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a safe mobile experience for children is fast becoming a major
industry issue. Media attention is highlighting potential
threats from both content and contact. the widespread parental
concern could cause untold brand damage for mobile operators.
Newly formed adult content policies typically focus on rating
and access control for the over 18s subscriber base. However
concerns of parents for their 7 year old are radically different
from that of their 17 year old. Parents are looking for more
control over what services are in the hands of their young
children.
:: a value added service for parents.:
According to research conducted in the UK in 2003, 57% of
parents would pay additional monthly subscriptions to control
mobile access of their children. The same survey revealed
some parents would pay up to €7 a month for such a service.
Alatto PalGuard is designed as a Value Added Service offering
for mobile operators with all of the required customer facing
services and internal operator interfaces.
:: not just content but also contact.:
Initial parental concern over mobiles has actually focused
more on contact than content. Alatto PalGuard not only protects
children against pornography but also against contact from
predatory adults, offensive SPAM and bullying.
:: address the most significant concerns
of parents.:
The rapid advances in phone capabilities have caught parents
by surprise. The reality of phones with full internet access
and a digital camera in the pockets of children everywhere
they go, is now worrying parents. The most significant concern
is picture messaging capabilities, not only what images are
received but also to whom they can be sent. Alatto PalGuard
immediately addresses the sensitive issue of picture messaging
allowing parents to easily control inbound and outbound MMS
messages.
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enable parental control in a matter of weeks.:
Existing access control approaches typically
involve major network changes with the resulting lengthy
and costly internal projects. Alatto PalGuard is complementary
to such initiatives but benefits from a rapid project cycle.
The solution can be quickly interfaced with the operators
MMSC to enable parental control of MMS messages in a matter
of weeks.
:: extensible to other P2P services.:
While the first version of PalGuard focuses on MMS messages,
they solution is designed to address all P2P services over
time. The same VAS platform can easily be extended to SMS
and later to voice through the Parlay API.
:: unique.approach.
Alatto takes a unique approach to solving the difficult
problem of P2P communication. PalGuard instantly provides
a SafeZone for children to communicate with their ‘pals’.
Parents can simply add pals to the SafeZone using SMS, IVR
or Web.
Messages (MMS/SMS) can only be received from approved pals.
Importantly, outbound messages including pictures are blocked
unless sent inside the SafeZone. With PalGuard no message
revenue is lost, instead blocked messages are re-directed
to parents for action. In fact these message approvals/rejections
create extra data traffic for the operator.
The operator could enable parental monitoring of a designated
child’s P2P messages. Other options include enabling
‘friend of a friend’ logic to automatically
extend out the SafeZone.
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