How can I help to protect my students from inappropriate mobile content?
Talk to your students about how they use their mobiles. They're no doubt texting and calling people, but they might also be taking photos and videos and sharing them with others, playing games, or accessing the internet.
As they use their mobiles in increasingly sophisticated ways, they might be at greater risk of coming across inappropriate content.
Fortunately, the UK's leading mobile network providers have been proactive in addressing the risks to children of using new services on mobiles and are providing built-in tools and adhering to industry codes of practice.
The UK's leading mobile network providers follow a code of practice for the mobile industry that was introduced in 2004 and that was independently reviewed by Ofcom in 2008.
In addition, they have signed up to the European Framework for Safer Mobile Use by Younger Teenagers and Children and are members of the Internet Watch Foundation, which aims to reduce illegal content on the Web.
The UK's leading mobile network providers help to protect young people by:
- Asking users go through a process of age-verification before being able to access content such as gambling websites, unmoderated chat rooms, and sexually-explicit and violent content, which is considered to be '18-rated' by the Independent Mobile Classification Body .
- Providing filters on Web-enabled mobiles - filters are set within the network and are set by default to "on” by the majority of mobile network providers. You should, however, bear in mind that the network providers cannot filter content sent directly to the phone by other people so you should discuss with your students the type of content they should share with others.
- Preventing under-18s from downloading multi-player games, which are played while connected to the mobile network or the internet and allow several people (often adults) to play together and chat to each other about the game.
- Hosting fully moderated areas for younger mobile users, including chat rooms, blogs and video-sharing services. This means that there is always a trained adult moderator checking the messages and images that are being posted in that area and taking action against inappropriate content or behaviour, such as swearing or bullying.
Furthermore, if your students search the Web from their mobiles, they can set up Google Safe Search to ensure they can only access age-appropriate content. Again, their parents might need to get involved in setting this up on the mobile.
If one of your students is concerned about inappropriate content on their mobile, click here for guidance on how to report the incident.
Where can I find out more?