A startup in the co-working space I'm in is addressing this very problem: http://www.zeebu.com/
They create smartphone games for little kids. Twenty-first century pacifiers? Apparently the kids love them!
They create smartphone games for little kids. Twenty-first century pacifiers? Apparently the kids love them!
What I'm thinking of, though, is a dedicated device. You don't need a smart phone for kids games; all you need is some audio/graphics and whatever it is that runs Java ME in these things. Given the price of cheap Nokias, it should be doable for less than $100, especially since you don't even need the actual phone machinery.
A large part of the reason for a dedicated device is that most kids are not going to accidentally make calls, they're going to accidentally drop your expensive phone or something else that will physically damage it. A 'toy phone' could be made a bit more resilient...