Mobile phone porn can be blocked by new technology

TECHNOLOGY to block mobile phone porn has been developed by a Dublin company and phone operators are obliged to make it available, according to the head of an Oireachtas watchdog committee.

Dublin-based company Telcotec is apparently the first in the world to have invented the image-filtering software.

After previously saying that there was no mechanism to filter pornographic images, Dáil communications committee chairman Noel O’Flynn now says technology has been developed, with the potential to protect children, parents and normal law-abiding mobile phone customers.

Following his meeting on the issue of phone porn with the three mobile phone operators, Vodafone, O2 and Meteor last week, Mr O’Flynn said the company made a presentation on how its software works.

Calling on the mobile phone companies to meet with anyone offering a solution to the problem, Mr O’Flynn said the development is timely in view of the shocking cases to hit the country recently.

“Called Content Guardian, this software safeguards mobile phone customers from pornographic content originating from mobiles, email and internet multi-media messages. The software detects and analyses through a filter feature, whether an image is pornographic before it reaches the display screen, rejecting it if indeed it is pornographic.

“Customers subscribe for the service giving their personal preferences for control over the content they receive. Content Guardian integrates with external infrastructures to safeguard the customer from unsolicited or damaging content,” the Cork North-Central TD said.

The need to prohibit the spread of mobile phone porn to protect children is acute and urgent, Mr O’Flynn said.

“A very disturbing trend in mobile phone porn is emerging in our society as modern technology becomes more advanced. This software is crucial to alleviate parent’s fears and to protect our children.

“Mobile phone operators must embrace it. While I am not endorsing any one single commercial company, I commend Telcotec for developing this software which could be the solution to preventing pornographic images and messages being distributed over our mobile phone network,” he said.

Communications Minister Dermot Ahern says parents can ask for access to their children’s mobile phone account and block calls which they do not approve. Mr Ahern said parents are not aware that they can monitor and block calls to their child’s mobiles if they felt it necessary.