Protecting your kids...
Via MobileCrunch, AT&T recently announced a new set of parental controls, which allow parents to set limits on the way their kids use mobile devices.
Don't kid yourself - this is in direct response to ongoing investigations of the ring tone space by state and local regulators, and paralells what some of the adware companies were doing a few years ago.
The adware companies were, generally speaking, enticing kids to download their software which was bundled with screen savers or file sharing programs such as Kazaa. Parents would come home to computers which (at times) were rendered unusable due to aggressive pop-up ads.
Companies in the ring tone value chain were enticing kids to sign up for ring tone subscriptions at $9.99 per month. Here, parents are often left footing the bill for something that they had no idea that their 16 year old had purchased.
As a parent, if I'm going to allow myteenaged kid to use what amounts to a credit card, I'm going to want to be able to exercize some control over how they use it.
Don't kid yourself - this is in direct response to ongoing investigations of the ring tone space by state and local regulators, and paralells what some of the adware companies were doing a few years ago.
The adware companies were, generally speaking, enticing kids to download their software which was bundled with screen savers or file sharing programs such as Kazaa. Parents would come home to computers which (at times) were rendered unusable due to aggressive pop-up ads.
Companies in the ring tone value chain were enticing kids to sign up for ring tone subscriptions at $9.99 per month. Here, parents are often left footing the bill for something that they had no idea that their 16 year old had purchased.
As a parent, if I'm going to allow myteenaged kid to use what amounts to a credit card, I'm going to want to be able to exercize some control over how they use it.
