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EC Brokers Deal to Guard Youngsters on Mobile Phones

European mobile operators and content providers debuted a voluntary plan to protect young people from mobile phone dangers. Announced Tues., the European Framework for Safer Mobile Use is a result of EC-sponsored talks among telcos, content owners and child advocates, EC Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding told a briefing. She will ask handset makers to help by creating common safety standards, she said.

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Signatories have until Feb. 2008 to craft national self- regulatory codes, which the EC will monitor for a year. Among other things, they agreed to: (1) Refrain from offering own-brand or 3rd-party commercial content classified as adults-only without offering appropriate access controls. (2) Let parents tailor children’s access to content. (3) Ensure their own and 3rd-party content is classified according to national standards.

Operators also agreed to help educate parents on the dangers on mobile phone networks. They pledged to continue fighting illegal content on their networks and to adopt or support creation of national take-down procedures for such material. However, they said, “for these measures to work effectively there should be legal clarity on the nature of content which is illegal and law enforcement authorities should be able to confirm where individual items of content are illegal.” National govts.’s “support for this is vital,” they said.

Reding called the agreement “a strong beginning"and said the EC itself will act to reduce mobile phone hazards. She'll meet with handset makers on standards and possible built-in access control devices, and the Commission will survey children and teens on mobile phone use. Asked if the EC will regulate if the voluntary accord fails, Reding said it would be “wrong” at this point to question whether it will work. The EC will come back to it in a year, she said.

Operators need “a very strong dialogue with content providers,” said GSM Europe Chmn. Kaisu Karvala. They're taking the initiative “very seriously,” she said. Asked how operators can keep children from downloading harmful content, Karvala said they can’t control the material floating on their networks, but having national codes, takedown procedures and parental support will help.

Signatories include Bougues Telecom, Cosmote, Debitel, Deutsche Telekom, Go Mobile, Hutchison 3G Europe, Jamba!, Mobile Entertainment Forum, Orange Group, Royal KPN, Telecom Italia, Telefonica Moviles, Telenor, TeliaSonera and Vodafone. The announcement was timed to coincide with Safer Internet Day.

The framework is one of several examples of co- and self-regulation in the EU, the EC said Tues. Studies concluded that such controls offer real alternatives to traditional legislation in the media sector -- particularly in the digital environment, the EC said. The Commission encourages such schemes in its proposed update of the TV without Frontiers directive, Reding said.

The framework shows “the relevance of self-regulatory measures and public-private cooperation to address security issues,” said the European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. Its members have a long record of developing measures to protect users accessing the Internet through any platform, it said.

Authorities in several European countries urge better protection of minors. Some 70% of 12-13s, and 23% of 8-9s, use mobile phones. The main problems are “bullying, grooming for sexual abuse, access to illegal/harmful pornographic and violent content privacy risks, in particular due to the inappropriate use of camera phones and location services,” the EC found. The EC is spending 45 million for its 2005- 2008 Safer Internet Action Plus Program.