Parents both like and dislike cell phones for kids

When Marina McDonnell considered buying her daughter a cell phone, the mother was of two minds about it: on one hand, she liked the idea of Lindsay, 12, being able to call Mom at any time, in case of trouble. But on the other hand, McDonnell didn’t want to spoil the child with a high-tech gift. "There are so many toys and gadgets on the market right now, and kids feel like they have to keep up with everything," McDonnell says. "I don’t think that because everybody else has something, she necessarily has to have it too."But eventually McDonnell did buy a phone for her daughter, who had wanted one for months. "I gave it to her for her birthday," the mother recalls. "I thought she was going to convulse." A survey from ACE*COMM Corp. suggests that many parents are of two minds about kids using cell phones, although the people that this Gaithersburg MD OSS provider interviewed had somewhat different concerns than McDonnell. Survey respondents said they like that their children can use the phones as safety measures. But parents also worry that kids will abuse their cell phone privileges, and distract themselves from schoolwork with text messaging and Web surfing. It’s a conundrum for service providers. "They do have a challenge dealing with this double mindset," says Chris Couch, ACE*COMM’s chief marketing officer.According to ACE*COMM’s survey, 99% of parents want to be able to contact their children and have their children contact them by cell phone in an emergency. As well, 84% said they want to be able to contact their children by cell phone in case of a schedule change. But 66% said they are concerned about children using their cell phones when they should be doing schoolwork. Numerous factors complicate the situation, Couch explains. Younger children around six years old are starting to clamour for cell phones. But parents wonder: at what age is it appropriate to give a child a powerful communication device? Parents of older children aged 10 to 12 recognize that cell phones are important social connectors among friends, but are these kids responsible enough to know when it’s OK to use the phone, when it’s not, and do they understand the financial burden it might put on a parent’s pocketbook? "As you move up older and older, it becomes more about appropriate use at appropriate times," Couch says. "You start to see things like bans on cell phones at the high school level. When we’ve talked to some of the teachers, they’ve said if there was a way to ensure…appropriate use of the phones, they’d have no problem allowing them because there is a benefit." Banning cell phones in school not popularThis summer, a group of parents in New York City sued the Department of Education after the board banned cell phones. The parents argued that the ban infringes their right to ensure their children’s safety. Couch says banning is a popular school board reaction. "I live in Montgomery County, Maryland. The school board here has banned cell phones – they’ve been banned for a couple of years now. It’s the same problem. Kids can’t even take the phones to school, or they’re taken away. So what happens if you’re late picking them up? What happens if they need some form of help?"According to ACE*COMM, 84% of survey respondents said banning cell phones from school is unacceptable. But inasmuch as the survey is a message to educators, it’s also an exercise for carriers. They have to convince parents that cell phones are safety devices, capable of providing multiple links to the world – text messaging, Internet, email and voice. But those very features could also connect kids to inappropriate content, and tempt children to use the phones too much. How do carriers deal with this double-edged sword? ACE*COMM, of course, sells a solution: software called Parent Patrol. Designed for service providers, it lets carriers give parents a chance to set limits on their children’s cell phone usage. Through a Web connection, adults could assert time-of-day, day-of-week, and service restrictions on a child’s phone. Parents could set a no-texting restriction during school hours, for instance. Couch says a Canadian carrier will turn on Parent Patrol before the end of the year, but he wouldn’t identify the particular operator. "They haven’t begun their marketing campaign yet. As soon as they do, we’ll be able to also announce it." Service providers are no strangers to the need for parental control of cell phones. Rogers Wireless Inc., for instance, offers the Firefly, a handset designed specifically for children. Instead of a conventional keypad the Firefly has just five buttons on its face. Parents can program the buttons to connect to specific phone numbers – Mom at work, Dad’s cell, et cetera. The phone can also be programmed to forbid incoming calls from particular numbers, and its directory is PIN-protected. So limited, the phone is designed to keep kids from racking up massive airtime charges. Bell Mobility, meanwhile, offers its Seek and Find service as a potential cell phone safety measure. The service lets parents find a child’s cell phone – and presumably the child himself – via an online application and GPS. The system can be programmed to alert parents when their children are leaving certain landmarks, such as school or a part-time job. Kelvin Shepherd, president, consumer markets at MTS Allstream Inc., says his company aims for flexible, parent-friendly solutions. For instance, parents could opt for the Buddy plan, which adds a cell phone to a parent’s existing plan. This secondary phone for the child relies on the parent’s minutes, and the child’s calls appear on the parent’s bill, so Mom or Dad can review junior’s usage. Pre-paid phones are a popular option too, Shepherd says. And MTS has teamed up with Manitoba Public Insurance to give free mobile voice mail to teenagers, so instead of answering the phone while driving, youngsters can let calls ring through to the message system."We try to give parents lots of different options so they can decide what’s important to them," Shepherd says. Trust, a key part to child cell phone ownership issueNo matter how service providers handle the situation, parents will ultimately decide the best route. McDonnell gave Lindsay a pre-paid Telus Mobility phone with a set amount of airtime and 100 text messages per month. McDonnell also laid down the law on usage. "When she leaves for school she calls me from the home phone to tell me she’s leaving. When she gets down to the green box in front of the school she texts me to say, ‘I’m at the green box, love you, have a great day.’" McDonnell trusts Lindsay to know when to use the phone and when to leave it in its pouch. Misuse or over-use "wasn’t even part of the deliberation," she says.Lindsay says strict rules govern cell phone usage at school: "If you take out your cell phone, they’ll confiscate it." Initially, Lindsay wanted a Firefly – the kid-friendly phone offered by Rogers. But "I’m so glad I got the phone that I have because the Firefly really limits what you can do," she says.Asked if Bell’s Seek and Find service interests her, McDonnell says, "If you’d asked me on the first day of school, I would have said put it on." But she adds: "I need to know Lindsay can grow up, and I need to trust that I’ve taught Lindsay sound judgment….It might have made me even more nervous, because it’s one more thing for me to check in on."

Parents both like and dislike cell phones for kids

News | 09/21/2006 4:00 am EDT

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