As technology gets more advance so do methods to use it destructively. Last month we looked at different ways that parents could control how their children used mobile phones. Since then research has been released which suggests that there is a demand for this type of ‘parental control’ to be put into the mobile market. Consumer research carried out by a leading message company, Acision, found that along with the rise in mobile cyber bullying, comes a significant demand for control over mobile devices.

The study showed 93 percent of parents would like to have more ‘parental control’ over the mobile messaging behaviour of their children, and over half of them would be willing to allow their child to have a mobile phone if networks enabled parental control features. Parents with children of all ages have a growing concern over their child’s safety, and acknowledge that mobile phones not only provide a platform for communication but for bullying also. A specific ‘blacklisting’ feature proved very popular as a way to combat cyber bullying, this would involve excluding certain people from exchanging messages with their child on their mobile device. Interestingly, this feature appealed not only to parents but to adults who had experienced mobile cyber bullying themselves.

At the minute there are ways to block certain people’s numbers from your mobile phone, but very limited access to messages on another device. Online Software such as Mobile Nanny, is currently available that gives users a range of different options to track mobile phone usage, but do these programs over step the mark? Will children be under constant surveillance rather than being kept safe, and how would you feel if you knew someone was snooping through your interactions?