Cellphones for children are a hot ticket lately. If you've got a 'tweener or teen in the house, you know this all too well. Either the child's got a cellphone (and is checking out ads for newer models) or is begging for his first.
While it doesn't have the cachet of the first driver's licence or first kiss, that first cellphone has already reached rite-of-passage status. To the child, it's a symbol of responsibility and freedom -- not to mention a fascinating high-tech toy. To a concerned parent wanting a where-are-you-now link, it's nearly as good as a homing implant.
So it rang true when Consumer Reports recently reported that more than a third of 11 to 14 year olds have their own wireless phone.
But wrong numbers do happen. As the number of cell-toting children
multiplies, so do related issues -- possible health risks, an anticipated assault of commercials, increased outsider access to children. Oh, and did you see this month's phone bill?
Maybe none is of the nightmare proportions portrayed in Stephen King's new techno-thriller novel Cell (you don't want to know), but they are problems. Some unexpected, as my colleague Roxanne Roberts discovered after buying her son, Carter, his first wireless phone for his 13th birthday.
"He's getting around on his own more, and we thought he should have his own phone,'' says Roberts, who as half of the Reliable Source duo in The Post's style section, knows her way around a telephone. Roberts signed up Carter for a Cingular 'GoPhone'' account -- a pay-in-advance plan that charges five cents per text message and 25 cents per call. She set his monthly limit at US$10, figuring that should accommodate a teenage newbie's cellphone habit and teach him a little about sticking to a budget.
rapid-fire beeps
But within an hour after the account was activated, Carter's new phone erupted with the rapid-fire beeps and buzzes of a couple dozen incoming text messages -- the latest scores from the NFL and scoring possibilities from the online dating service Match.com. By the end of the day, half of his monthly budget was shot from the unwanted
texting.
Roberts says she spent an hour on the phone with Cingular customer service trying to find out what was going on. The Cingular rep acknowledged that the text messages were coming from subscriptions to online services the previous owner of Carter's cellphone number hadn't canceled.
"There was a previous owner of this number?'' Roberts asked.
"There've been six,'' replied the Cingular rep.
The revelation stunned Roberts. Potential risks raced through her head. "What if it was porn instead of sports scores?'' she asked the Cingular rep. "And how long will it take you to make it stop?''
After the typical go-around consumers often face when calling customer service, Roberts persuaded a supervisor to delete the text charges. But the supervisor said Cingular
couldn't terminate 'third-party'' online services connected to Carter's phone. Her advice: Keep the phone turned off and cancel the subscriptions yourself.
"I can't believe Cingular and other phone companies are giving new owners used numbers that are still subscribed to services,'' Roberts says. "I find it pretty shocking that they can't block previous text accounts. And I'm especially annoyed that it was somehow my responsibility to fix the problem and beg for charges to be credited back to the account.''
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
"We just surpassed the 200 million subscriber mark. We're at 203 million,'' says Joe Farren, director of public affairs at CTIA -- the Wireless Association, a trade group representing wireless phone companies. "Ten years ago, there were 33.7 million.''
But problems such as Roberts' arise due to the quick turn-around in reassigning numbers. Phone companies typically wait only 30 to 90 days -- not long enough for online services to decide a nonpaying subscriber has moved on and to cancel the subscription.
Cingular spokeswoman Alexa Kaufman says Cingular follows Federal Communications Commission guidelines for how long numbers can go unused between customers. "On average, phone numbers are dormant for about 90 days,'' she says.
Inheriting a number used to mean nothing more than receiving occasional wrong-number calls -- the previous owner's ex-wife, maybe, or a collection agency. But with Internet-capable technology, cell phones are now used for more than just talking.
Now, cell phone users can subscribe to services charged to their monthly phone bills that upload ring tones, TV broadcasts, movie listings, dating links, NASCAR standings, weather reports, digital music, stock tracking, among other things.
