By Jo Best, 13 January 2004 15:20
NEWS It seems that a recent report by children's charity NCH, which implicated the internet in a huge rise in child porn and pointed the finger at 3G as the next big danger to kids, has spurred the mobile industry into action.
All of the UK's major mobile names, including Vodafone, Orange, Virgin, O2 and T-Mobile, as well as the only company to currently operate a third-generation service in the UK, Hutchison Whampoa's 3, have signed up to the new regulations, which are designed to protect children.
Children under 18 will be unable to use third-generation phones with unlimited access, effectively barring them from entering adult-orientated sites, including porn or gambling sites as well as chatrooms. The handsets will come with filters, which to have removed the buyer will have to prove they're 18 or over.
The report's author, who is also NCH's internet advisor, John Carr, told silicon.com that he feared that the nature of mobile internet would make it easier for children to access the web without supervision by parents or teachers, and could lead children to be unwittingly groomed by paedophiles.
The new code of practice will come into force later this year.
Comments
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1. Jim Lyon
This seems like a response to only one part of the problem. To counter money laundering government has imposed regulation obliging banks to positively identify all persons opening an account. Would it not be possible to use similar legislation to require:-
1. That all persons buying a phone connection (SIM Card) are identified and recorded.
2. That further efforts are made to prevent the use of stolen SIM cards (eg more use of PINS etc).
3. That it should be clear to phone users that they must secure their phones to avoid being held responsible for the illegal actions by illicit users.
2. anonymous
This response is only applying a suface "fix" to prevent the phones from viewing the content. sureley the correct action owuld be to ensure that such content is simply not avaialble in the first place.
I know this will infuriate the "Freedom" brigades, but with such a universily accesable resource as the internet we must now start penalising either those who post such content, or the ISP's that allow it. lest's face it the music industry seems to have been able ot identify p2p & file sharers pretty easily. could be that we do not tacke por because of the lack of (or loss of !) "profit" in doing so?