READING, England, November 19 /PRNewswire/ --

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

- Over Half of Parents (58%) Would be More Willing to Allow Their Child to Have a Mobile Phone if the Operator Were to Enable 'Parental Control' Features.

- 83% of People That Experience Mobile Cyberbullying Would Like to be Able to Prevent the Receipt of Unwanted Text and Multimedia Messages.

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. http://www.acision.com/

SOURCE Acision UK Ltd

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