With all those strange people online, hiding behind their computers, you can't really blame parents who get a little paranoid about letting their child have free access to the world wide web.

Well, if your child's main reason for wanting to go online is to chat with her friends (yup, those days when they are dangling at the end of the phone is long gone) then you have something which would guarantee that no online pervert would be able to contact your child...

The Girl Tech IM-Me is a wireless instant messaging system which was developed by Mattel's Radica division. It's a small pink (girls would really love this!) handheld gadget with an RF dongle where an antenna is sticking out.

You can plug it into the PC with Internet connection which you, dear parents, are using and your child can start chatting with her friends. It's safe because your child will ONLY be able to chat with those whose IM-Me names have been entered into their address books within dongle range.

Note, thought, that parents need to be in control of the dongle and to only approve users who your children actually know.

via Gadget Lab