AT&T adds parental control options to cell phones

The battle between parents, school, and teens over cell phones involves many levers to push and pull. Now AT&T has added a new twist: for $4.99 per month per line, parents can add on customized controls through the new "Smart Limits" service. Phone options include limiting talk time, text messages, instant messages, and Web content and downloads.

Teens naturally balk at the idea of limits, but there are many advantages to making these controls available.

The ability to limit the time of day that a phone is used may help bolster the argument that kids can manage the challenge of bringing phones to school while keeping them turned off during school hours. Night owl kids may also benefit from having cell phone use restricted to reasonable hours. Late-night cell phone use has been cited as a major factor in chronic sleep deprivation among teens, who concentrate phone use around midnight, but may continue talking even later into the wee hours of the morning.

Though the restrictions will irk teens, I applaud AT&T's effort to make more controls available at the product level. Parents need options to ensure safe and reasonable use of mobile, Web-enabled phones, which by definition will be used outside the context of the ideal supervised "computer placed in a common area at home." As long as Mom and Dad are paying the bills, they have the right as well as the obligation to set reasonable limits.

[mcervi]

Just another revenue stream

I was somewhat intrigued when I heard about this...until I saw the $4.99 monthly charge and realized it is just yet another revenue stream for the cell phone companies. Is it really so hard for parents to actually enforce rules and discipline these days?

Granted, my oldest son is still about 2 years away from getting a phone (11 now), but I plan on just getting him a pay-as-you-go phone with 1,000 minutes for $100 per year. If he exceeds that, then he can pay to buy his own minues. If he uses it when he's not supposed to, I'll take it away (and with no contract, I'm not stuck paying a monthly fee even if he can't use the phone). And no TV or computer in his bedroom as those are just asking for trouble, too.

The funny thing is I don't think I'm that much of a hard-liner, but something is wrong with my generation (Gen X) that we seem to be teaching by action that technology is the answer to everything and that we, individually, are helpless.

[TRWPHX]

The real issue with parental control is not about 'when' children use the phone. My daughter's school does not allow them during the day; she will not risk detention and having her phone confiscated for breaking such a simple rule. The real issue is protecting our children from predators. This doesn't mean just blocking certain numbers as some cell companies do. It means giving the parent the ability to establish a locked down contact list in the phone that limits all communications (phone, text, pics, etc) both to and from the device. This is the only way to protect our children from the unknown friend-of-a-friend stranger who may obtain our childs phone number and attempt to prey on them. This would be especially true for the Gen X'ers who are so comfortable with these devices, they don't see the danger in giving their pre-teen child a device that opens up new communication channels that can carry signigicant risk.

[lmtaber]

You are so very right about that. I am a Gen Xer and parent of an 11 year old boy that offered unlimited access to my child, only to find that within two weeks he was viewing inappropriate content. I have since set an array of parental controls, but one of the most disturbing things to me was the language my son used in talking about girls and women to his little buddies in text messages. I want him to develop his own social life and define his own role in his friend group, but I was happy to catch him heading down this path early so we could talk about it and correct it. His communications are now subject to monitoring.