Opportunities and Dangers of 3G Mobile Services for Children: Proceedings of Experts Meeting in Tokyo published 25 March 2003

Children’s Internet charity, Childnet International, today published the proceedings of an international experts meeting held in Tokyo, Japan on the 6th and 7th March that considered the implications of new mobile phone services for children. Nigel Williams, Chief Executive of Childnet, made a short presentation today on the outcomes of the conference to the Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet. For the first time international experts from the mobile industry, broadcasting, universities, child welfare groups, consumer organisations, law enforcement and regulators met to consider the positive opportunities and safety issues that this new technology raises for young people. The meeting was jointly organised by the UK based Childnet International and the Japanese Internet Industry Association.
The conference opened with three Japanese young people sharing their positive experience of the i-mode technology that has become very popular in Japan and already allows access to web sites, e-mail and picture messaging. While the services have brought much fun and enjoyment, the Japanese police told the meeting that over 700 arrests had been made in the first six months of 2002 of men who had abused young girls they had met through dating sites accessed directly from mobile phones.

Speakers attending from the UK included Dr Ute Navidi from Childline who shared about the opportunities for children to use mobile phones to get help; Greg Childs from the BBC on how broadcasters increasingly use mobile phone services to link with their younger viewers; John Carr from NCH on potential dangers and safety issues; and George Kidd from the phone regulator ICSTIS on possible responses to the dangers. Speakers from Denmark, Canada, USA, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, Japan and Australia also addressed issues ranging from why children love mobiles through to the risk of them being targeted by advertising and scams.

Childnet’s Chief Executive, Nigel Williams who chaired the conference says “We have learnt from the fixed Internet that children and young people love the opportunities technology brings to discover, connect and create. However, there are real dangers as well, especially in being in touch directly with people you don’t know. New mobile devices add the extra ingredient of being such a personal means of communication – away from the eyes and ears of parents and carers. As one industry speaker challenged us children should not be used as the ‘canary in the coalmine’ in the promotion of new mobile internet services.”

Akio Kokubu, Vice President of the Internet Association Japan said, “We were delighted to host this conference. Japanese young people have taken very quickly to new mobile services, and we hope others can learn from what has gone well, and also the ways children have been hurt.”
The mobile phone and Internet industry readily supported the conference, with speakers from both Japanese and European companies, including NTT DoCoMo and O2. The Vodafone Group Foundation were one of the sponsors of the meeting.

See www.childnet-int.org/projects/japan.html for the full proceedings of the conference.