Filtering phones

The cell-phone industry association (CTIA) is pushing its members to adopt controls that prevent children from accessing adult content on phones, Reuters reports. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, representing Cingular, Nextel, and other companies, said it's developing an education campaign and "guidelines that would also call on carriers to classify content either as available to users of all ages or restricted to those at least 18 years old." And not a moment too soon, since many of the latest generation of phones can access the Internet. For an early look at parental controls on cell phones, see my feature on this a year ago. About 21 million 5-to-19-year-olds in the US had cell phones by the end of last year, according to Reuters. The overall figure is 180.5 million (wireless subscribers in the US), up from 21.7 million in 2003, USATODAY reports. That's small compared to Europe, of course: "Eight of 10 European Union residents have mobile phone numbers while only six of 10 Americans do," Reuters reports separately.