TORONTO – Last week, Microsoft unveiled its new mobile operating system Windows Phone 8 and a feature called Kids Corner, which must sound like a godsend to parents who let their little ones play with their smartphone.

It allows parents to enable a child-friendly interface that hides apps and phone features that rambunctious tots could cause trouble with.

Kids Corner sounds remarkably similar to the brainchild of Toronto-based Martin Drashkov and Renat Gataullin, co-founders of Kytephone, an app for Google’s Android phones and tablets.

Not that they mind. Given that Kids Corner is exclusive to Windows phones — which still represent a very small part of the mobile market — they don’t consider it direct competition. Plus, the headlines for Kids Corner probably helped generate a little extra buzz for Kytephone, which has only been out for a few months.

Among Kytephone’s features is the ability to track a phone remotely and manage it from a web browser. Parents can use the phone’s GPS to see where their child is, see what photos have been taken with the device’s camera, and control who can text or call their child, and vice versa. All the settings are password protected and even restarting the phone won’t exit the child-proof mode. Kytephone can also set timers on apps and games so kids are limited by the guidelines parents set. Continue…