Getting at parents' pockets through their children is no new marketing ploy. It's been going on ever since the consumer society came into existence after the war.

The method is simple enough. Create a fashion trend among youngsters, and let peer pressure do the rest. There can't be a parent anywhere unfamiliar with the lament of "But everyone else has one! I'll be an outcast!"

A mobile phone company has latched on to this with a vengeance. It knows that mobiles are now seen as a vital fashion accessory by many youngsters and has decided to capitalise on this by adding an extra twist: parental anxiety and guilt.

"Your daughter is waiting for you at the cinema, but you're stuck in traffic. Aren't you glad you both have a mobile phone?" asks the leaflet which landed on the mat at Priestley Towers the other day.

In case that wasn't enough to do the trick, it then added another example. "Your son missed his lift home from school and needs you to pick him up...No problem. One touch on his mobile phone puts him in touch with you, no matter where you are."

And the leaflet adds: "Now there's no reason to ever be out of contact with the people who need you most."

No reason, that is, apart from cost. On the face of it, it's cheap enough. A tenner for a phone, the same for the connection charge, and a call charge of 10p a minute to any standard UK numbers and Cellnet mobiles. And the child can talk to his or her parent at home or at work for up to 100 minutes per month, free!

Terrific. But there's one obvious snag, isn't there? Any parent will spot the flaw instantly.

The last person most children want to talk to on the phone for 10 minutes a month, let alone 100 minutes, is a parent. They want to ring their mates and chat, and chat, and chat. Just how much they're likely to chat is indicated by the fact that each account offered by this service is given a £70 monthly call charge limit. And it's a fair bet that not many youngsters will keep their calls below that limit.

So that's £17.50 a week to buy yourself the undoubted aid to peace of mind that you will acquire from knowing that your child can contact you at any time if he or she is in trouble (though don't expect to be able to contact them, because the line will probably be engaged).

It would have been a much more attractive deal, wouldn't it, if the child's phone was only able to ring a handful of pre-selected key numbers: home, parents' workplaces, grandparents', etc? That really would have been a worthwhile exercise in child safety.

But then, that wouldn't have guaranteed £70 a month for the phone company's revenue, would it. And that's the whole point of the exercise in this profit-driven society of ours.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.