• Los Angeles Times/AP, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 11:30 AM

AT&T is launching a service today that gives parents the ability to limit phone calls, curb text messages and restrict downloads on almost all of its 63.7 million wireless subscriber lines.

Many parents want their children to have access to cell phones for safety reasons, but they don't want them making or receiving nonemergency calls during the school day, chatting away all the shared family-plan minutes or bloating the bill with text messaging charges, says Carlton Hill, vice president of voice products for AT&T's wireless unit and the mother of two teens. "We want to find a way for kids to use phones without having to take the phone away," she says.

AT&T's Smart Limits service will be offered as an add-on for $4.99 per month per line. No contract will be required, and it will work on all but a handful of customer lines left on an old network the company is phasing out.

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