Digital Trends

Disney is launching a U.S. mobile phone service which enabled parents to monitor their childrens' cell phone usage.

The Walt Disney Company—and let's everyone remember Steve Jobs is now their biggest shareholder—is launching a new U.S. mobile phone service aimed at the growing childrens' and teen-age mobile phone market. The twist: the service enables parents to monitor their childrens' cell phone usage.

Dubbed Disney Mobile (yes, we know they don't have the security certificates sorted out yet), the service will launch in June 2006, and enable parents to track voice, text, picture, and video messages their children send, as well as set limits on their calls. The service operates with its own handsets—the Disney Mobile Phones, initially based on handsets from South Korea's LG Electronics—which also let parents locate their children via GPS tracking.

According to Jupiter Research, just under one half of all 13 year olds have their own mobile phone, with parents paying for almost two thirds of them.

Disney has not yet released pricing details of its service, except to indicate it will be competitive with other "family plans" on the market. Behind the scenes, Disney will operate on the Sprint wireless network in the United States.