Majority of American Parents Reject School Cell Phone Bans; 84 Percent of Parents Agree That Banning Cell Phones from School Pr
August 28 2006 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
When it comes to controlling cell phones in the classroom, most
American parents think forbidding children from bringing cell
phones onto school property is an extreme measure. A recent survey
by ACE*COMM Corporation (NASDAQ:ACEC) reveals that, instead of
having schools set the rules on cell phone behaviour, 95 percent of
parents prefer to be the ones in control of their child's cell
phone use. Scheduling and safety concerns are the main reasons why
parents want their children to have access to cell phones during
school hours. Of the parents polled: -- 99 percent want to be able
to contact their child and have their child contact them via cell
phone in an emergency. -- 99 percent want their child to be able to
contact them by cell phone if an unsafe situation arises on the way
to or from school. -- 84 percent want to be able to contact their
child and have their child contact them via cell phone during
school hours if there's a change in schedule. -- 71 percent of
parents say their child needs a cell phone at school because school
administrators won't allow them to use the office phone except in
case of illness or emergency. Even though parents want their
children to have access to cell phones at school, they aren't blind
to the distractions the devices can create in the classroom.
According to the survey, 66 percent are concerned about their
children overusing text messaging or cell phones instead of
focusing on school or homework. Parents are also worried about
their kids using cell phones to cheat at school, but more so for
boys than girls. Thirty-nine percent of parents of boys are
concerned about cheating on tests by text messaging or cell phone,
which is significantly higher than the 31 percent of parents of
girls. To facilitate the appropriate use of cell phones, parents
agree that school boards should be exploring alternatives to a ban
on cell phones. Eighty-six percent of parents would like their
school or school board to work with their cell phone provider to
give students access at school to their cell phones with
predetermined limitations. Seventy-five percent also agree that
their cell phone provider should offer a feature which allows them
to limit their child's cell phone use at school. "Clearly, parents
want to have the option of sending their kids to school with cell
phones. Whether it's to ensure they know about football practice
being cancelled or an emergency situation, they want to keep the
lines of communication open," said Chris Couch, Chief Marketing
Officer for ACE*COMM. "At the same time, parents have concerns and
want to be in charge of controlling their child's usage. That's why
ACE*COMM is offering Parent Patrol(TM) to mobile service providers
as a tool for parents who want to take charge of their child's cell
phone use." Parent Patrol(TM) enables parents to monitor and set
limits on their child's phone use by setting boundaries on numbers
called, time of day, number of minutes used, and services accessed
(for example, text messaging), all as part of their family service
bundle. These restrictions can be applied once or dynamically
changed over an easy-to-use Web interface. Always-allow and
never-allow features enable exceptions, such as permitting calls to
and from parents at all times, or barring unwanted callers. This
means parents can control how their children are using their cell
phones in the classroom, while also ensuring that children have
access to their phone services for permitted activities. Unlike the
mobile handsets now being marketed directly to young children,
Parent Patrol(TM) can be used with any regular cell phone. Parent
Patrol(TM) also features capabilities for blocking mobile access to
inappropriate content such as porn. The online survey, conducted
for ACE*COMM by Itracks, polled 1000 parents of children between
the ages of 12 and 17 from across the United States, and is
considered to be accurate to within 3%, 19 times out of 20. The
survey was conducted between August 11th and August 18th, 2006.
Other key findings from the survey: -- 33 percent of parents are
concerned about their child being exposed to inappropriate content
over the Internet via cell phone. -- 41 percent of parents are
concerned about their child being exposed to sexual predators via
text messaging, while 31 percent are concerned about exposure to
mobile bullying or harassment. -- 78 percent of parents think it is
reasonable to give a child a cell phone at the age of 14 or
younger. -- 59 percent of parents would provide a cell phone to a
child under the age of 12 if their cell phone provider offered
easy-to-use parental control capabilities. About Parent Patrol(TM)
More and more, families are providing their children with mobile
phones for safety and security. But many parents want to place
limits on how those phones are used. Parent Patrol(TM) from
ACE*COMM lets parents define limitations and restrictions on the
mobile phones included in their family plan service bundle. For
example, they can limit their child's mobile usage to specific
hours - such as between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM. Or they can block text
messaging (SMS) during school hours. In all cases they can program
exceptions, such as calls to or from parents. Calls to emergency
services are never blocked. Restrictions can be customized for each
child on the plan, and changes are easy to make via
password-protected Web pages. For additional information, contact
ParentPatrol@acecomm.com or visit www.parent-patrol.com. About
ACE*COMM ACE*COMM is a global provider of network business
intelligence and advanced operations support systems (OSS)
solutions for telecom service providers and enterprises. ACE*COMM's
solutions are applicable to a range of legacy through
next-generation networks that include wired, wireless, voice, data,
multimedia, and Internet communications networks. These solutions
provide the analytical tools required to extract knowledge from
operating networks - knowledge customers use for asset recovery and
revenue assurance, cost reduction, improved operational efficiency,
acceleration of time-to-market for new services, and more effective
customer care. For over 20 years, ACE*COMM technology has been
effectively deployed for more than 300 customers, spanning over
4000 installations in 70 countries worldwide. ACE*COMM-installed
products are currently enabling the success of customers and
partners such as Alcatel, AT&T, Cisco, General Dynamics, IBM,
Level 3 Communications, Marconi, Motorola, Northrop Grumman,
Siemens, and Unisys. Headquartered in the Washington, DC area,
ACE*COMM has corporate offices in Australia, Canada, China, and the
UK. ACE*COMM is a registered ISO 9001 quality standard company. For
more information, visit www.acecomm.com. ACE*COMM and the ACE*COMM
logo are registered trademarks, and Parent Patrol is a trademark of
ACE*COMM Corporation. Except for historical information, the
matters discussed in this news release include forward-looking
statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that
could cause the actual results to differ materially from those
projected, including, but not limited to: the failure of
anticipated demand to materialize, delays or cancellations of
orders due to various factors, including business and economic
conditions in the U.S. and foreign countries; industry-wide
slowdowns, any limitations on customers' financial resources, the
continued convergence of voice and data networks, the continuing
success of the Company's strategic alliances for product
development and marketing, customer purchasing and budgetary
patterns or lack thereof; pricing pressures and the impact of
competitive products; the timely development and acceptance of new
products; the Company's ability to adequately support its
operations, and other risks detailed from time to time in the
Company's Report on Form 10-Q and other reports filed with the
Securities Exchange Commission.
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