Motorola CEO Edward Zander said engineers at the company’s Bangalore, India, office were already at work on the technology, which will be offered along with a global positioning system (GPS), so that parents can track their children's whereabouts.
"Mobile phones today are more like television when I was a kid," Zander said in a statement after visiting the Bangalore center. Despite the technologies evolution, he stressed the company’s desire to "keep it secure."
The last few years have seen a big push in the mainstream mobile phone market to keep adult content off of phones, which has been met with harsh criticism by civil libertarians because the filters tend to block more than requested, including medical websites.
On the economic side, the adult entertainment industry has seen the value in wireless technology as part of a growing business model, with several new companies offering wireless options geared specifically towards mobile adult surfing.
Nonetheless, with analysts across the board describing children as key to success in the wireless web industry, and millions of parents concerned about their child’s Internet access, censoring options aren’t likely to go away.
Zander said the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company’s release of censoring and GPS capabilities was merely an extension of its marketing campaign to a younger market.
Motorola had revenue of more than $31 billion worldwide in 2004.
