Ireland requires 3G phone registration
01-06-2004
by Anthony Quinn

All 3G mobile phones sold in Ireland are to be registered to their owners in an effort to safeguard children from inappropriate content.

The Minister for Communications, Marine and National Resources Dermot Ahern has announced a national register of 3G mobile phones that are capable of carrying video clips. The protection of minors is an "absolute necessity" that is bigger than issues surrounding infrastructural investment and a possibly impracticable register that would put-off consumers, he said.

"A national register of picture phones has proven impractical by virtue of the fact that we already had millions of GSM handsets in existence when picture phones became available. "But 3G is different," he said. "Handsets will not be available until the end of the year and we have an opportunity now to provide increased safety mechanisms," said Minister Ahern, who added that he intends to work "closely" with the industry on the details of the register.

A three-pronged initiative aimed at ensuring the secure and responsible use of mobile services was launched Tuesday by the Minister on behalf of the Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA) and mobile operators O2, Meteor and Vodafone. An industry code of practice, a parental guide to mobile phone services and a mobile content filtering trial were launched as part of the initiative.

The new code of practice, which represents a "common commitment" by the mobile phone industry to adhere to a set of standards, is to be implemented by the operators. The new code of practice, which will be updated as technology develops, includes the facilitation by operators of parental access to minors' accounts. "This could also be a basis for dialogue about what responsible use happens to be," said Paul Donovan, chief executive officer of Vodafone Ireland.

The code also states that operators are to establish telephone lines for the reporting of unsolicited commercial communications. They would report and co-ordinate with premium rate phone regulator RegTel and the Data Protection Commission if necessary, according to the code. Operators are also to adhere to the Internet Service Provider Association of Ireland (ISPAI) code of practice and are to advise customers to report suspected cases of child pornography. Finally, the new code says that operators are to assist customers in reporting malicious person-to-person communications.

The industry group also said that O2 Ireland, Meteor and Vodafone are to conduct what was described as one of the world's first mobile content filtering trials. Announcing details of the trial, which is to run over the summer months, Danuta Gray, chief executive officer of O2 said that the technology will act as "another safeguard" when it is introduced. The technology is to be first trialled over the O2 network and then over Meteor and Vodafone.

"We think this is a world first," said Gray. "One way of working is to filter out known blacklisted URL Web addresses," she said. "But more complicated is to detect images being transmitted over the network via indicators such as skin tones and the relative position of people in photographs which determine whether an image may be classed as inappropriate," she said. There are a "lot of questions" remaining and the upcoming trial will be used to make a content filtering system work, said Gray. There are no plans to charge for the service when it is eventually introduced, added Gray.

The ICIA also published "The Knowledge -- A Parent's Guide to Mobile Phones," a guide aimed at helping parents gain a more complete understanding of mobile phone services.