I was recently talking with a co-worker about cell phones, plans, features, etc.  See, she has teenage children, and we were talking about the needs of parents when it comes to cell phones, plans, and features needed in this day of technology enabled youth.  I’ve got a few kids of my own, and they will soon be approaching the age where my wife and I will have to make a decision on getting my kids phones. With the advances in technology, as well as the concerns about the safety of my children, I wanted to make a list of what I would like to see a carrier create.

Shared Minutes:

While most, if not all, carriers have shared plans, I’d like to see the ability to allocate and share plans amongst the family.  I have three children, all of which will be teenagers at the same time.  I’d like to be able to allocate minutes to devices, or even group the minutes.  Ideally, I’d like to buy a set of minutes for the family, say 3000 minutes.  I’d allocate a group for my kids, and then split the rest for my wife and I.

Text Message Logs:

I know many would tell my I’m invading the privacy of my kids, but I want to know who my kids are texting and what they are saying.  With the new phenomenon of ’sexting’ coupled with the lack of maturity that comes with the teenage years, there are too many issues that can come up if I don’t have my thumb on the pulse of what is happening in my kids’ lives.  I’d love to see the carriers offer me the ability to download or view online the last 30 days of text messages of any device I specify in my family plan.  I would hope that I have a relationship with my children where I wouldn’t need to view logs to check up on them, however I’m not naive enough to forget how I behaved as a teenager.

GPS Location and Tracking:

It seems like every phone you buy now is GPS enabled.  I’d like to see that put to use for my kids.  I’d like there to be a site I can go to in order to see where my kid’s phones are, and thus where they are.  Call me archaic or controlling, but if my son tells me he is heading to the school for an extra workout with the team, I want to be sure he is there.  The issue here is trust, and that it is earned.  I remember my years as a teenager and I went through stages of being trusted by my parents and then not so much.  This feature would allow me to occasionally check in on where my kids are, and that they are doing what they said they would.  Of course, if this was enabled you would need to remove the option for disabling the GPS on the phone.

Time of day functionality:

I believe this is already available with some carriers, however I’d like to turn on and off features based upon the time of day.  For example, no texting during school hours and between 10 pm and 7 am.  Or, disable the phone during the same time excluding emergency hours.

I’m still a few years away from needing to worry about these features, however I’d like to see a carrier think a bit more about the need of parents when it comes to family plans.  It needs to include more than just shared minutes, but create an opportunity for parents to better control usage

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