Parental Controls Challenge Human Rights

March 31, 2011 - PRLog -- MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 31 March 2011

Phone Bullies Raise Rights Storm

This story generated significant Public Reaction in New Zealand, see the attached fact sheet.
Sally Rae and Steve Herstell launched www.MyFone.mobi after deciding to give Sally’s two daughters cellphones so they could contact them if plans changed.  They were worried, like many other parents, that the girls would be exposed to a variety of cyberspace bad behaviour.  They set out to create a product to monitor children’s Android cellphones and prevent phone bullying, sexting and grooming.

“We had heard the horror stories about children affected by bullying and so we got to thinking,” says Ms Rae. MyFone lets parents see via a protected website all the numbers called and answered on their children’s phones and the content of all outgoing and incoming texts.  It also lets them know where their child/children have been or where they are now.

“We know this is controversial because of the whole civil rights issue but what’s more important – our children’s civil rights or their safety and protection?” (See fact sheet for results of on-line poll) asks Ms Rae. “To me that’s a no-brainer and if you sit and talk to your kids about why you are doing this there shouldn’t be a problem.  There wasn’t with our girls.

Bullying affects almost half of all American teens;  19,000 attempted suicides occur each year in the U.S. because of cyber-bullying, according to the Cyber-bullying Research Center.
We are now one step closer to preventing tragedy and the long-term effects on our children of these problems.”

“MyFone gives busy and concerned parents the tool to make mobile communication with their children safe and secure and by parents working with their children we can help create a generation savvy and appropriate in its use of technology.”

The www.MyFone.mobi service and site is also designed to educate parents and their children about appropriate phone use and gives valuable tips to parents and guardians.
School principals around the country have welcomed the ground-breaking new product as has www.NetSafe.org.nz.

Principal of New Zealand’s largest secondary school, Rangitoto College, Dave Hodge says MyFone will reduce phone bullying, save hours of school time and help parents take a share of the responsibility.  

“Schools want this service available for their students immediately,” says Ms Rae.  “It really is going to make a difference in the world.”

ENDS



Background Information and Editor’s Note

MyFone’s founders are Sally Rae and Steve Herstell.

Sally is a senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology and has daughters aged eight and 10.  Born and educated on Auckland’s North Shore Sally went to Massey University to study industrial science, horticulture and marketing.  Sally lectures in marketing, management and finance and co-operative education. She is currently considering doing her PhD in the area of self-esteem and cellphone usage.

Steve also has two daughters and recently left Telecom to manage the MyFone business.  He spent 10 years in the British Army in signals and communication and has a degree in electrical communications.  Steve was the founder of the successful www.sparesfinder.com service during the dot com boom and sparesfinder is one of the few dot com companies that still exist.
Sally, Steve and Sally’s daughters (aged 8 and 10) are happy to give interviews or have their photographs taken.

Please contact Sally on +6421 683334, Steve on +6421 623922 in that regard or for more information about MyFone.mobi.  

NetSafe’s CEO, Martin Cocker (+649) 3530628 and Rangitoto College Principal Dave Hodge are also happy to be interviewed.


FACT SHEET

Phone Capability

Many if not most parents are blissfully ignorant of the capabilities of their children’s cell phones.  With cell phone culture being as powerful as it is, and with cell phones becoming more capable every year this is creating a whole void that parents know little about.

Public Reaction to the news in New Zealand

There was a significant amount of public reaction.  Myfone.mobi featured on

a. Prime Time TV http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/text-monitoring-system-...

b. Major Newspapers, e.g. the New Zealand Herald, Page 1 promo and article on Page 3 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&obje...

c. Internet news sites  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4805461/Worrying-product-...  this site ran a poll with significant feedback (for New Zealand).

d. All radio news

Phone Bullying

According to statistics from Family First Aid, about 30 percent of teenagers in the U.S. have been involved in bullying, either as a bully or as a victim of teenage bullying..
Phone bullying is the repeated, deliberate psychological and emotional harassment by one person, or group, of another.

It can include intimidation, threats, harassment, humiliation, exclusion and extortion.
It can be instantaneous and widespread and can have devastating effects.
The bully can access the victim 24 / 7 so there is no escape.

Unlike the bruises from traditional bullying, phone bullying leaves no visible scars however the psychological damage may be much more serious.

The longer lasting effects of bullying can include reduced self-esteem and self-confidence, increased anxiety and fear, depression, withdrawing from school and social gatherings and self-harm and suicide.

Many parents are more nervous about the ‘grooming’ risk for their children, however, Netsafe’s Sean Lyons, says phone bullying is far more serious and urges parents to be more vigilant.
Only one in 10 children will tell their parents or an adult about the bullying for fear of being ridiculed or ignored.  They are also afraid they may be punished twice by having their cell phone taken off them.

Sexting

Sexting is the making of sexual and / or provocative images or messages on their cellphone and passing them on.

Images can be passed on to other networks immediately and once that happens the sender loses all control.  There is virtually no chance for the sender to rescind their actions.
The images become part of a young person’s ‘digital footprint’ and will be with them forever possibly having humiliating, negative impacts on their career opportunities, self-esteem and their relationships.  The worst case scenario is suicide.

It is reported that one in three teenagers has been part of receiving or sending sexual images of themselves or others via their cellphones.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and Cosmogirls.com 2008 survey found a variety of reasons for sexting:
• The majority are sexting to their ‘special friend’.
• Boys (39 percent) and girls (21 percent) sent texts to prospect for a date or to become physically active with the recipient.
• Teen girls (51 percent) and teen boys (18 percent) did it in response to pressure from their boyfriend / girlfriend.
• More than half did it for fun or to be ‘flirtatious’.
• A third of those surveyed knew the recipients would extend the sexts beyond the person it was sent to.
• Fifteen percent send sext images to people they met over the internet.

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Parental Controls for Android Mobile Phones. From a secure web page, track child location and trail, all calls in and out, all texts in and out, and in the next release due 1 May 2011, all webpages visited.