CELLPHONES EMPOWER AND IMPERIL CHILDREN

Isn't it so sad that every time there is a brilliant breakthrough in technology, there is also a really bad downside, that leaves us gasping! Who would have thought that technologies and incedible devices and software such as computers and the internet would also bring all the degenerates and thieves out of the woodwork. No sooner do we win praise and accolades for something well done and new and then out come the fists to knock us down for the very same reason.

I sometimes wonder how we ever progress and grow because it seems that with every step we take forward we take several backwards too.

Cellphones empower and imperil children
14 February 2007 at 12h42

Barcelona - The dangers and opportunities of the Internet are soon to be brought to cellphones, industry experts predicted this week, raising serious questions about how parents can control what their children view and who they contact.

Cellphone surveillance
Most kids use their computers at home, making Internet surveillance easier, but a cellphone is a personal device by design and a jealously guarded symbol of independence for many.


Fully-fledged mobile Internet access still eludes network operators, but they are already expanding their services and have a declared goal of replicating the computer Internet experience on mobile phones.

"Clearly there is more content on an open Internet site (than on a mobile Internet site)," said Vodafone marketing director Frank Rovekamp at the mobile phone industry's biggest trade show, 3GSM. "But we are opening up and so there is more access to information than there used to be."

Fears about paedophilia and cyber-bullying drive calls for more parental oversight, but the risk of high bills, anti-social behaviour and the problem of injudicious calling in schools also favour tighter discipline.

Govern, censure and guide
"The technology exists to be able to govern, censure and guide," says Michael Anderson, senior vice president of Telcordia, a software company that helped Disney develop one of the first mobile phones for children.

But many believe that phone network operators have been slow to integrate functions allowing parents to vet their children's behaviour and limit their phone use. "What you can see now is the very early stages of operators providing choices, such as whether you have adult content or not," said Ajay Nigan, new product manager of VeriSign, an Internet security software maker.
"As they offer more services they have to provide these options," he said.

Brand (new) power
The Disney phone, launched last year in the United States replete with Mickey Mouse or Tigger branding, gives parents broad powers to specify when calls can be made, which sites can be accessed and how high the bill can go. "What's happened is that suddenly we've gone from 18-year-olds to nine- or 10-year-olds using these (cellphones) as active devices," said Anderson.
"It is dawning on us parents that there are lots of interesting things out there, but there are things we don't want to explain and there are bills we don't want to pay."

Explicit content is already available over mobile phones, but self-regulation by operators has led to customers needing to prove their age for access and in some countries laws prohibit mobile phone pornography.

US-based technology group Genmobi believe they have found a solution for parents wanting strict powers of censure and supervision. They have developed customised programmes called Buzz Kidz and Buzz Teenz that allow junior phone users access to only authorised sites and chat services. It also includes a built-in bad language detector that informs parents when expletives are exchanged. "We've developed a lexicon that is updated on a daily basis because the language morphs that quickly," says chief information officer Bill Kehoe.

The company is in talks with network operators, but has yet to sign a deal to realise its ambition of rolling out the service to Europe, the United States and Asia. Nick Lane, senior analyst at telecoms consultancy Informa, says that worries about inappropriate content for mobiles should not be exaggerated. But he believes that more sophisticated phones and improved Internet access in the future raise new questions.

Mobile content currently niched
"Mobile content is still a niche service," he said. "In the future as consumption increases, then maybe there will be a need for measures to be put in place." In Brussels last week, leading European mobile operators pledged to draw up a voluntary code over the next year aimed at protecting children from adult material and illegal content. About 70 percent of Europeans aged 12-13 own a mobile phone and 23 percent of 8-9-year-olds, according to European Union data from 2005. Some 92 percent of Germans aged 12-19 had one that year.

Europe leads
"Europe is leading the way. The percentage of children aged five to nine with a cellphone is the highest in the world," said Genmobi chief executive and founder Michael Schultz.

"What happens in Europe will determine what happens in the rest of the world." - AFP