sanyo, LG, and Nokia. They’re hoping to appeal to parents because parents will be involved in selecting the kinds of services and privileges their kids can enjoy. The combination could be a real winner!

The phones have full text messaging, cameras, and are Internet enabled. They work on a pay-as-you-go plan. One of the benefits of pay as you go service is no hidden costs. You always know what you’re spending and there are no cancellation or activation fees. No pesky two-year contracts either. You pay 35 cents a day, plus 10 cents a minute for talk time, 5 cents per text message (in and out), and 25 cents for every photo that’s sent or received. Of course, this could get pricey with a chatty or undisciplined child, and that’s where the parental input comes in. With Kajeet, parents can use a special configurator to go online and set some parameters around phone usage. A parent might decide, for instance, to pay the phone bill, but let the kids use their own allowance to pay for text messages. Or a parent could lock the phone down during classroom hours (911 and calls to parents always allowed). Individual phone numbers from undesirables can be blocked, too.

What’s intriguing about Kajeet is that it almost forces the discussion about how the phone will be used since you’ll have to visit the configurator in order to use it. You should start seeing these phones in stores this May, and it may be just the ticket to let the kids use full-fledged cell phones with parental guidance.