RIM to introduce parental control features

BlackBerry manufacturer says future versions of BlackBerry 7 will have integrated protection features

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BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) is working on introducing new parental control features that will help to monitor children's use of smartphones.

RIM said the features will give parents the ability to control and restrict children's use of various services and applications on BlackBerry smartphones.

It plans to provide integrated parental control features in future versions of its BlackBerry 7 OS in order to allow parents to control various settings on their child's smartphone including the browser, text messaging and access to social networking sites.

BlackBerry App World 3.1 will also now offer content rating and filtering options for applications based on the CTIA Wireless Association’s “Guidelines for App Content Classification and Ratings”. This feature enables parents to set a rating filter in BlackBerry App World to restrict content of specified ratings from being displayed or purchased.

The move comes as it reiterated its policy to protect children from accessing pornography on mobile phones after meeting Telecom regulator Ofcom to discuss issues with the BlackBerry porn filter.

Ofcom said the problem appeared to be that phone operators are unable to apply filters to handsets, which means people who should not view restricted material can do so.

A spokesman for RIM said: 'RIM is committed to child protection and is an active member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).

'Access to IWF URLs are blocked on BlackBerry in the UK and this is being put in place in the international markets in which BlackBerry is available. 

'In addition, as a provider to mobile operators, RIM fully supports its operator partners around the world in meeting obligations and commitments in this important area.

'Content filtering support is available to operators from RIM that enables the operator to perform the content filtering function for BlackBerry smartphones.

'It is offered to our operator partners without charge. Operator partners around the world have implemented content filtering, including operator partners in the UK. Any reference to content filtering having been turned off is inaccurate. RIM continues to work with its operator partners to enhance content filtering for BlackBerry smartphone users.'