Vodafone seeks to stop children accessing porn sites

VODAFONE Ireland yesterday confirmed it is examining ways to prevent underage customers from accessing adult websites through its handsets.

It follows a decision by its sister company in Britain that will force users to prove they are over 18 if they wish to access sites containing pornography, gambling or internet chatrooms.

A spokesperson for Vodafone in Ireland said it was examining ways of filtering websites in order to protect children.

Vodafone UK is using software which looks for certain words and content to identify websites of an adult nature. The company also proposes that its customers in Britain will have to “opt in” to access such websites by asking for a bar on them to be removed.

While the amount of adult material that can be accessed on mobile phones is relatively limited, the problem is expected to intensify with the launch of the new 3G handsets.

A spokesperson for Vodafone said its main concern was about the use of pre-paid handsets as contract customers are legally obliged to be over 18 years of age. She added that the company hoped to have such a control mechanism in place by 2005.

Vodafone UK may ask people wishing to access adult sites for credit card details as proof of age.

The country’s largest mobile phone operator suspended its chat services last year after it became concerned about some content in unmoderated chatrooms.

However, mobile phone companies remain more anxious about the difficulty in controlling the use of pornographic material sent via messaging services.

The issue was highlighted earlier this year when a pornographic image of a schoolgirl was widely distributed among secondary school students in Ireland.