The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, the trade group of the wireless industry, has begun working on a mobile-content-rating system that should allow for “filtered” (i.e., adult) content by midyear, according to its vice president of wireless Internet development.
The Federal Communications Commission oversees the distribution of the wireless spectrum, which some say has made many wireless carriers, who have no system in place to deal with adult content, slow to jump on the adult bandwagon.
But with adult companies like Playboy and Hustler jumping into the fray with mobile content offerings in the United States, the CTIA has been pushed toward addressing the need for developing a rating system.
“The adult side of things has really kick-started it,” Mark Desautels, CTIA’s vice president of wireless Internet development told Reuters. “As indecency becomes an increasing point of interest on the part of policy makers, we really need to be proactive about it.”
To those ends, the CTIA is developing a content-filtering system, which will initially separate content into general and restricted categories. The latter will feature content suitable only for those 18 years old and older.
The first tests of this system should be released by midyear, with a full rating system implemented by the end of 2005.
“We want to develop more sophisticated filtering tools so that the ability to filter or to block certain types of content will be another part of the suite of services that carriers seek to provide,” Desautels said in a report.
