Child Safety and Mobile Phones Ana Luisa Rotta INHOPE President

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Child Safety and Mobile PhonesAna Luisa
RottaINHOPE President

• EC ForumLuxembourg, 14 June 2005

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Presentation

• INHOPE Working Group on Personal Mobile Devices
• PROTEGELES Study on CHILD SAFETY AND CHILDRENS
  MOBILE PHONE HABITS
• Contact

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Child Safety Issues and IMP

• The recent worldwide release of Internet-enabled
  mobile phones (IMP) presents a range of new
  challenges for INHOPE hotlines.
• The ability of IMPs to connect to the Internet
  gives rise to potential child safety and content
  management concerns.
• The new generation devices are no longer mobile
  phones only, they also work as web browsers,
  instant messengers, game stations and e-mail
  terminals.
• INHOPE hotlines are currently looking into
  strategies to increase safety standards for
  underage users using IMP, related services and
  material generally considered illegal through its
  Working Group on Mobile Devices.

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Child Safety Issues and IMP

• Dangers that IMPs and associated services pose to
  young users are similar to risks posed by
  childrens use of the fixed Internet
• Meeting exploitative adults
• Tracking and stalking by predatory adults
• Pornography (adult content, and illegal content
  including child generated pornography using
  camera phones)
• Grooming and Bullying (threatening SMS, chat and
  MMS)
• However, access via a mobile greatly increases
  these dangers due to the private personal
  nature of the device (less supervision by
  parents) and the fact that it is always on.

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Child Safety Issues and IMP

• Camera phones
• The built in digital cameras can instantly
  transmit photos/video from phone to phone, via
  e-mail, or to Web sites. This means that the
  child cannot only see inappropriate material, but
  they could send it as well.
• There is growing concern over paedophiles
  persuading children with camera phones to take
  and transmit photographs of themselves.
• Global positioning tracking features
• Phones are also being equipped with "geo
  location" systems make it possible for others to
  identify exactly where the user is located.
• This presents a double-edged sword that on one
  hand provides parents/authorities with
  information in case of emergency and paedophiles
  with a tool to target and meet children.

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INHOPE WG Personal Mobile Devices

• Actions
• Survey amongst hotlines in order to identify
  country profiles of mobile use.
• Most Hotlines already have contacts to MNOs, but
  no formal procedures for dealing with illegal
  internet content available via PMDs.
• Created a guide to handling illegal content
  available via PMDs
• Generic template for a guide to procedures for
  hotlines dealing with illegal internet content
  available via personal mobile devices.
• T-mobile expert speaker members meeting (May
  2005)

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PROTEGELES Study

• Study commissioned by the Child Ombudsman in
  Madrid.
• 2.000 interviews carried out in schools and
  entertainment areas with children/adolescents
  from 11 to 17 years of age.
• Objectives
• Describe the patterns of use and consumption of
  the mobile phone by minors in Spain.
• Describe the level of safety of minors in the use
  of mobile telephony identifying possible
  situations of conflict.

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PROTEGELES Study

• Main conclusions
• The mobile phone has become an entertainment
  instrument for minors who rarely use it to place
  traditional phone conversations. It is mainly
  used to play, take/send pictures, etc.
• SMS has proven to be the option mostly used by
  minors to communicate, creating their own
  language different from traditional written
  Spanish.
• Minors are becoming important consumers of
  products related to mobile phones (terminals,
  melodies, screen savers, etc).
• Minors usually inherit their parents old
  terminals. 78 of those interviewed have changed
  terminals at least once, while 24 have done it 4
  times.
• The great majority of minors use pre-paid systems
  69 as opposed to formal contracts with operators.

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PROTEGELES Study

• Conflict situations
• 18 of those interviewed have experienced sexual
  harassment through the mobile phone.
• 68 of those interviewed have received
  un-solicited messages in their mobile phones
  (some of these messages are related to gambling,
  lotteries, etc).
• 20 have admitted to using their mobile phones to
  send threatening and insulting messages (in most
  cases to class mates bullying).

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PROTEGELES Study

• Conflict situations
• The great majority of minors have received
  photographs in their mobile terminals and use the
  phone to exchange photos with friends. However 9
  of them have received pornographic photos on
  their mobile phones.
• One in every three (38) have admitted to feeling
  uneasy and sometimes even anxious when they are
  forced to do without their mobile phones.
• A small percentage of those interviewed (11)
  have admitted to lying, deceiving and sometimes
  even subtracting small quantities of money from
  their parents in order to recharge their mobile
  phones.

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PROTEGELES Study sexual harassment
82
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PROTEGELES Study bullying cases
80
16
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Contact Details

• See website www.inhope.org !
• Download PROTEGELES Study at
• www.dmenor-mad.es
• Or
• www.protegeles.com
• Ana Luisa Rotta
• INHOPE President
• ana-luisa.rotta_at_inhope.org
• alrotta_at_protegeles.com