Researcher to Wireless: Guard Adult Before FCC Does It for You

A prominent market-research group has one message for wireless carriers: Guard against minors accessing adult content, or the Federal Communications Commission will do it for you.

"How wireless carriers choose to respond to this growing industry concern will dictate the impact of their role with the government and within the industry," said Yankee Group senior analyst Adam Zawel, announcing Yankee's new study, Wireless Carriers Must Protect Minors From Adult Content and Avoid Government Regulation.

"With solid, strategic investment in self-regulation, wireless carriers can achieve dual benefit of protecting minors from adult content while safely profiting from the opportunity," Zawel added.

Zawel was unavailable for further comment before this story went to press, but Yankee said in its report that the wireless adult market is likely to hit $192 million in revenue by 2009, "expos[ing] more children to indecent material, making it only a matter of time before parental outrage reaches the FCC.

"And if the FCC does the regulating,” Yankee added, that could mean more costly filtering and other protective solutions than any the wireless industry could produce itself.

Yankee recommendations include allowing parents to turn off the wireless Web, which might depress wireless revenue potential; creating child profiles, "which offer comprehensive protection that is easy for the guardian to administer"; and, making small filtering or controls investments now rather than paying for costly, "invasive" regulations later.