AT&T gives more control to parents to limit kids’ cellphone use

Here is good news for parents and not-so-good news for the children. AT&T Incorporated, the largest wireless carrier in the United States, has launched
a service giving parents wide-ranging control on almost all of its 63.7 million subscriber lines.

Parents are used to setting up filters on their children’s computers that bar certain websites and blocking adult-themed channels on their televisions.
Now, with millions of children – some as young as kindergartners – using mobile phones, the options are expanding for parents who want to set limits on their kids’ wireless activities, too.

The new controls introduced by mobile phone service providers include those that limit the hours that children can use their phones for calling or text messaging to those that block access to inappropriate content on the Web. Wireless companies and handset manufacturers also are adding new features that help parents keep tabs on where their children physically are.

The new service launched by AT & T has some of the broadest controls yet, including letting parents block text messages and calls to and from specific
numbers and also during certain times, like when kids are in school.

In addition, parents can filter access to certain content on a child’s phone such as chat and dating websites.

David Christopher, AT&T’s chief marketing officer for wireless, said: “We are letting parents feel good about giving kids cellphones without the unintended consequence of a surprise bill or behavior that they don’t know about.”

Yankee Group, a research firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, the United States, estimates that 72% of children aged 13 to 17 in the US has mobile phones now. Analysts expect that over 10.5 million children aged 8 to 12 will carry a mobile phone by the end of the decade.

Parents have been demanding more controls, especially as mobile phones have become minicomputers, like the iPhone, with music and game downloads and internet surfing – all of which make some parents uneasy. Even while parents want their kids to carry mobile phones so they can stay in touch, some schools want to ban them from classrooms because they are distractions.

Some wireless carriers allow parents to block text messaging or the downloading features on handsets altogether, but often parents cannot control to whom their children make and receive calls.

AT&T will block calls outright if they go over the plan’s allocated minutes.

AT&T’s new plans, named Smart Limits, let parents log onto a website and choose functions that ensure that kids can’t call friends when they should be in bed, for example, or send too many text messages. The website filter is inoperable when a phone is using a Wi-Fi network because AT&T can block only the content delivered over its wireless networks.

Calls to or from a parent’s number can be made to override the restrictions, and calls to 911 can be made any time.

The service will be available on any hand-held device AT&T sells. Smart Limits costs $4.99 a month, in addition to regular wireless service plan.

However, AT&T’s new parental control service will not work with any older phones that run on the old AT&T Wireless network.