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Ireland requires 3G phone registration
Tuesday, June 01 2004
by Matthew Clark


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.