FCC wants carriers to stop kids from getting porn on their cellphones

If there's one thing the FCC loves doing these days, it's regulatin' (and to a lesser extent, perpetratin'), and since this year's Super Bowl didn't give them much to work with, they're now working on "protecting children from indencency" on cellphones. The head of the FCC's wireless bureau just sent a letter to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association urging them to take steps to prevent children from being able to access "adult content" using a cellphone, warning them that he hopes any problem can be solved "without government interference and without interference to the provision of content to adults." Of course, if the FCC does decide to mandate some sort of restrictions on what kind of content can be accessed through a cellphone (and it's not even clear to us that this is within their power), this'll put the US in good company with Saudi Arabia, one of the few countries which has already taken steps to ban cellphone porno.

[Todd Allgeier @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I think some regulations should be in place. I am the owner of PocketThumbs.com, which is a website that delivers adult nude photography to mobile browsers; both internet phones and Palm/Pocket PC.

I would like to see integrated tools, provided by the cellphone service providers, available for parents. Using these tools, parents can set up filters when they acquire a phone with their cellphone service. These tools can safeguard children's access to porn and other adult content by assigning a rating filter for which sites they can access.

I would not mind placing a meta tag or ID on my site that would identify PocketThumbs as Adult oriented. However, this rating would definitely need to be a scaled rating, as my content is tastefully presented nudes, and not pornography. I would certainly want there to be a distinction between the levels of adult content.

The big question is...what should be the default filter setting for these phones?

The answer: require that this question be asked by the service provider immediately when acquiring a phone and activating it.

This type of system would protect children and the rights of adults to access the content they want without huge difficulty.

[Top Porn Sites @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Spam by [e-mail] removed.

[sosuke @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

is this really that large of a problem? are kids image searching for porn at school? cell phones have a place in school, the backpack, attempting to stop kids from accessing porn is absurd, and the fcc doesn't IMHO have control over this, if you dont want your kids corrupted, you should have been an amish

[Beatriz @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Ha! How much of the "porn" can these kids see on the tiny little cell phone screen? Don't tell me they all have Treos and Blackberries!

I use my phone for mobile dating and I thought *that* was risque! Here are some recent articles:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Valentine/story?id=485421&page=1

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=6&pubdate=02/11/05

[christopher wanko @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

if you don't want your kids seeing porn on their cellphones, don't buy them cellphones with Internet capability, or don't subscribe to the *optional* service.

[joe user @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Yet again we have a case of parents not wanting to do the nasty job of parenting and just buying their kids expensive electronics with no thought as to how it might be used. I agree with the above, just get the "free" phone that won't surf the net. Just do like everyone else did and raid your fathers stash of skin mags.

[Hooligan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Porn on my mobile phone screen? Not work the effort when I have my broadband to provide the evening's entertainment.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#1; a friend of mine is the admin at an elementary school and he had to turn in half a dozen kids for MASSIVE porn stashes on their school provided (public school system program) laptops.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

"and the fcc doesn't IMHO have control over this"

I hate to tell you people, the FCC has *always* had control over this. It's been a part of their mandate forever - they control communications, and they control decency standards over those communications. I know this because I learned it when I was a DJ on my high school radio station - *20 years ago*.

Since the SuperBowl 2 years ago people are acting as if the FCC is doing something different than they ever did. I guess nobody remembers Howard Stern's much-publicized problems in the 1980's. But there are other decency-related regulatory actions that happen every day that you don't hear about. It's nothing new and it's part of why the FCC exists, like it or not.

[wolssiloa @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#5, wow lending laptops to elementary school children. is that really necessary?

[Luke @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#6 -> The difference between this and a radio station might be that a cell phone company owns the airwaves it is broadcasting over where as a radio station does not. Also a cell phone user "requests" what they recv, it is not pushed to everyone. This might be more similar to the FCC trying to control what is sent over Satelite TV. As far as I know, they don't right now.

Either way I didn't realize you could get any decent enough porn to be offended by over your phone... def time to upgrade the phone!

[Craig @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

3G stands for Girls, Gambling, and Games.

Until the carriers wise up and realize they won't make a cent on data until they start opening the floodgates to more "mature" mobile content aggregators, wireless is doomed.

[Mark H @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Up next the FCC mandate to force Dad to lock his socks drawer. But seriously, when little Bobby starts looking for porn it's not time for more government regs; it's time to have a talk about the birds and the bees. Any other response is just shoddy parenting.

[Ian Argent @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Ye gods and little boarlets! Is the FCC going to go after usenet next?

[RRF @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Fast forward 25 years. 3d Holographic Virtual Reality displays (3D-HVRs) are a reality. Little Bobby is in 4th grade English class. A ring is heard. He quickly realizes that he forgot to put his phone on silent. A woman pops out into the open space. She is naked and is sitting in a tempting position. Bobby, horrified, scrambles to find his phone burried in his school bag, the one with the Disney-Microsoft logo. The woman asks for Mr. Roberts. Mrs. Englewood, the English teacher, approaches the hologram and says that there is no Mr. Roberts here. "Oooppsss...," says the naked woman, "wrong number."

[Jeremy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I think it is good that the FCC is working on some sort of regulation of pornographic images, did the article say that they wanted to ban porn images on all cell phones? No... Maybe they are developing some type of filter that can be on a cell phone so that little Johnny doesn't see something his parents want him to see.

And to think wireless is doomed because it doesn't offer mature content is absolutely ludicrous...

[JT @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

This has been introduced in the UK as of January 05. Checkout http://www.imcb.org.uk/
Mixed results particularly on Vodafone where their content control system managed to take out their blackberry users too.

[Pip @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Cingular web browsing and searches are by default flitered. You need to agree that you're over 18 if you want to unlock this. I don't see where the FCC needs to come in for any of this.