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UK Mobile Providers Introduce WAP Censorship
godsmoke writes "UK mobile providers have formed an alliance to block 'inappropriate content' from cell phone users under the age of 18. 'It covers images, video, gambling, games, chatrooms and net access but not premium rate voice and SMS services', says a BBC News article. The Code authorizing the changes is called the 'Code of Practice', and: 'Content with an 18 certificate will only be available when the network operators verify the age of the user'."
"The new code is going to make many people ask why, if the mobile people can do it, the fixed internet people can't." - John Carr
Here we go again...
Cell phones are not the same thing as the Internet. The Internet was design such that if a node goes down, traffic will route around it. A similar thing would happen if censorship were to be pressed upon us at the ISP level (analogous to the cell phone service providers) as users would simply find ways around it with tunneling protocols, mirrors, and the like.
And I have a feeling that this "new code" will be exploited as well. Of course it's a good thing that the phone companies want to protect children, but there are many ways that censorship like this can aid them in having a monopoly over other providers of mobile phone chat services. We'll just have to see what happens.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I see no reason why when somebody purchases the phone, the account can't have a birthdate associated with it... if I wish.
Then my daughter's phone only allows age-appropriate material.
I like it. If I could set it to keep all the older guys from calling her, I would pay triple what I pay now.
Ac
What if I as the parent of a 17 year old, give them permission to look at porn? Can I have that block removed from their phone... a phone I most likely bought and paid for in the first place?
--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?
American Weblog in London
They are implementing something on their own before a regulatory body tells them to implement it. Kudos to them. Basically they are implementing on cellphones exactly what a vast number of the public have been calling for in the internet, namely making the place safe for kids, and since pretty much every kid over here in the UK has a cellphone, I think this is going to be seen as a positive step forward. Yes, by all means shout the generic shout "but the parents should supervise the kids", but seriously, wap enabled cellphones are an epidemic with the under 18 population over here, and its trivial for someone to purchase one without a parents knowledge, so its a lot easier to supervise a kid on a PC than it is on one of these.
Surely you are trolling.
16 year olds don't need internet phones? Who do you think will be programming these things for the next few years?
If I were 16 right now, I would be hacking away at my cell phone like nobody's business.
I have no problem with my kids checking their email or schedule or updating their website from their phone...
I just want a way to know what they are viewing is age appropriate.
AC
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I hate to be RAH-RAH, but I totally agree.
Under 16s have no need to use the phone for anything else than making a call or texting. They don't need internet or pay-per-view type content on their phone. Parents should not let them have this sort of phone (hard law) and providers who provide this content (who can be traced as it is through a mobile network) should be prosecuted as hard as possible. But, of source, mobile phone/content providers will be as aggressive in marketing any kind of pay-per-view content possible.
Why it is under 18s and not under 16s I don't know, typical UK bifibrcation I guess.
I always found it funny that, in the UK, you can get married and have sex at the age of 16; yet you can't look at porno until you are 18. So it's possible to indulge in the most depraved sexual acts imaginable, but you're not allowed to view depictions of the same acts. Crazy!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
You are posting on /., surely you are not naive enough to realise unsupervised access to the internet is truely unsupervised.
Kiddie filters are always being got around. Why do they need to check their email at any moment?! Why do they need to access a schedule, can't they remember their school timetable?! Why do they need to update a website from on the go?!
Children need to be taught value in activities, else they'll live their life thinking everything is easy come, easy go.
If you don't supervise your children's access to the internet but instead expect a phone company (who want to sell as many services and make your child a 'good little consumer') to do it for you, then that is up to you, not me and not your child.
--
It is not the commies, the government, the nigger, nor the corporates. It is your paranoia.
All say 'aye' those who would gladly welcome providers blocking annoying ring tones and overly loud 'SMS received' beeps ! Never mind innapropriate content, these social nuisances are enough to make you kiiiilllll !
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" [William Shakespeare]
Like all horror stories related to children, the actual number of reported cases is small. However, it does actually occur from time to time according to news reports of specific incidents.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I never cease to be amazed that the time, energy, and money people will spend trying to "protect" young people from the things they don't want them to see.
The reason for these efforts is simple, information control is the only effective means of mind control. Control what people see and hear and you control what they think. Much of child rearing seems to be institutionalized brainwashing. This made no sense to me when I was a child or a teenager and it makes even less sense to me now at 31, or at least no rational sense.
There is no rational reason to want to hide things from your children. There are plenty of irrational (and downright sick) reasons I can think of though, most of which are a combination of stupidity and insanity.
Unfortunately I don't think this will ever change because that would require human nature with all its failing and weaknesses to be improved and that hasn't happened in 10,000 years or more.
Lee
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