T-Mobile Adds Parental Controls to Family Plans

Today T-Mobile announced that it will be adding more advanced parental controls to its family plans. The new feature, called Family Allowance, will give parents control over what services can be used on their children's phones and to what extent. They can set limits to the number of text messages that can be sent, set limits on downloads, such as ringtones or games, and set limits on the number of minutes used in any given month for phone calls. Once a monthly limit for one of the services is reached, that service is shut off and no longer available to that line. The tool is controlled via the T-Mobile web site, and parents will receive notifications when limits are reached. Family Allowance will be available beginning in August and will cost $2 per month.