Women Wired In

Posted by digitalsista on August 7th, 2008 in Community Technology, Mobile Computing, Old vs New Technologies, Social Media, Teens and Technology, web 2.0

I was attending the BlogHer ‘08 conference in San Francisco and came across a display for T-Mobile. They were asking people to fill out a “teens and cell phones survey”. I told the representative that I was very interested in the results of the survey. The results were sent to me via email along with the press release of their new family allowances program.

There is a lot of talk about the activities of teenagers and their cell phone usage. Wired wrote about this, titling the piece “She’s Gotta Have It:Cell Phone” implying that it is mostly a girl thing. Some commercials depict boys playing video games & girls on cell phones, as they are both ignoring their parents or commercials like this one that emphasize all girls want are cute phones with out functionality.

However, based on several reports, wireless companies are very interested in the teen population for the “teen goldrush”, as mentioned in “U.S. Teen Cell Phone Market Nears Stagnation“:

The number of teenage (12-17) cell phone users in the United States topped 16 million at the end of last year, after growing 12% in 2007.

Companies were banking on parents inability to control their teens cell phone usage and taking it all the way to the profit margin. I know this all too well, having many friends who told me that their teenagers’ cell phone bills had been $200 - $300 in one month. I have personally never experienced this because my rules were if you can “pay” for it you can have it. Of course, cell phones came and went because my teen couldn’t manage her minutes, even with the pay-as-you-go plans.

Wireless companies were selling safety to moms without disclosing the new dangers that lurk with the addition of cell phones like cyber bullying, abuse of texting, pictures and videos. Some have come up with creative ideas and contracts for parents to in helping them manage cell phone concerns, including the risks. Parenting Teens Contracts: Cell Phone Use is a great example of what parents should consider in their decisions.

Sprint teamed up with Disney, Cingular got the Firefly, and now T-mobile has family allowances. Each offered parents a little something to make them feel better about giving their children cell phones. Control over the minutes used, blocking some services, being able to call predetermined numbers but not others and a few other features.

The T-Mobile survey results were:

• What would motivate you to buy a cell phone for your child? 70% reported safety.
• At what age? 48% reported middle school.
• What concerns you most about providing a cell phone to your child? 46% reported not knowing who they are talking or texting with.
• Number one purchasing factor? 65% reported ability to manage usage.

There are still opportunities for parents who want to buy cell phones as a means for safety. The T-Mobile “Family Allowances” plan allows parents to set limits on minutes, messages or downloads. They can block specific phone numbers and adult themed websites. The name of the plan promotes the idea of parents giving an allowance for responsible cell phone use.

Rest assured there will not exist a plan that will take the place of parents. Parents must continue to monitor their children. Teens can find ways around all of these controls if motivated. In this web 2.0 society parenting needs to also include parenting 2.0.