Parents will now be able to control kids phones

[Captain Morgan]

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/usits...omautotaserces

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - Stun gun maker Taser wants to help parents, not with jolts of electricity but with a tool which allows parents to effectively take over a child's mobile phone and manage its use.

"Basically we're taking old fashioned parenting and bringing it into the mobile world," Taser chairman and co-founder Tom Smith said at the Consumer Electronics Show here, where the Arizona company unveiled the new product.

"Because when you give your child his mobile phone you don't know who they're talking to, what they're sending or texting, all of those things," Smith told AFP.

The phone application, called "Mobile Protector," allows a parent to screen a child's incoming and outgoing calls and messages, block particular numbers and even listen in on a conversation.

A dashboard on a parent's phone or a personal computer shows the mobiles being monitored and the permitted callers such as friends and family.

"You can start it out very restrictive and then as they get older you can relax those restrictions as that trust factor's gained," Smith said.

An alert is triggered when an unknown number calls a child's phone.

"I can click on this and it's going to say here's the person's who's calling," Smith said.

"I can either choose to block that call, allow that call or even answer that call and find out who it is before I release it through to my child.

"If it's Grandma, who I forgot to add, I can just click 'always allow' and I'll never see that alert again," he said.

Smith said that when listening in on a call "it's going to announce that to both parties." "We're not doing spyware. This is a collaboration effort," he said.

Smith said text messages, emails, photos and videos can be screened for inappropriate language or pornographic content. "You can see the image and decide whether you want to let it go through or not," he said.

Mobile Protector also allows a parent to disable a phone for a specified period.

"I see so many parents trying to wrestle with their kids to try to get them off the phone during dinner," he said. "You can punch this and say 'You know what, for the next hour your phone's not going to work during dinner.'

"Or, if they get in trouble you can say 'You know what, you're grounded, for 48 hours your phone doesn't work,'" he said.

GPS capability brings up a map showing where a child -- or at least their phone -- is at any given time. "In college I don't need to know where you currently are but for young kids I want to see where they are," he said.

Mobile Protector also has an "emergency feature" that could help locate a missing child, Smith said.

"I can call up 'records release' and it's going to take all of the data -- last known location, phone numbers, texts everything -- and that's going to go to the local authorities," he said.

Along with Mobile Protector, Taser is also releasing a tool known as "Driver Protector" designed to cut back on mobile phone use while behind the wheel. It requires special hardware in the vehicle and a Bluetooth connection.

"If it's a first time driver it's going to disable the phone so they can't text while driving or use the phone," Smith said. "As they get older, we can enable it so they have hands-free talking but still no texting while driving.

"Maybe it will alert me when they go over 90 miles an hour (145 kilometers an hour)," he said. "It's really going to be up to the parent how much they want to limit or not limit."

Smith said Mobile Protector and Driver Protector will be available this summer and will be a subscription service costing between 10 and 30 dollars a month depending on the selected options.

Smith noted that other companies have released similar tools but said "nobody's put the whole thing together" like Taser.

[sherri_chickie]

Sounds good in theory, and I like the idea of being able to monitor a kids cell phone, but I don't think I would give a phone to a kid I did not trust anyhow. I worry that it would be misused by jealous spouses or companies monitoring their employees calls.

[Kaneman]

No thanks on that, if I want my kid to know I don't trust anything he does or says I'll just tell him to his face.

[BobTheBiker]

this just sounds 100% like kaneman said, just says you dont trust your kid at all.

[Amorok]

I don't trust my kid, but at least with this he'll have a fair chance to earn my trust or prove me right, whichever happens. And when he does something stupid I'll catch it and there is that life lesson for him, all ready to go.

Also, it'll help me filter the rest of the world, and I don't trust the rest of the world at all. I'm not going to coddle him or never let him live his own life but while he's young I want to know what's going on at least.

[fatbuckRTO]

Parents who trust their kids generally don't know their kids. Or kids, period.

[t-homo]

For sure. Kids who are kept in a bubble until they hit college are much better off.

[Captain Morgan]

Originally Posted by t-rock

For sure. Kids who are kept in a bubble until they hit college are much better off.

I won't keep my little girl in a bubble because I know full well what the results of that are...

I'm going to do my best to raise her so she knows about life and the various pitfalls and hope to hell I arm her with the right amount of knowledge to make the best decisions, without giving her too much info on some things. I know she'll make mistakes, as we all do, but hope to hell her mistakes aren't so huge they screw up a good life for her.

[Kaneman]

I trust my kid to go out on his own, do stupid things, make mistakes, and learn to be a productive and responsible adult. I recognize an inherent risk or death or disability is possible when he leaves the house therefore I educate, guide, explain, demonstrate and so forth. Even children are to be held accountable for their own decisions to a point.

As far as the cell phone, I pay the bill so I need to see the minute usage...but I do not need to screen the contents of text messages or incoming/outcoming calls. Then again, I don't leash him when we go out in public.

[azoomm]

Originally Posted by Kaneman

I trust my kid to go out on his own, do stupid things, make mistakes, and learn to be a productive and responsible adult. I recognize an inherent risk or death or disability is possible when he leaves the house therefore I educate, guide, explain, demonstrate and so forth. Even children are to be held accountable for their own decisions to a point.

As far as the cell phone, I pay the bill so I need to see the minute usage...but I do not need to screen the contents of text messages or incoming/outcoming calls. Then again, I don't leash him when we go out in public.

Silly person and your accountibility...

Kidding, I completely agree.