A major concern for parents is whether or not their child has access to adult content on a cellphone. There are two reasons for this concern. The first is that adult content can be easily accessed from a cellphone and the second is that a child’s cellphone use is largely unsupervised.
While most parents would not allow their children unsupervised Internet access on a personal computer, it seems that the same rules do not apply to cellphones. Most cellphones used by children today are able to access the mobile Internet, interact in anonymous mobile chat rooms, download adult content from a premium rate subscription service, as well as send and receive images and video clips. This means that a child could access pornographic websites, adult content or be exposed to X-rated or adult content if they choose through their mobile phone.
A teen may also receive pornographic content (in the form of text, images or video clips) from another person and then distribute the same adult content to their circle of friends. The initial sender may be someone they know or a stranger they have met online or through a mobile social networking service.
Advice to Parents
Discuss your concerns with your child about their accessing adult content. Let your child know that you will be checking up on their mobile content activities until they have proven that they can be responsible cellphone users. However, as a parent you are not alone when it comes to protecting your child from accessing adult content on their cellphone. Some mobile network operators have put technical solutions in place to block children’s access to adult mobile content.
For information on what the mobile network providers are doing to protect your child from accessing adult content, go to Industry Solutions.
ParentsCorner.org.za 