200 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
200 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
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# <Tolmes News Service> #
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# ''''''''''''''''''''' #
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# > Written by Dr. Hugo P. Tolmes < #
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Issue Number: 24
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Release Date: February 10, 1988
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Most of this issue will deal with the problems of Dial-it services.
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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TITLE: Halt 1-900 Phone Abuses
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FROM: The Chicago Tribune
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DATE: February 2, 1988
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The Illinois Commerce Commission, Illinois Bell, and other companies
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offering party-line telephone services for teenagers surely can come up with
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a way to keep unaware parents from getting socked with outrageous telephone
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bills. Abuses of the 24-hour 900 area code telephone lines have created an
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army of parents afraid to open their telephone bills for fear of learning that
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their children have taken part in marathon gabfests.
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Illinois Bell has nobly forgiven exorbitant charges rung up without
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parent's knowledge. But that at best is only a short-term solution.
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While we don't let parents off the hook for their responsibility for
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youngsters' behavior, the problem may be exacerbated by the ease of
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accessability. Companies that offer the phone service might consider new
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conditions for hookup that limit accessibility, or at least alert
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parents to the possibility of astronomical bills unless they monitor phone
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use at home.
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It's not a question of teenagers' "right" to use the telephone. It's
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a question of their acting responsibly when they do, especially if they choose
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to use the teen party line. And parents should make it emphatically clear that
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abuse of telephon privileges is no joking matter. Especially when it
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unexpectedly adds hundreds of dollars to monthly bills.
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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TITLE: Parents Can Halt "Gab" Porn Calls
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FROM: The Chicago Tribune
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DATE: February 4, 1988
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By Christine Winter
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Ameritech said Thursday it will ofer to parents free of charge the
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ability to keep their children from calling costly "gab" lines or national
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Dial-a-Porn messages on their home phones.
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The regional Bell holding company, which owns Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin
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and Ohio Bell, joined a growing number of telephone companies offering to block
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all calls on customers' home phones to 976 or 900 numbers, or both. Many
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businesses have already programmed their telephone equipment to refuse such
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calls.
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Most of the controversial gab lines, which allow as many as eight people
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to talk to each other at the same time, are 900 numbers.
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The gab lines cater primarily to teenagers. They have raised customer
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fury when parents receive monthly bills in the thousands of dollars.
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One of those services, Conllinois Bell
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Telephone Co. About 10 other gab services here are operated by the 900 Service
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Corp., an Oak Brook based marketing agent for companies that provide such
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gab lines and recorded messages.
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Nationally, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. offers a number of live
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and recorded messages through its 900 dial it service. Included in this
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category are several sexually explicit messages, commonly known as Dial-a-Porn.
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The Federal Communications Commission is investigating such services.
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The 976 prefix is local and generally includes recorded-message
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services such as time, weather, sports and stock information. The calls are
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charged at a higher rate than normal local phone calls. Although there are no
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sexually explicit messages in the Illinois Bell area, other cities have had
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such Dial-a-Porn services availiable on their 976 lines.
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Ameritech said it has also told the companies that provide these message
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and gab-line services that it will not add their charges to its bills when the
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services provide a "financial nuisance" for customers, or if they might harm
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Ameritech's reputation. The company said it will make such determinations
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based on complaints received.
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One example of a financial nuisance is a Dial-a-Santa service that
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charges $9.95 for the first minute for live conversations with Santa, according
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to an Illinois Bell Spokesman. Ohio Bell last year refused to add such
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charges to local telephone bills.
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"We've adopted a policy of forgiving large bills on a first-time
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basis for parents whose teens have overused the gab lines," said Robert
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Ligett, Illinois Bell's general manager for residence and carrier services.
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"We feel that blocking, combined with our policy of adjusting the first bill
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should solve those problems, which are the only ones we've faced here."
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But Ligett said that customers cannot selectively block one 976
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service and not anoter, nor one 900 line and not another.
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"Since we have no porno lines on our 976 line at this stage, most of the
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problems have been with large bills run up by the 900 services," Ligett said.
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"A customer can keep the 976 services and block the 900 lines, if that's
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what they want."
