Communication Solutions

On February 11, 2008, AdaptiveMobile—reputed as a major provider of mobile subscriber security for corporations and individuals—launched a set of powerful parental controls with the capability to operate on any mobile device, network, or technology.

 

Since its foundation in 2003, AdaptiveMobile has acquired a customer base that includes a number of the world’s leading mobile operators and has created partnerships with major security and telecom equipment vendors. From its headquarters in Dublin, the company has branched across the world with offices in North America, Europe, South Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

 

AdaptiveMobile’s security solutions protect corporate and individual consumers from mobile viruses, malware, inappropriate content, unsolicited communications, and spam. The new parental control solution combines the AdaptiveMobile Policy Control Framework with the Cisco (News - Alert) Service Exchange Framework, allowing parents to block or restrict access to sites they deem inappropriate, such as pornography or networking sites like MySpace or Facebook (News - Alert). Parents will also have the ability to limit access to technologies like SMS or MMS and to block unauthorized phone numbers.

 

Lorcan Burke, Chief Executive Officer at AdaptiveMobile, explained the motivation behind creating the new solution: “Teenagers and children are the fastest adopters of mobile content and applications and with mobile phones now serving as minicomputers, children have increasing access to violent and inappropriate content as well as access to social networking sites and contact from strangers.” He added, “With this launch, AdaptiveMobile, working with Cisco, is providing a robust set of controls that give parents the tools they need to ensure a safe mobile experience for their children.”

 

The new solution provides an in-depth and granular level of monitoring using mobile operators’ networks. The process is much more involved than simple threat and application blocking for instant automated policy lookup, filtering content, and limiting access to applications according to parental settings. Rather, with the new solution, parents are able to create different security profiles for individual members of their family, where they are able to permit limited mobile Internet access by teenagers and completely block all access by younger children.

 

“As mobile user-generated content and services continue to gain in popularity, and carriers keep on opening up their deck to off-deck content and improving the mobile Web browsing experience, the need to monitor and block inappropriate and copyright violated content will become increasingly important for carriers and customers mobile subscribers,” commented Julien Blin, Research Analyst - Wireless and Mobile Communications at IDC (News - Alert). He went on to add, “Cisco and AdaptiveMobile are responding with an offering that protects the most vulnerable mobile users, children and teenagers.”