No SMS until you walk the dog

A lot has been said (and written) about the best ways to market mobile services to youth markets. But according to The Yankee Group, three quarters of kids' cell phone service is paid for by their parents, and another 10% split the bill. So to milk the youth market, it might be smarter to talk to the folks who are actually holding the checkbooks.

This was part of the thinking behind Mobile Guardian, a new service from Boston Communications that gives parents more control of their kids' cell phone use. Parents can limit the number of minutes their children can use the phone. They can also set cell phone curfews that restrict use after designated times of day.

That sort of control can keep kids from running up their phone bills, but it will also become more important as cell phones become a more common Internet access device and parents worry more about exactly where kids are “roaming,” said Tom Erskine, Boston Communications' vice president of product development.

“We heard more than once in focus groups about families that literally have a bowl in the kitchen,” Erskine said. “When the kids come home, they have to put their cell phones in the bowl so they can't use them in the house. The other story we hear is the parent who walks into the kid's room at night, the lights are out, and the parent sees the LED glowing under the covers.”

However, 53% of kids under 18 who own a cell phone have it for security and emergency reasons, according to Yankee, so a cell phone that goes dead after dark could be dangerous. That's why Mobile Guardian allows “always” numbers (like home or the police) that users can call regardless of restrictions.

In early pitches, Mobile Guardian sparked concern among carriers that it might give the customer too much power (after all, limiting late-night SMS use, for example, also limits revenue). But Boston Communications is selling the product as a way for carriers to tap previously unreachable markets. In focus groups, Boston asked parents at what age they felt comfortable giving kids a cell phone. Then they asked them how that answer changes with the addition of Mobile Guardian.

“The nice answer is, they felt comfortable, on average, about a year and a half sooner [with Mobile Guardian],” Erskine said, which stretches the addressable cell phone market at a time when penetration rates seem to have reached the fat end of the curve.

The product also can expand enterprise markets, he said, especially among small business owners who wouldn't otherwise arm their employees with cell phones for fear that workers would abuse them. Mobile Guardian lets small businesses control costs before, not after, the bill comes, and there's no paperwork required to delineate personal use from business expense. Guardian can also limit or at least monitor time-wasting mobile games and Internet access.

In fact, the new service reveals more than a few parallels between the parent-child relationship and the boss-employee kind. If nothing else, Mobile Guardian could prevent managers with mobile workforces from having to resort to the kitchen bowl.