Wireless industry takes FCC's "advice" and is looking at ways to block cellphone porn
posted Mar 10th 2005 10:15PM
So last month the head of the FCC's wireless bureau
"suggested" that the cellphone industry create some guidelines for keeping little kiddies from peeping porn on
their cellies. Rather than responding that the FCC doesn't really have any authority over this sort of thing, or that
ultimately it's up to parents to control what their kids are exposed to (we don't have the government "suggesting" or
mandating that ISPs prevent kids from accessing porn—at least not yet), the industry caved. Or at least the CTIA, the
wireless industry trade group, did. CTIA president Steve Largent just sent a letter to the carriers about how they are
working on guidelines for age verification of cellphones users and for classifying wireless content as either all-ages
or adults-only, guidelines which they hope/expect the industry will adopt.
It's not even clear that kids accessing porn on their cellphones is even that big of a problem in the first place (PCs
are another matter), but even if it is, whatever system the CTIA has in mind is bound to fail. It'd maybe have a shot
at working if every carrier took a walled-garden approach and imposed total control over everything you could access on
your cellphone, but most new smartphones have access to the wide-open Internet, so unless you're going to force every
website on the planet to tag its content for kid-friendliness or have the carriers institute some sort of massive
filtering program, this is basically a complete waste of time. If you don't want your kids looking at Internet porn on
their cellphone, then don't buy them a cellphone that can access the Internet (like the one that girl pictured above is
using). Or don't them sign up for a data plan. We heard that works, too.
Damn FCC. It's all JANET JACKSON'S BOOB! JANET JACKSON'S BOOB! JANET JACKSON'S BOOB!
This is absurd, I can't imagine anyone wanting to even look at porn on a cellphone, the screens are just way too small. If a child is dedicated enought to look at porn on a tiny screen like that, they're going to find much more practical and eaiser ways of viewing it.
hot damn! where can I get a phone like that?
:P
OMG, I have the exact phone that girl's holding!
Probably the technology that exists today doesn't 'say' that such a measure is required. I think lack of similar control during the beginning of the internet era is why porn is so freely available. But I am not complaining. I remember how difficult it was to get porn 15 years ago.
Sexiest phone ever!!
Goddamn...why doesnt the FCC just take away all of our rights. I swear the FCC is getting ridiculous, they have their heads up their ass and keep making stupid ass laws on what you can and cant say, what is acceptable and what is not, what you can and cant do. Who cares if kids look at porn, sooner or later their going to be at that age where thats all they can think about.
"If you don’t want your kids looking at Internet porn on their cellphone, then don’t buy them a cellphone that can access the Internet (like the one that girl pictured above is using). "
That made me chuckle...thanks. :)
By the way, the very last sentence has a r on "we". :)
(for the record, I think I had that phone too!)
For goodness sake, mobiles are all heading towards the place where they're just glorified bloody web-browsers!
There's ALWAYS going to be someone hosting "dodgy" content, for free, without any sort of real age-verification/registration. Even PC based "stop your kids seeing smut" software doesn't work properly, and I've been paid to develop said software in the past.
Sure, you can try, and block out "most" content, but unless you're going to blanket-ban access to sites the telco hasn't approved it just won't work!
But, for the sake of argument, say it does, FCC and whoever else jumps on board this (rather dodgy) bandwagon suss this, and it works (and they all get very rich back-porting it to PCs!) it takes one kid with a Real Computer and some way to get cruft onto his phone and we just start getting brats passing around pixilated-pussy via MMS. Are they planning to start to vet that too?
(Not to mention the dodgy providers offering "send us a text-message, we charge you £5 and MMS back a smutty pic of your mum". )
I ran across this story and found one thing very interesting. Steve Largent is a former congressman from Oklahoma, and generally considered to be VERY conservative, one of the Christian rights biggest names. I think that may be a BIG reason the CTIA was so willing to follow the FCC's "advice."
Actually I'm pretty sure the phone the girl is holding is a 10+ year old Motorola MicroTac, an old analog phone that pre-dates the StarTac. Hihlhy unlikely it has more than a 10-digit display, let alone anyway to display web content...
don't bother worrying about your kid looking at porn on a cell phone, if they can use a net browser they've probably already seen it.
Cary,
Worryingly I think you're right!
I had the UK version which was had a slightly thinner "lip" from keypad/flip recess to the earpiece (and a "standard" LCD, black on dodgy camo-greenish - think cheap digital watch/iPod 1G/Gameboy classic - the kind of LCD that went purpleish in extreme cold!)- this was back in '93.
The US model (which was several years later - I still saw them in active use back in '98) had a colour LCD display, green numbers and orage icons for battery on black, etc. More like Neon's than LCD....
This phone, however, had one really cool feature (not techincally a phone feature) - it came with a desk-dock for charging, which you just dropped it into. Pretty standard so far, but the dock came with a slot for a second battery too. This allowed such senarios as "grab both and run", knowing that both were fully charged, no worries, you'd be able to make 2 while 45 minute phone-calls! :P
(oh, and a PSU that was on a "barrel plug" - about as standard as they got, RadioShack/Tandy/Whoever sold them for about $5 a piece!)
Steve Largent? The Hall of Fame wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks is now President of the CTIA?
If the US people dont start making something agaisnt those guys US is going to turn out like a ditature where you arent free to see listen read etc what you want...
If the US people dont start making something agaisnt those guys US is going to turn out like a ditature where you arent free to see listen read etc what you want...