Leading European cellphone operators pledged on Tuesday to draw up a voluntary code over the next year aimed at protecting children using cellphones.
The companies, including Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Orange Group, agreed to support controls on access to adult material, to launch awareness-raising campaigns for parents and children, and to fight illegal content.
In an agreement signed with the European Commission, 15 firms promised to try to implement the self-regulatory code, including a commitment to classify commercial content according to national decency standards, by February 2008.
About 70% of Europeans aged 12 to 13 own a cellphone and 23% of eight- to nine-year-olds, according to European Union data from 2005. About 92% of Germans aged 12 to 19 had one that year.
Cellphones can be used to access the internet as well as download games, music and videos.
EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding said the accord “is an important step forward for child safety” and that the EU’s executive body “will monitor very closely the implementation of today’s agreement”.
But she acknowledged that parents play the primary role when it comes to protecting their children.
“It is not only the question of the mobile operators; it is also the question of parents, of teachers, of industry, of public authorities, so the society as a whole,” she said.
GSM Europe, which represents 147 operators, also conceded that it cannot control much of the content that is available to cellphone users.
“Clearly that is a question of parents; it is education. We can’t force children to act the way we want them to do, but we can try to protect them,” said its chairperson, Kaisu Karvala. — AFP