AT&T suspends parental control service

AT&T confirmed Monday that it has suspended a new service that lets parents limit usage on their kids' cell phones after the company realized that there was a potential issue with 911 emergency services.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Monday that the "Smart Limits" service, which was launched on September 4, has been temporarily suspended. Smart Limits is a new parental control service that allows parents to restrict phone calls to and from their kids' phones during certain times of day. This feature allowed parents to limit or block cell phone use on their children's cell phone during school hours, for example.

Even when call restrictions are in effect, the service still allows phones to reach 911 operators. But during a routine review of the service, AT&T discovered that if restricted users were disconnected during their 911 call, that the 911 operator was blocked from calling back the phone.

The company has said that it isn't aware of any specific incidents where this has occurred, but it has suspended the service until a resolution can be worked out. Parents who subscribed to the service were credited the $4.99 monthly charge. But they are still able to use other parental control features as part of the service, such as setting restrictions on the mobile Web or downloadable content.

"The service was very well received by customers in the first few weeks it was available," said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. "But the safety and security of our customers comes first. We plan to reintroduce the service as quickly as we possibly can."

[Solaris_User]

It just doesn't work right.

AT&T contracts out everything and they run into problems when they cant get their e911 people talking to their "smart call" people.

God forbid they do their own 911 service ehh?

[scc4fun]

Re: It just doesn't work right.

"God forbid they do their own 911 service ehh?"

Um, the 911 service is the 911 service done by the various counties and cities. The problem is creating a whitelist of numbers that 911 operators would call people back from so they would not be blocked by the parental control service.

[Rick Cavaretti]

They charge for that?

The bottom liners are out of control. They charge $4.99 for a
service they should be providing for free. Exactly how many
different new ways can corporations squeeze new money out of
people. The pie can't be further divided without the people
starving.

[three_toed_frog]

Safety and security.

But not privacy.

Goodness, no.