If they're too young to realize how to change the settings, you could put it on airplane mode and then enable wifi. That would only allow a wifi connection.

Removing the sim card might also work. I'm not sure if that would entirely disable the phone, but I believe it wouldn't and would still allow wifi use.

I just handed down my old 4S to my son with no sim card. Phone does everything like normal when on wifi, email, imessage, take photos etc. Just no cell connection for calls or using data off the cell network.

Just test with taking out the sim card before they go.

Just turn off roaming.

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Good to confirm that. Thanks! I'll actually likely be doing this with my son soon enough then. I guess that means they could also still make wifi calls with something like Google Voice, Skype, or Facetime as well.

Where was this stuff when I was a kid? I still remember typing on word processors, using floppy disks, it being a big deal when I could just email a paper to my professors.

Great idea, thanks!