Bullying over mobile phones is one of those areas that you would think should have been tackled already. And yet today one of the big boys of the mobile messaging world, Acision, has announced an operator level service to help with what it calls the “unmet need” for anti-bullying measures.
What’s the deal?
Acision has teamed up with a company called Echometrix, which specialises in on-line family safety. The solution they are suggesting isn’t just against bullying, but against all kinds of inappropriate messages that might be targeted at children.
The service is basically a text monitoring system for parents. It combines the existing messaging services on Acisions platform with the FamilySafety service from Echometrix, which would allow parents to receive alerts and review inappropriate messages.
The actual features are based on consumer research from Acision which claims that over 80% of parents want to have more control over when their child can send texts, as well as WHAT they can send and receive and who they can exchange texts with.
What we think?
Acision is claiming that if operators were to allow parents to exert this kind of control over their children, then more of them would buy phones for their kids. It’s a pretty heavy wink, to be honest, but I think it’s overkill. Sure you can buy a phone for your kid, but if you can review every text they send and receive then they’re not going to use it!
An Irish company called Anam created a service with O2 in Ireland last year – it allows parents to block specific numbers from contacting their childs phone. No calls or texts from any blacklisted number could be sent or received from your childs device. That seems like the best option for me. It gives your child protection while not having you looking over their shoulder the entire time.
Cian…if you are going to write up an article on a topic such as cyberbullying that has grown to what some are calling an “epidemic”, you ought to check out your facts before allowing readers to view your ill-informed and lack of depth opinion. Maybe you should reach out to the family in Deerfield Beach Florida, who’s daughter is in an induced coma after being beaten to an inch of death after another juvenille sent threatening texts and ultimately acted on them with a brutal attack while wearing steel toed boots. “Overkill”….you say??? And further you go on to say…”No calls or texts from any blacklisted number could be sent or received from your childs device. That seems like the best option for me”. First of all, that kind of protection has many flaws…PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK. And, why would anyone oppose new, inovative technologies that enable parents an option at an additional layer of protection from the day to day threats kids don’t even realize they are exposed with in the new digital world.
I think you have absolutely no idea about Cyber-bullying and or sexting. Cyber-bullying happens from normal people (friends, friends of friends, relatives, etc) – in which case your blacklist functionality won’t work.
However, I won’t go into lot of details but just that you got to understand Parent’s perspective and then write. I guess you have no clue whatsoever…..
Do you even know this industry at all?