Parents asking their children to control the amount of time they spend on the phone is not exactly new. It’s been around probably as long as the telephone bill if not the telephone itself. Cell phones have given children and teenagers a completely new and high tech way to increase expenses, but a new web site launched by communications giant AT&T;, AT&T;’s smart limits for wireless is giving parents the tools to fight back.
Not only will AT&T;’s Smart limits for wirless service allow parents to block which websites their children can visit for their cell phones, it will also allow the phones to have limits set on minutes used, text messages sent, and the amount of files that can be downloaded from the Interent.
The intent is not only to keep their children safe from Internet sites and other content that may be inappropriate for children of their age, but also to give parents a way of controlling or eliminating unexpected charges from their bill. The service will cost approximately five dollars a month for each additional number on the plan.
Additional services offered for people who use the AT&T; smart limits for wireless plan will be choosing the hours when phones on the plans can text, blocking calls from certain numbers, and when the phone can receive calls. The smart limits for wireless plan also addresses another problem which has to do more with how additional cell phone lines are marketed rather than what their kids do with their newly acquired cell phones. A new line may only cost about ten dollars a month, but many parents go into shock when they receive the bill and see what their child has been doing with it. AT&T;’s new service will allow parents to go to a website to set parental controls, in much the same way monitoring software can be used on the Internet.
While determined teens will probably soon find ways around AT&T;’s Smart Wireless Plan, the idea which has been in development for over two years will give parents more control over the uses their children put their cell phones to. Some concerns remain about parents simply blocking a phone number of someone they do not like, but those arguments are currently in the future.
Sources:
Web Site Lets Parent Control Cell Phone Use.” Jeff Elder. Tuesday, September 4, 2007. The Daily Item. Sunbury, PA
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2007/09/03/daily5.html
