This is a bit false. After phones started adding cameras in 2002, only 3G phones started adding front facing cameras, because it looked like we would use videotelephony over the 3G-324M standard. The first 3G phones available in the UK in 2003 were also the first phones with front facing cameras, NEC e606 and Siemens U10.

As far as I'm aware the first phone with a front-facing camera was the Kyocera VP-210, released in Japan in 1999.