Sexting, Speeding Teens Beware the Ra-Parents

Parents Are Listening Services Inc., (has) developed a program to better allow parents to monitor the contents coming into their children's cellphones. (Launching in September.)

It's one of many companies developing software designed to alert parents when children and teenagers exchange lewd text messages, communicate with predatory adults or taunt each other via social-networking websites. Another feature aims to curb texting and driving by disabling the messaging feature in a moving vehicle...

WebSafety Inc., based in Irving, Texas, offers a similar monitoring program that's been available for five months. The company's software draws from a unique library of 6,000 phrases deemed inappropriate, including slang and online abbreviations.

The program can monitor text messages, emails, instant messages and updates to social-networking sites such as Facebook. By using the phone's Global Positioning System, or GPS, features, parents can also set up no-text zones, such as on school grounds, to prevent students from using their phones to cheat on tests or taunt classmates.

Both Kid Phone Advocate and WebSafety's application send alerts as emails or text messages to the parent's computer and phones. The programs typically run in the background, so children don't know the alerts are being sent out.

GoGoStat, from Schakra Inc. of Redmond, Wash., was created by a team of former Microsoft Corp. employees. Like the other mobile parental apps, GoGoStat monitors the messages children send and receive to each other on Facebook, as well as photos that are exchanged. The program, however, doesn't have to be installed on the computer or cellphone; the app runs within Facebook. (more)