Submitted by Mike Grenville on Tue, 23 Mar 2004 11:19

Virgin Mobile today said that it will adopt an 'opt-in' policy around new forms of content on its mobile phones.

Virgin Mobile, who have over 3.7 million customers, says that it has taken this position in order to ensure that only those customers who have proven that they are over 18 may gain access to age-restricted experiences. Virgin Mobile are still looking at a variety of options for age verification.

John Conlon, Virgin Mobile's head of adult services, said: "We want our customers to have access to as wide and as rich a range of content experiences on their mobile phone as possible, but we believe that it is important to protect our young customers from adult content. Therefore we have chosen to apply an 'opt-in' policy to ensure that those under 18 may only gain access to suitable content.

"The intention is to self-regulate as much as possible and put the consumer at the heart of the network" said a spokesman.

Today's announcement applies to Virgin Mobile's own content and not to access on the wider Internet and no date has been fixed for implementation.

Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, said: "We welcomed the industry's Code of Practice published earlier this year, and are pleased with the continuing efforts of the mobile phone industry to address these issues through self-regulation."

Virgin Mobile has been closely involved with the recently published pan-operator Joint Code of Practice for New Forms of Content, a self-regulatory code, which has been developed in order to establish guidelines around the safe and appropriate access to content on mobile phones by the end of 2004.

UK Code of Practice for the Self Regulation

• All commercial content unsuitable for customers under 18 will be classified "18". Such content will not be made available to customers until the networks, through a process of age verification, are satisfied that he or she is at least 18.
• The classification framework will be in line with comparable standards in other media and will be created by a body that is independent of the mobile operators
• Chat rooms made available to customers under 18 will be moderated (ie monitored to guard against inappropriate use)
• Parents and carers will be able to apply filters to the mobile operator's Internet access service so that the Internet content thus accessible is restricted
• Mobile operators will work with law enforcement agencies to deal with the reporting of content that may break the criminal law
• Mobile operators will also combat bulk and nuisance communications
• Mobile operators will provide advice to customers on the nature and use of new mobile devices and services and support other relevant media literacy activities designed to improve the knowledge of consumers.

The full code can be viewed here: 160c Documents and resources

www.virginmobile.com

The next 160 Characters event on 31st March called 'Porn on your handset' will be looking at the subject and has speakers from Vodafone, O2 and Child Net. 160c events