ME is at Heroes Of The Mobile Screen in London, and the next session is the most anticipated of the lot – a panel of teenagers tell it like it is on-stage about how they use their mobiles and interact with mobile content.

The session kicks off with some mood boards to introduce the six panellists, who are from a range of backgrounds (albeit all presumably confident and eloquent enough to sit on a stage talking to a conference).

The format is that several mobile companies will 'pitch' their services to the panel, who will then ask questions and give their opinions. It should be fun...

First, Live Talkback - a service that lets people "find out what's happening" in their area, and vote on it. So polls like 'Jedward... Yay or Nay?', or 'Should South Africa be seeded in the World Cup draw?'. It's based around TV, gigs, music festivals and sport.

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Comments from the panel:

"I like the presentation but I can't work out what it is. Do people pay to use it? When I saw the name Live Talkback I thought it was an answerphone type thing. You can vote on Facebook as well - it's voting, but everywhere else can vote as well."

"I don't really get who your audience is."

"I appreciate the presentation, but what he said there - do people really vote on their phones when they can just go on Facebook?"

"I think it's a good idea, but it needs to be aimed more at us."

"It's a very relevant idea and current. But my only issue with it is, how can you benefit from that - how can you go and talk to the people you agree with, like you can on Facebook? How can you take it further and interact with people?"

"Initially when I saw it I thought it was a great idea, but how would you take it further? What's it gonna do for you? Can you talk about it? Maybe development in that area..."

Back to the Live Talkback chap: "I'm pleased, because one of the things we're working on is more Facebook integration..." But one of the panellists comes back - "Facebook already does that!". Indeed.

Second up (I'll put links in later) is Pay By Mobile. All about paying for stuff online using your phone. So it's a payment option which appears alongside credit card logos and PayPal etc when someone gets to the payment screen on an e-commerce website.

Click its icon, and it gets you to send a text - 'Text 639bsd128 to 51525 to pay 191.50 Euros'. Then the user gets a text message confirmation and an email. It doesn't come off someone's phone bill - they load money into their Pay By Mobile wallets wherever they normally buy top-ups - in-store, at ATMs or online. And it's free for users.

Comments from the panel:

"It's a really good idea, but I don't get if you're offering it for free, how is the business profitable?" [huge clap from crowd, but it's because the retailer pays a fee each time someone buys].

"Me personally, you wouldn't catch me using it. No disrespect. I'm from Hackney innit... I think personally this is for the older market."

"Honestly, I'm quite happy with the methods already around. I don't think I'd want something more because I could pay for it with my mobile. I wouldn't see it and go 'Oh, I feel like paying slightly differently today..."

"It will have to be giving me something more - if the first top-up you get £5 extra or something like that."

"I might find it quite useful on eBay..."

"I disagree with everyone! I think it's brilliant. I'd use it."

Third up for the slaughter... I mean, feedback, is P Sonar (pSonar / p Sonar, it's a bit unclear). It's "what iTunes used to be for music" - a cloud-based music service where people upload their songs and then listen to them on the go from any device - and in time, the ability to browse other people's collections (30-second clips) and buy from Amazon's MP3 store.

It uses Twitter and Facebook to share charts and lists, and it works on a mobile phone or PC. The service is free, but the premium paid version has more features - you can only stream 12 hours a week on the free version. And the premium version costs £4 a month. "We've got a vision of creating a community of creating millions of fans who can see the music uploaded by tens of thousands of independent labels and unsigned artists."

Comments from the panel:

"I like this one. Everyone here likes music. But my only concern is, you're saying it is a legit version of LimeWire or what?... Also, everybody here has a laptop with their music on, and they can put their USB in and drag it to their phone if they want."

"I think it's a really good idea."

"I'm one of those people who just gets on a computer, puts on iTunes or Spotify, and that's it. Spotify now lets you put music on your iPhone or iPod... If I want people to see my music, I can share that in a different way. It's a bit complicated for me."

"I can't work out what my personal view is on this piece of kit. You described it as being what iTunes used to be, but did you talk to people in market research to find out what they were dissatisfied with in iTunes?" [yes] - "I wouldn't particularly want someone to go through my music."

"I like the idea because you've merged the music parts of MySpace and iTunes. But you're trying to become the new iTunes, and iTunes is already very advanced and has lots of customers."

