QUESTIONNAIRE ON CHILD SAFETY AND MOBILE PHONE SERVICES
Risks: contribution of the Gezinsbond VZW, Belgium
1. Short presentation of the Gezinsbond:
The Gezinsbond is a pluralistic family movement with 300.000 member-families in Flanders (Belgium), defending the interests of families in all policy areas and at all policy levels.
The Gezinsbond has been active for years around the theme of children and audiovisual media. So we have adopted positions with respect to: children and television, children and advertising, the Internet and computer games, inspection, labelling and filtering of media content.
Our positions with respect to children and audiovisual media have as point of departure the core objective of protecting the uniqueness and the rights of children. This in turn requires audiovisual media directed at children to be subject to specific minimum rules, regardless of the medium.
However, we wish not only to place the accent on the possible harmful effects of the media on children. The audiovisual media also have a positive, educational and informative function to fulfil for children.Within this context, the Gezinsbond lobbies for positive, proactive and stimulating offerings for children.
2. Answers to the questionnaire
1) Can you provide the Commission’s services with figures and examples on risks raised by the use of mobile phones by children and young people?
Internet access via mobile phones:
- Potential risks raised by the use of mobile phones are comparable with the risks of the PC-based internet. But there’s one important difference: the use of the mobile phone is more private than the use of a PC. As a result parental control of the use of the mobile phone is more difficult.
- As with the use of PC based internet, children and adolescents often have better skills than their parents.
- Access to violent games
- Contact with paedophiles via chat-rooms
Commercial content:
- Access to chargeable content (downloads ringtones, games, dating sites, logos, erotic messages and other services). In children‘s programs on television these expensive services are sometimes recommended in an aggressive and explicit way. Often there is a lack of transparency about the tariff of the service and the ways to de-activate the service. Moreover, the protection of children against “adult services” is insufficient, while there’s no verification of the age of the final user.
- Access to illegal and harmful content, not only via access to the internet through mobile phone, but also via SMS and premium rate services.
Bullying via mobile phone
Sending or receiving harmful or inappropriate images
2) Do you see specific risks associated with the use of pre-paid cards, which ones?
In Belgium most children (86%) use pre-paid cards. Itemized phone bills allow parental monitoring of the use of the mobile phone. With pre-paid cards this monitoring is not possible.
Regulatory framework
3) Please identify which of the above risks are not covered by the current national
regulatory, co-and self-regulatory frameworks.
In Belgium there are no specific state legal rules related to child safety and content available through mobile phones. The Law of 21 March 1991 on the reform of certain economic public companies foresees a framework to adopt legal rules in the form of secondary legislation (a so called “Ethical Code”) to be proposed and to be enforced by an administrative body (the so called “Ethical Commission”). This Ethical Commission has not been set up yet, nor has an Ethical Code been adopted yet.
The Law of 21 March 1991 which contains provisions that transpose the “old regulatory framework” will be replaced by a new Law on electronic communications (transposing the “new regulator framework”) very soon. This new Law foresees the same mechanism of an Ethical Code to be enforced by the Ethical Commission.
In the mean time, self regulation defines what type of content is legal for adults but subject to restrictions on availability to those under 18 and defines how content providers are required to comply with these restrictions. A distinction needs to be made between the self regulation applicable to premium rate SMS/MMS and self regulation applicable to (standard telephone) premium rate numbers.
- Premium rate SMS/MMS The applicable rules are embedded in the “GOF Guidelines for SMS/MMS/LBS Services” GOF is the abbreviation of the “GSM Operators Forum”; this association regroups the three mobile operators in Belgium (Proximus, Mobistar and Base).
- Premium rate numbers The applicable rules are embedded in the “Code of Conduct regarding the offering of specific services via telecommunications” This Code is at this moment signed by 14 fixed operators in Belgium.
In Belgium there are no specific rules (legal or self regulation) that oblige operators to offer the possibility to lock access to some services or content not suitable for children. One operator offers his clients the possibility to lock access to services for adults. An other operator only offers the possibility to lock access to erotic services. Others don’t offer any possibility for blocking at all.
There’s no regulatory framework regarding the age verification of the user of commercial content. Although this is very important, since content lock and classification of content can only be used together with an age verification.
Absence of a framework for classifying commercial content that is unsuitable for children.
No ratings for games available for downloading via mobile phone
Mobile interactive chat room services: there is no regulatory framework that provides standard moderating of all chat rooms and a standard age verification system. In Belgium the national authorities have established the so called ‘Safer Chat Rooms”. These are only accessible for children. Age verification is done by means of an electronic identity card.