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A spokesman for 900 Service Corp. said it has no objections to the
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blocking procedures, nor does it anticipate any reductions in revenues.
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"We feel that blocking is a necessity, but that only a very small
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percentage of our customer base will be involved," said Jeffrey Nemetz,
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president of a firm that does marketing for 900 services. He said that 900
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Service had 100,000 cutomers in its first month of business, and fewer than
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5,000 had any complaints or problems with the service. 900 Service also offers
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its own blocking service and said it cancels its service if it does not meet
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its own code of ethics.
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An Illinois Bell spokesman said the company will decide whether to
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continue to include 900 Service Corp. charges on telephone bills on the basis
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of whether it receives a large number of complaints after blocking services
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are availiable.
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On Wednesday,ic announced that Bell of Pennsylvania and C&P
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Telephone Co. of Maryland will segregate all adult and will take away the 976
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prefix and give them a new one.
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Also, customers will not have access to any adult and live programs
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from Bell Atlantic public telephones or tgrough operators, and the new prefix
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will be separately identified on bills.
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US West said last week it will segregate its adult messages into a
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separate prefix and will not provide billing for those services in its entire
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14-state region in the West and Southwest.
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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TITLE: Phone Aid for Parents
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FROM: The Chicago Sun-Times
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DATE: February 5, 1988
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by Phillip J. O'Connor and Maudlyne Iherjirika
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Parents who want to keep their children from using telephone party
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lins and adult dial-it services will soon be able to get free call blocking.
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Illinois Bell said that in the next few days it will ask the Illinois
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Commerce Commission to approve a free blocking service to numbers with a 900
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area code and a 976 prefix. The move is expected to bring little opposition.
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Patricia Clark, a spokesman for the Citizen's Utility Board, said CUB
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would support waiving fees for customers who ask to have the calls blocked
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but that the group wanted to study the other parts of the plan before
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commenting further.
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An Illinois Bell Representative, Patricia Montgomery, said high bills
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for the calling services were rare and that Bell has waived such bills for its
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own party line, Connections. Montgomery said the average Connections bill is
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less than $5 a month.
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"Now we're offering parents a chance to block the 900 numbers if they
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don't want anybody to have access to them," Montgomery said.
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Montgomery said there is no local dial-a-porn service on the 976 prefix
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in Illinois, although some services can be reached with a long distance call.
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Local 976 numbers include such services as the weather number, 976-1212,
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plus a host of other numbers for such information as time, sports, and Illinois
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Lottery results and the latest stock market prices. Blocked phones could not
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reach those numbers, she said.
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Montgomery said telephone pollsters often ask the public to call a 900
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number to register a pro or con opinion on a given issue and that those calls
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also would be blocked.
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"Our principal objective is to protect the juvenile population in our
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region from so-called dial-a-porn messages," said Ormand J. Wade, president
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of the Ameritech Bell Group, parent company of Illinois Bell and Bell systems
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in other Midwest states.
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Ameritech said the five Bell companies would refuse to bill for
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objectionable services.
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About 100 parents outraged at bills they have received for the party
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line calls at the 900 service gathered at Operation PUSH meeting Thursday
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night. regina Phillips waved a thick bill for $915.71 for calls made by her
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11-year-old. She has been told by TNI Corp., the 900 company to which she
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owes the money, that she must pay the entire bill.
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"The call bld have been introduced with the 900 numbers,"
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she said. "People shouldn't have to pay these kinds of phone bills."
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Betty Griggs said her 20-year-old son had discovered Connections, which
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began last June. Her January phone bill was $2,281, she said.
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Griggs, co-coordinator of Operation PUSH's 900 Effort, a committee
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fighting the numbers, still was unhappy about the 900 numbers.
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"The 900 numbers should be subscription based like call waiting and call
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forwarding," she said. "You should pay to get the service, not after you get
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a $2,281 bill."
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Montgomery said controversy over the 900 numbers was new to Illinois.
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"We had said we were going to offer blocking," however, even before Thursday's
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announcement, she said.
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An Ameritech spokesman, Michael Brand, said call blocking is a offered
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in some states, including Wisconsin, where the fee is $10. Ameritech will
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ask utility commissions in those states to waive those charges, he said.
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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