Fourth company up is Animentals - a service from a company called Fluid Pixels. It's a cross-platform game, a virtual pets game where you interact with your pet online or on your mobile. There are mini-games to look after it, and there will eventually be a full virtual world to interact with other players, and even get them to look after your pets.

It hooks into Facebook and Twitter. "We're trying to bring the Tamagotchi experience to the 21st century." Bring on the panel!

Comments:

"For me, I thnk it's a more younger thing, more like what my little sister would play. Probably if I was on a train and I was REALLY bored, I might play it. But it seems too childish."

[all the panel are 16-18]

"How would you respond to someone who asked 'that isn't real communication, it's just indulging a stupid need to sit on a phone all day. What's the point?"

"The first thing that came to mind was I already have a pet, and it's hard enough work to keep her alive. But maybe my brother would be interested..."

"I can see why it would be popular for younger people, but I think it would be popular for maybe a week-ish, and then they'd go and play something else... I don't think Facebook goes much younger than us, but there might be younger social networking sites worth aiming for. And how do you make money from it?"

[the company charges for the mobile game, which provides free access to the website]

"I agree,it would only be a one-week thing, and you can get games for free like that online all the time."

"I had a Tamagotchi when I was younger. But times change, kids are always picking up new stuff. On the phone? I don't really see it dong well."

Fifth up is Flook, which we've written about before - an iPhone app that lets people upload and share 'local secrets' - virtual postcards of stuff that's happening, while bringing in location-based tweets.

People snap a photo, put some text in, and upload it - and the location data is attached, so people using Flook near you will see that postcard. And people get points when other users like their content, turning it into a meta-game.

Comments from the panel:

"I think that's really good, and there are some great ways of genuinely interacting with other people. Has anyone seen Gossip Girl here? How would you combat a bit of a bullying aspect? Teenagers taking things that they think are funny to do with their friends, and could it turn into bullying?"

[man from Flook says it's not happened yet - and that "we were really worried about porn, but there's been nothing".]

"I really like it as well. It's cool if you see someone famous, you can snap them. But the only thing is the points bit - say you have 1,000 points, what does that mean?"

"I don't really like it that much... If i see something interesting, I can take a photo of it and put it on Facebook. That's integrated into something I use every day."

"I really like the idea. You say it's on the iPod and iPhone, but can you do it on different devices?"

[Android is next up, apparently]

"You might turn teenagers into aggressive paparazzi. I like that idea! You'll have a lot of teenagers taking pictures, so that's a very good idea."
Time for Q&As now. What phones do they have? In order: the first chap has a Sony Ericsson W300i - "the only one probably that still works in the world!". Second: has a simple Nokia but would like a T-Mobile Pulse.

Third: "Keep it simple. I don't like iPhone, I don't like BlackBerry. It's people like you who have those phones..."
Haha! Hang on, I thought all The Kids had BlackBerries - see earlier session.

Fourth has a simple phone, but would get a smaller BlackBerry with a touchscreen if one came along. Fifth has a BlackBerry Bold that he got on an upgrade. And Sixth has a BlackBerry too. The last two are from a private school in North London,while the other four are from state schools - which may or may not be relevant.

:Privacy? "I try to take non-embarrassing photos of myself. But I like to have that security - if I have a daft picture of me, I like it to be my call that it's published somewhere than someone else's."

"On Facebook, you share your photos with your friends, rather than with everyone. I like that."

"I'm on every network, and with every network you csn go to yoru settings and change your privacy settings."

"I'm really worried about it. Not to the point that I won't get on every possible social networking site you can think of. But I try not to make it not about me, and about what I'm doing with the public. It's getting a bit Big Brother kinda thing - everyone knows what you're doing."

"I completely agree, I think privacy is such an issue. As much as I liked Flook, that was one issue with it. There is too much exposure, and opportunity to put something up that you didn't agree to. But it's something we're going to have to accept and move with, it's part of the times. Maybe better security would help."

"I agree. But also, y'know, you're putting yourself out to Facebook and everyone sees your pictures. And you can make them private if you want. I know my pictures are private and only my friends can see them. It's just something we've got to live with. It's not such a big issue."

And that's a wrap. Oh, apart from to say that Flook seems to have gone down best with the panel of all the services presented.