No general regulatory framework related to awareness-raising of parents, in particular to child safety and mobile phone services. Currently, there are individual actions by some organisations, in a very limited way, but there’s no nationally coordinated campaign.
4) Do you think the current balance between regulation/co-regulation and self-regulation
is the right one?
Currently, the above-mentioned self regulation applicable to premium rate SMS/MMS is being evaluated. One of the conclusions is that the growing amount of complaints points out that the self-regulation framework lacks efficiency. Possibly this is due to the lack of sanctions.
Furthermore, as stated above (point 3), in Belgium there are no specific state legal rules related to child safety and content available through mobile phones. So we can’t speak of a balance between regulation/co-regulation and self-regulation.
Technical solutions
5) What measures do you recommend in the different areas described below, and why?
By whom should they be implemented?
5a) Classification of commercial content.
Two levels of classification should be implemented:
- A +18 rating: content that is only suitable for adults
- Other age classifications, according to the suitability of a certain content, for a certain age (e.g. all ages, 6+, 12+, 16+ en 18+)
The classification has to be developed by an independent classification body. Only this method of working guarantees an objective classification. Leaving the classification entirely over to the content providers, generates the risk that the content providers let themes lead by commercial motives, rather than the interests of children.
5b) Opt-in /opt out. Should the Opt-in (where the user has to explicitly request
access to adult content rather by accessing it by default) approach be applied in all EU countries?
The opt-in approach guarantees the best protection of children against unsuitable content, because access to adult content has to be explicitly requested. Moreover, opt-in offers parents an additional instrument to supervise the use of mobile phone by their children.
5c) Age verification: should Mobile network operators implement face to face
identity check to determine the age of the user? Should this process also be applied when a customer buys a pre-paid card?
Content lock, opt-in and classification can’t function effectively without an age verification system. If technically possible, a face to face identity check is the most effective.
This should also be applied when a costumer buys a pre-paid card (respresents 86% of the market for children in Belgium)
5d) Filtering and blocking systems. Should filtering systems be installed by
default when the subscription allows Internet access?
Yes. By preference filters that restrict access to all commercial content and internet content rated 18. This should be combined with warning screens for age-classified content or services.
The filtering system has to be user-friendly for parents.
However, we notice that filtering systems are mainly interesting to protect young children. For adolescents on the other hand, they are of less use, since this group is generally more familiar with the technical opportunities than their parents. Adolescents can easily de-install the filter.
5e) Chat rooms. Should chat rooms accessible by children be moderated (in an
automatic way or by a person)?
They should be moderated by a person. Special chat-rooms, exclusively for children, should be established. Access to these chat-rooms is only given after age verification.
5f) Raising awareness among parents and children
Raising awareness among parents and children is a very important issue. Schools also play an important role in making children aware of the risks and opportunities of the information society and media. Currently in Belgium, awareness programs are mainly focused on the use of PC-based internet. Safer use of mobile phone is not yet an issue.
Common actions between public authorities, child safety organisations and schools are preferable.
We agree that parents have a primary responsibility to look after their children. But that doesn’t mean that responsibility lies exclusively with the parents. Mobile Network Operators, Content Service Providers en public authorities also have an important role to play. After all, the safety of the children is a concern for all.
5g) Dedicated mobile phone packs for children, for which age group?
The example of Telefónica Móviles in Spain seems interesting. Telefónica Móviles launched a specific pack for children form 8 to 13, not only including a set of services for children but also an access block to adult contents.
European solutions
6) Among the measures listed above which ones would be useful to elaborate at
European level? For which ones would it be useful to discuss/exchange best practices at European level?
To elaborate at European Level:
- A uniform European classification system for commercial content en internet content
- The opt-in approach should be applied in all European countries. Therefore this system should be elaborated at a European level
- Age verification mechanisms should be uniform in all European countries
- There’s a need to harmonise technically the way adult content filters are applied. The field of application of these filters could be the subject of a discussion on best practices at European level
To discuss/exchange best practices:
- raising awareness of parents
- dedicated mobile phones for children
Katelijn Vanzegbroeck
Gezinsbond – Study Department
Troonstraat 125
1050 Brussel
Belgium
Tel. +32 2 507 88 11
Fax + 32 2 511 90 65
E-mail: katelijn.vanzegbroeck@gezinsbond.be |
