Hoping to tap into the popularity of social networks on cell phones, Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins is planning to launch a dating game aimed at 13- to 17-year-olds during June.

The game, The Hook Up: AvaFlirting, which Mr. Hawkins calls a “PG-13” dating game, targets minors who use mobile data services and online social networks like MySpace.

During an interview with RedHerring.com on Tuesday, Mr. Hawkins wouldn't say which mobile companies would carry the game, although youth-oriented wireless operators like Boost Mobile could be likely partners.

Hook Up players can create a personalized character—an “avatar” in the gaming world—who could date other player’s characters and exchange messages with them.

Wireless startups like airG and Rabble are already rolling out mobile social networking services with phone companies in the United States, while online social networking sites like MySpace are increasingly offering mobile features.

At the CTIA Wireless convention in Las Vegas this week, mobile social networks are a popular topic, and a subject of debate.

Internet-based social networks like MySpace have raised fears among concerned parents and politicians over the privacy and security of young users. The extension of that service to cell phones will likely cause greater anxiety because of the personal nature of mobile communications.

airG said Wednesday that it will commercialize a system for filtering and monitoring its mobile social sites for carriers and Internet-based social networks.

Mr. Hawkins acknowledged that wireless phone companies were initially nervous about mobile social networking, but the development of age verification technology in the months ahead will help solve the problem.

So far, less than 3 percent of the population in many markets has downloaded a mobile game, according to the research firm M:Metrics.

Tamagotchi Influence

Hook Up is part social network and part tamagotchi-style game play, where players take care of their personalized avatars.

Mr. Hawkins, who founded the video game giant Electronic Arts and now competes with EA’s mobile division, said original social applications like Hook Up are the right way to approach a maturing mobile games industry.

He believes mobile game publishers are concentrating too much on licensed intellectual property, mistakenly following the model that EA does now: relying on well-known, established game franchises.

Mobile games are a different medium, and a younger market than video games, so mobile publishers should attack the industry in a different way, said Mr. Hawkins.