In a report, RIM is said to be working on a new parental control feature to be introduced in a later update. The features will give parents the ability to control and restrict children’s use of various services and applications on BlackBerry smartphones.

The new parental control features will allow parents to control various settings on their child’s smartphone including the browser, text messaging and access to social networking sites. RIM recently introduced a similar content filtering feature in BlackBerry App World 3.1, which lets parents restrict the type of apps their child has access too.

This news comes after RIM had to meet with UK Telecom operator Ofcom on the matter of censoring pornography. A RIM spokesman has said:

“RIM is committed to child protection and is an active member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). Access to IWF URLs are blocked on BlackBerry in the UK and this is being put in place in the international markets in which BlackBerry is available. In addition, as a provider to mobile operators, RIM fully supports its operator partners around the world in meeting obligations and commitments in this important area.

Content filtering support is available to operators from RIM that enables the operator to perform the content filtering function for BlackBerry smartphones. It is offered to our operator partners without charge. Operator partners around the world have implemented content filtering, including operator partners in the UK. Any reference to content filtering having been turned off is inaccurate. RIM continues to work with its operator partners to enhance content filtering for BlackBerry smartphone users.”

via Mobile Today