New Cell Service Blocks Kids' Calls, Texts, Downloads

Sept. 5, 2007 — -- Dawn Clark, a sensible Leesburg, Va., mother, was startled recently when the one-hit wonder "Party Like a Rock Star" blasted from her cell phone. She certainly hadn't downloaded that ring tone.

Her 11-year-old son did, when he borrowed her phone to keep in touch.

"He had no idea what he had done," said Clark. "But, he had bought it and set it as my ring tone."

Now, Clark can buy a new service from AT&T — Smart Limits for Wireless — that gives parents wide-ranging control over the cell phones used by their children.

The controls can limit when a wireless phone makes and receives calls, restrict text messages and talk time, and set allowances for ring tones and other downloads.

For $4.99 a month, parents can log onto a Web site and allow only a parent's number, or block the number of friends who might be a bad influence, or curtail calls during homework time or school.

"Parents were looking for ways to set and manage limits without taking the phone away," said AT&T spokesman Jeannie Hornung. "It prevents surprises."

Kimberly Brown bought the new service and reversed the surprise on her 11- and 17-year-old boys with the blocker last night.

She had become exasperated with phone bills as high as $500, and texting that went on until 3 a.m. One son had even gone so far as to download a $20 a month "joke of the day" service.

The Atlanta mother instituted a "bedtime restriction" — stopping all incoming and outgoing calls between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The service allows her to designate 15 people who can reach her children in case of an emergency, a list that includes their parents, grandparents and a few family friends.

"They don't know yet, and I don't know if I'll tell them," said Brown the day before her sly purchase. "They're my children, and I can say what's good or not good for them. That's my role as a parent."

Rising numbers of cell-phone-using teens have become a key source of growth for the wireless industry, and the latest estimates show that, by the end of the year, 84 percent of the U.S. population will be carrying mobile phones, according to SNL Kagan, a communications research firm.