Firms can’t protect children from phone abuse

MOBILE phone firms do not have the technology to protect children from abusive and inappropriate calls and text message.

O2 corporate affairs manager Majella Fitzpatrick told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that mobile operators did not have the technology to give parents peace of mind when choosing a phone for their child.

The Joint Committee of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources was told that software developed by an Irish company to restrict unsolicited text and voice calls to children was not good enough.