Mobile Phone Marketers Rebut Concerns on Marketing to Children
Several mobile communications companies, reacting to children’s advocates who want Congress to investigate the marketing of mobile phones to kids, say they are unfairly singled out.
Sprint, Walt Disney Internet Group, Firefly Mobile and Wherify Wireless all said they understand the concerns outlined in the letter sent to Congress last week by consumer advocacy group Commercial Alert. However, the three said they do not market their products and services to children.
Sprint spokesperson Jenny Walsh said the company has a written policy against entering into a service agreement with anyone under the age of 18, and that the company encourages parents to be involved in their children’s phone usage decisions. Sprint came under fire in Commercial Alert’s letter because of its recent announcement that it was working with Walt Disney Internet Group to provide Disney-branded phones and wireless telephones to eight- to 12-year-olds.
Disney said in a written statement that Disney Mobile is being developed as a service to address the needs of a family audience, and that its products and services will be available for all members of the family including adults. They will not target children eight to 12 years of age, as stated in Commercial Alert’s letter.
Firefly Mobile and Wherify both make kid-friendly products, but both said their products are marketed only to parents. Their products can only be used to receive and make phone calls to and from phone numbers pre-approved by parents through PIN protected menus.
“Firefly Mobile’s marketing efforts focus more on educating parents on how the Firefly phone can be a tool for their family communications,” Cincinnati-based Firefly Mobile said in a written statement. “The company is using public relations to articulate the value of a parent-controlled communication device like the Firefly phone.”
Wherify Mobile spokesperson John Cunningham said that some of Commercial Alert’s concerns are valid, but that the company believes it addressed them. In its letter, Commercial Alert wanted to know if adults other than parents could contact children through Wherify’s Wherifone GPS Locator Phone, which include Global Position System location tracking, without the permission of parents, making them vulnerable to sexual predators or convicted criminals.
Cunningham said only the parents, through a password-protected Web site, would be able to track their children’s whereabouts.
“Our core business is family safety, and this phone is an extension of our GPS wristwatch,” Cunningham said. “We’ve received feedback from parents who said they would like to have the same tracking technology in a two-way communication form.”
Mattel, whose upcoming launch of branded cell phones was also targeted, could not be reached for comment.
Portland, OR-based Commercial Alert sent the letter to all members of Congress last week claiming that the targeting of young children as the next growth market for the telecom industry is “one of the worst ideas to appear in the American economy in a long time.” The group’s complaints include potential runaway billing by the brands, that phones are a distraction for that age group, and, in the case of GPS phones, could make kids vulnerable to child predators.
“Does anyone really believe that kids today lack sufficient distractions from their school work, that there are insufficient disruptions in the home, and that child predators and advertisers lack sufficient means of access to kids?” the letter said.
