AT&T suspends parental controls on cellphones

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- AT&T Inc. said Monday it will temporarily suspend its parental controls feature, Smart Limits, which allows parents to restrict their children's cell phone use because of concerns about connecting with 911 emergency services.

AT&T (Charts, Fortune 500) said that although calls to 911 are never blocked by the feature, if a child is disconnected during a call to 911, emergency services may have difficulty calling back.

A spokeswoman for the company said in a e-mail to CNN that the service will be reinstated once the problem has been resolved.

Smart Limits launched a service earlier this month to give parents more control over their children's use of wireless services. The feature allows parents to block access to certain sites on Web-enabled phones and to prevent purchasing of premium content like ring tones and games.

Shares of the telecommunications company were down 0.6 percent to $42.28 in afternoon trading.