Smartphones are no longer only used by suit-clad business people. With the tremendous growth of smartphones it is only a matter of time of time before everyone owns them – in fact almost half of all UK teenagers now own a smartphone. And with all the upcoming low cost Android handsets coming, it is pretty obvious that SA should follow soon enough. Problem is – these smartphones are now more connected than ever, so parents will need a way to keep an eye on their children’s phone usage.
Mobiflock today announced the launch of its parental control service for Android phones (which was already available for Symbian). This means the child safety service is now available for almost 60%* of the global smartphone market. Mobiflock helps to make smartphones safer for children by giving
parents visibility of how their children are using their phones, as well as providing blocking and alerting capabilities to protect their children from harm. Although child safety and parental control services are established good practice in the computer world, they are only now also becoming available for the mobile device.
A Carphone Warehouse and YouGov study in the UK showed that 85% of parents don‘t use parental control services on their children‘s phones. In addition, nearly half of all parents were unaware that adult content can be accessed by mobile phone. Mobiflock has been specifically designed for the mobile environment and its particular challenges. Some of the existing dangers children might encounter, including bullying, accessing inappropriate content and sexual grooming, have spread to the online mobile environment. In addition, newer risks to children are emerging thanks to the popularity of the mobile phone, such as sexting, mobile chat or being online late into the night. What‘s more, a mobile phone is a very personal device and is often carried by the child 24/7 ““ further exacerbating the impact and potential of these threats.
“œThe digital generation gap that exists between children and parents today is unprecedented. This is impacting moms‘ and dads‘ ability to be effective, proactive parents,“ said Patrick Lawson, Mobiflock‘s founder. “œAs a first step, parents need to learn about how their children use their smartphones so that they don‘t over-, or under-, react if the child does encounter a dangerous situation. This way parents can educate their children about how to cope with online threats.”
Mobiflock is currently available as a free beta service. Parents can go and find Mobiflock in the Android Market: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mobiflock.android . Bandwidth Blog also previously mentioned the Symbian version of Mobiflock.
