CTIA (the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry)and the largest mobile carriers in the U.S. on Tuesday cooperatively unveiled “Wireless Content Guidelines,” a proactive, voluntary pledge by the industry to provide tools and controls to manage wireless content offered by the carriers or available via Internet-enabled wireless devices.
The guidelines echo the Code of Practice adopted by Europe’s largest carriers in January 2004.
“Today’s wireless consumers can enjoy an increasingly wide variety of content, including video clips of movies and television shows, weather and news reports, music, games, and ring tones,” says Steve Largent, president and chief executive of CTIA. “The Wireless Content Guidelines were developed to help consumers better understand the incredible opportunities wireless technology provides, while, most importantly, equipping parents to protect the people they care about most: their children.”
A significant component of the guidelines is the Content Classification Standard, which divides content that subscribers may access within their carrier’s managed content portal into two categories: Generally Accessible Carrier Content and Restricted Carrier Content. The content will be categorized using criteria based on the movie, television, music, and games rating systems that already are familiar to consumers. The Wireless Content Guidelines create standards intended to ensure that carrier-offered content either excludes or requires permission from a parent or guardian to access any material inappropriate for subscribers younger than 18.
The guidelines reflect the carriers’ pledge not to offer “restricted” content until they have provided controls to allow parents to prevent their children from accessing it.
“Parents must ultimately decide what materials are most suitable for their children, and wireless carriers participating in this important measure are committed to providing parents with the necessary tools to do so,” Largent says.
A second phase of the industry’s Wireless Content Guidelines initiative requires carriers to develop and implement Internet content access control technologies that enable wireless account holders to block access to the Internet entirely or provide tools to block access to specific websites that consumers might consider inappropriate. Carriers will independently implement Internet access control tools.
Although carriers have no control over content generally available on the Internet, the guidelines are intended to give consumers, particularly parents, the ability to limit what Internet content can be accessed through their families’ wireless devices. Implementation of controls will vary according to each carrier’s unique business plans and technological capabilities.
The guidelines are available in PDF form here.
