Parents can now ’spy’ on their kids’ mobile phones

MELBOURNE - Parents will soon be able to “keep an eye” on their kids’ mobiles phones, thanks to technology already in use by American cops. Parents can receive alerts in the form of SMS and email every time their child gets a call from an “unapproved” number. My Mobile Watchdog, which is set to be launched in August for about 12 dollars per month, will also let parents to view any text messages, emails, pictures and calls made to and from their kid’s mobile.

Colorado police were said to have nabbed more than 50 paedophiles with the technology since last year, and parents maybe expected to put it to same use.

Geoff Sondergeld, managing director of Australian distributor Direct Connections, said that it was intended at parents of kids between eight to 16 since they were “overwhelmingly unaware who was contacting their kids”.

“And they are worried the people contacting their kids could be bullies or sexual predators,” the Courier Mail quoted him as saying.

But civil libertarians said such “snooping” would indicate a failure of a good parenting job and would also violated children’s rights to privacy.

Civil Liberties Council president Terry O’Gorman said: “This is the latest in a line of gimmicks where profit is sought out of parents’ perennial fears for their children.” (ANI)