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Though T-Mobile doesn't offer any cell phones specifically designed for kids and teenagers, the carrier on Thursday announced features that will allow parents to control how their children use their phones.

With the Family Allowances program, parents with a family plan can give their kids and teens a monthly allowance for using their cell phone. The allowance works on any T-Mobile phone and can cover all services including calling, messages, mobile Web browsing, and downloads. Once the allowance is used up, those particular features will stop working. However, kids will still be able to call any "always allowed" phone numbers that the parents set.

Family Allowances also lets parents set limits on the time of day a phone may be used, establish blocked phone numbers, and even limit use of the phone outright. The service will be available soon for an introductory rate of $2 per month for all lines on the family plan. A free add-on service called Web Guard will limit access to adult-themed Web sites on a phone's mobile browser. AT&T offers a similar service called Smart Limits.

Two decades ago, video games, like comic books before them, were written off as a form of entertainment strictly for children. Just like the comic book industry eventually produced mature, extremely-not-for-kids books like Alan Moore's Watchmen or Garth Ennis' Preacher, the video game industry has produced mature, extremely-not-for-kids games like BioWare's Mass Effect and 2K Games' Bioshock. These games can have violence, sex, and very strong language, and are not appropriate for children.

Fortunately, each of the three major video game consoles (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 3) include built-in security features to lock out mature games and ensure that kids can't play anything you don't want them to play.

The Xbox 360 and Wii use the Entertainment Software Rating Board's rating system. The ESRB classifies video games into a variety of age and content-based categories, like movie and television ratings. Games rated E or E10 are appropriate for most audiences, and can be compared with G- and PG-rated movies. Games rated T are most appropriate for teens and older gamers, and can contain violence, suggestive situations, and occasionally strong language. They're the game equivalent of PG-13 movies. Games rated M are intended for users 17 and up, and can include nudity, extreme violence, and very strong language. These are the R-rated titles of the gaming world.

The PlayStation 3 (and Sony's portable gaming system, the PlayStation Portable), use numeric levels. These systems can set security levels from 1 to 11, where 1 only lets the most tame games through and 11 plays nearly all titles. Though they can require a little more experimentation than the Xbox 360 and Wii, the PS3 and PSP can still help control what games your kids can play.

These three guides will walk you through setting up parental controls on each of the three major systems, along with the PSP.

• Microsoft Xbox 360
• Nintendo Wii
• Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable

The Playstation 3 has many great games. Unfortunately, the majority of those games are violent, bloody, and utterly inappropriate for children. Fortunately, the PS3 has a parental control system that lets you make certain your kids can play Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, but won't be able to load the ultraviolent Ninja Gaiden Sigma or The Darkness. The Playstation Portable contains a similar control system, so this handy guide can help you watch what your children are playing, both at home and on the go.

Please note: Unlike the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, the PS3 and PSP don't use the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's rating system. Instead they use a series of numbered levels ranging from 1 for only the most acceptable titles to 11 for almost all games. Level 5 approximately corresponds with T-rated games, though parents should experiment with the different levels to determine which level is most appropriate for their family. ... Read more

The Nintendo Wii has plenty of great games for children and adults. However, it also has a handful of incredibly violent titles that can be fun for adults but completely inappropriate for children. While Super Mario Galaxy is a fun, cute game children can enjoy, No More Heroes is an ultraviolent gorefest and Manhunt 2 will probably give them all nightmares. Fortunately, the Wii has a built-in parental control system that lets you limit what games your children can play. This handy guide can help you set up your Wii to make certain your children will only play appropriate games.

Please note: The Nintendo Wii uses game ratings designed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Like the MPAA and movie ratings, the ESRB divides games into age-based categories, including E for Everyone, T for Teen, and M for Mature. For more information on the ESRB rating system, visit their Web site. ... Read more

The Xbox 360 has a ton of great games, but not all of them are meant for children. You may have fun chainsawing zombies in Dead Rising or immolating deranged splicers in Bioshock, but your young child could get nightmares. Fortunately, the Xbox 360 has a parental control system where you can set it to make certain that little Timmy only plays E- or T-rated games, while you can still enjoy your ultraviolent carnage. This guide will walk you through the process of making your Xbox 360 safe for your children.

Please note: The Xbox 360 uses game ratings designed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Like the MPAA and movie ratings, the ESRB divides games into age-based categories, including E for Everyone, T for Teen, and M for Mature. For more information on the ESRB rating system, visit their Web site. ... Read more

On Tuesday, I wrote about the misinformation surrounding Mass Effect, a highly rated Xbox 360 game. I pointed out that, even if the game contained the obscenities various news outlets have falsely claimed it to have, parents can easily restrict their children from playing it on their Xbox 360. It's a simple matter of entering the "Family Settings" menu on the Xbox 360 dashboard, making up a passcode your kids won't find out, and setting the level of the games you want them to play. Keep it set to EC or E if you have young kids, T for teens, or even M if you just want to keep junior from playing the really naughty AO-rated games that you can't even find in most stores.

It's similarly easy to manage mature games on the Nintendo Wii. Enter the Wii system menu, access Parental Controls, select a passcode, and then enter the rating of the games you want your kids to play.

Unfortunately, if you have a PlayStation 3, you're going to have a much more awkward time. While the Xbox 360 and Wii's parental controls are transparently based on ESRB ratings, the PS3 uses a mysterious and seemingly arbitrary system of parental control "levels." You can set the PS3's parental controls from level 1 to 11, and neither the menu nor Sony's support site offer much context for what the levels mean. The lower the level, the PlayStation 3 site says, the greater the restrictions on games. Unfortunately, actually figuring out which games will be blocked by which level will require a bit of trial and error. The PS3 obfuscates DVD parental controls, too; while the Xbox 360 lets you choose the MPAA ratings of the DVDs you want to play, the PS3 again offers an inexplicable gradient of levels. Blu-ray discs aren't quite as awkward, but they could certainly be better; instead of levels or MPAA ratings, you can enter the age of the user to restrict Blu-ray playback.

According to GamerDad, level 5 under game parental controls should limit the system to T-rated titles, and level 3 under DVD parental controls should limit it to PG-13 movies. It's not the most certain system and you might have to nudge the levels up or down an increment or two to make sure the right titles get blocked and the right titles play, but it's at least a start.

The Xbox 360 and the Wii both have simple, transparent parental control systems, and it simply makes no sense that the PS3 doesn't. ESRB and MPAA ratings are the best methods currently available to determine the mature content of games and movies. There's really no reason for Sony to simply ignore these ratings in the parental control system in its PlayStation 3. A firmware update could potentially add ESRB and MPAA ratings to the system's parental controls, but you probably shouldn't hold your breath.

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.