The Walt Disney Co. last week launched a mobile phone service that lets parents locate their kids using the phones' GPS capabilities. Parents also can set spending allowances and track usage for voice minutes, text messaging, picture messaging, and downloadable content, and get alerts on their own phones when limits are reached. Don't fret about calls sneaked to friends during homework time: Parents can set usage based on times of the day and days of the week.
Verizon earlier this month debuted its Chaperone service, aimed at the 5- to 9-year-old set. Parents can set up geographic limits and get text alerts if their kids venture outside them. Kids can be tracked via maps on parents' cell phones or computers.
So if you're cut off by a cell-phone-yakking kid on training wheels, you know who to blame.
