US telephone companies, which have been taking a deal of flak over the dial-a-porn services that they would much rather not touch but feel constrained by the guarantee of freedom of speech in the US constitition, are coming under as much fire now for their kids’ telephone business, which is seen as almost as insidious: the phone lines are widely advertised on children’s TV programming, urge the children to call again and again, and offer them free gifts – generally stickers or other cheap items – for doing so; the phone lines typically feature cartoon or fantasy characters on continuously playing taped messages that change daily, and often are little more than advertisements themselves but one of the largest in the field, Teleline Inc of Beverly Hills, California defends the business, saying that it and other major kids’ lines are being picked on for the transgressions of a few isolated sleazy operators – The problem in our industry is the proliferation of entrepreneurial sleazebags who are get-rich quick artists, it says, adding that it gets fewer than 12 complaints a month, states prices in its ads and on the phone calls, and tell kids to ask their parents’ permission.
