Canadian communications company Telus announced it has suspended its adult-content downloading service for mobile phones.
According to the Vancouver Sun, the Vancouver Catholic Archdiocese on Feb. 16 called the downloadable images of nude women and men "pornography" and had 130 parishes and schools cancel their contracts with Telus Mobility.
Since January 2007, Telus had registered and verified the ages of several thousand customers for the purpose of allowing them to download nude photos at $3 each and nude videos at $4 each. Out of approximately 5 million cell-phone users, only 135 customers complained about the company's offering pornographic content.
Surrey, British Columbia, resident Gordon Keast recently filed a lawsuit against the company seeking the termination of his service contract without having to pay cancellation fees. With news of Telus' decision to cease offering downloadable adult content, Keast said he feels "vindicated," although according to a small claims court in Surrey, Keast has not yet withdrawn his lawsuit. In addition, the Surrey man said he would "love to see all pornographic content" unable to be downloaded from "any phone," whether provided by Telus or another company.
"[Providing adult content] is not a business our customers want us to be in," said Telus Director of Media Relations Jim Johannsson. "There was a fundamental lack of awareness among the people who called or wrote with concerns that cell phones are Web-enabled devices. Parents should take the same precautions about letting children use cell phones as they do with their home computers that are connected to the Internet."
