Children and Mobile Devices  

Key Points:

• To help parents with tips to talk to their kids about responsible use and to stay up-to-date with the latest mobile products and services, CTIA and The Wireless Foundation created “Growing Wireless.”
• CTIA’s member companies are proactively offering wireless safety tools or services for parents, supporting voluntary industry guidelines on content, location based services and mobile applications and collaborating with policymakers to educate parents about how to protect kids when they are using mobile devices and services.
• Parental Management Tools, Features and Resources
• CTIA Mobile Application Rating System with ESRB
• Children’s Online Policy
• Consumer Code for Wireless Service
• Guidelines for Carrier Content Classification and Internet Access
• As wireless technology evolves, parents and kids should set their own family rules for age appropriate and acceptable wireless behavior.

As wireless continues to revolutionize our world, kids are becoming more accustomed to using wireless technology to communicate with their family and friends and eager to use this technology to improve their education, information and healthcare opportunities. At the same time, parents and families are looking for help to ensure their kids are safely and responsibly participating.

In an effort to continue to provide parents the tools and information they need to help educate themselves and their kids to use wireless technology responsibly, CTIA-The Wireless Association® and The Wireless Foundation created “Growing Wireless.”

GrowingWireless.com helps parents to:

• Be Aware – Explains and offers tips to help parents understand cyberbullying, sexting, privacy and responsible use.
• Learn & Engage – Identifies the steps parents should take to keep their kids safe and responsible wireless users, including sample family rules, links to CTIA member companies’ parental management tools and an overview of the CTIA Mobile Application Rating System with ESRB.
• Talk & Share – Allows parents the opportunity to talk and share tips with other parents about how they handled their kids’ wireless use and provides a place for parents to submit questions to CTIA’s online safety experts.
• Understand Policy – Reviews the current policies, voluntary initiatives and best practices offered by CTIA and its member companies to help parents manage, monitor and control how their kids use wireless. 
• Get the Facts – Offers up-to-date information about kids’ wireless usage and research and studies to help parents make informed decisions using the latest data. In addition, a glossary of key terms helps parents understand wireless industry terminology.

Last Updated: September 2012