Bell giving parents option to block cellphone porn
Last Updated: Friday, October 31, 2008 | 5:11 PM ET
CBC News
Bell Canada Inc. is looking to give parents the ability to block inappropriate websites on their children's cellphones, for a fee.
The Montreal-based company on Friday announced a content filtering service for both its Bell and Solo branded phones that parents can use to block websites they don't want their children accessing, such as pornographic pages.
"As use of the internet on mobile phones grows, fuelled by the popularity of smartphones and the fast access speeds delivered by 3G networks, our clients have asked for tools to help them manage access," said Adel Bazerghi, senior vice-president of products for Bell Mobility, in a statement.
"Bell Parental Control offers them content filtering capability on mobile phones for the first time in Canada."
Account holders can log onto a self-service website to register websites they don't want showing up on the cellphones they pay for.
The service, however, costs $5 a month on both prepaid and postpaid accounts.
Julie Smithers, a spokesperson for Bell, said the fee was necessary in order to recoup the costs of the service.
"We've obviously invested resources in developing it and will incur ongoing costs in offering it," she said.
Many other consumer electronics, including video game consoles, computers and television recorders, also feature parental controls, but at no additional, ongoing cost.
