Cyberbullying: Providing Parents Greater Messaging Control of Their Children's Mobile Phone

93% of Parents Would Like to Have More 'Parental Control' Over the Mobile Messaging Behaviour of Their Children.

READING, England, November 19 - New consumer research launched today by Acision, the world's leading
messaging company, reveals reactions to the rise of mobile cyberbullying in
the UK. The research is released in conjunction with the 6th annual
nationwide anti-bullying week campaign, which runs from 16th to 20th November
2009, whose theme this year is "Stay Safe in Cyberspace".

The results reveal that the majority (93%) of parents would like to have
more control over the messaging behaviour of their children and to better
protect them against inappropriate messages. Eighty four per cent of parents
would be interested in using some parental control service if the operator
would make them available. The most interesting feature for parents would be
the ability to exclude certain people from exchanging messages with their
children (known as 'blacklisting'). Most parents (74%) would like this
feature and if these 'parental control' messaging services were available,
over half (58%) would be more likely to allow their child to have a mobile
phone.

It is not just parents that feel strongly about the ability to control
who their children are communicating with. Eighty three per cent of adults
who have experienced mobile cyberbullying, would like to be able to blacklist
mobile numbers on their mobile phone.

"It is a sad fact that bullies are increasingly using the internet,
social networks and mobile phones to reach their victims. The research
reveals that consumers, especially parents, are acutely aware of mobile
cyberbullying; so it is important that companies within the mobile industry,
such as ours, should work closely with the mobile operators, who are taking
the responsibility to help prevent this type of abuse." explained Chris
Jenkins, CMO of Acision. "We are working with mobile operators across Asia,
Europe and the Americas to highlight the benefits of offering their
subscribers personalisation services such as text message blacklisting.
Solutions such as Acision Message Plus enable operators to provide their
subscribers with these services, enabling consumers to take control of the
messaging on their mobile phone and gain peace of mind. "

Notes to Editor:

Acision's Message Plus platform incorporates personalisation services
such as text message blocking (blacklisting) and allows the subscriber to
control the messaging on their mobile phone. This enables mobile operators to
differentiate their messaging service whilst also providing its subscribers
with the service they require.

Research:

The research was carried out by Toluna, the online market research panel
provider between the 06/11/2009 and the 09/11/2009. The results in this
release are from a representative sample of 4,000 mobile phone users aged 18
and above.

Acision;

Acision is the world's leading messaging company, providing communication
solutions for over 300 network operators and service providers globally.
www.acision.com/

PR Contacts: Annette Leach, Hotwire, Tel: +44-(0)207-608-2500, Email: acision at hotwirepr.com. Lauren McGregor, Hotwire, Tel: +44-(0)207-608-4677, Email : lauren.mcgregor at hotwirepr.com. Maria Hudson, Acision, Tel: +44-(0)118-930-8826, Email: maria.hudson at acision.com