SA's cellphone operators are yet to put together a comprehensive set of tools to protect children against the plethora of dangers that come with putting smartphones in young hands.
With the proliferation of Internet-enabled devices - cellphones in particular - and amid reports of cyber bullying and harassment, service providers have come under pressure to enable parents to protect their children online.
Co-founder and CEO of mobile safety and security company Mobiflock, Patrick Lawson, points out that when it comes to mobile devices, inappropriate content is only one of parents' concerns. “Unprotected smartphones and tablets leave kids open to other threats, including the creation and sharing of inappropriate or illegal content, 'sexting', bullying, sexual grooming via direct communication, the time spent online and easily racking up large bills through in-app purchases, subscription services and m-commerce.”
Insufficient measures
While some efforts have been made with regard to child protection, SA's cellphone operators do not have sufficient measures in place.
Vodacom and MTN both offer USSD-based filtering tools, which restrict minors from accessing certain types of content like adult sites, gambling and certain chat services. However, these do not work on the BlackBerry platform - problematic considering the popularity of BlackBerry handsets.
Third cellphone operator Cell C does not offer a child protection service. Cell C executive head of communications, Karin Fourie, says the company is working towards the implementation of a mechanism for parents. “We are in the process of implementing a deep packet inspection device that will provide Cell C with the ability in the near future to restrict minors from accessing undesirable content.”
Similarly, Telkom's mobile arm, 8ta, is not yet equipped to offer parents peace of mind when it comes to their children and cellphones. The company says it believes children should be protected from harmful content - and parents equipped to protect them - and it “plans to offer a comprehensive parental control solution in the future”.
Child protection projects
The issue of child protection was highlighted last week, Child Protection Week, which ended with the commemorative Children's Day, on 1 June.
In line with this, and as part of its ongoing child safety campaign, Google SA launched a South African version of Google's Family Safety Centre Web site, supported by various government and civil society groups. Google's safety campaign aims to equip parents with the tools needed to prevent children from accessing or being exposed to inappropriate content online.
Google SA country manager, Luke Mckend, says very little work has been done in this vein in SA, despite the fact that South Africans are increasingly using the Internet, especially on their mobile phones. “While extensive effort has been put into protecting children online in other countries, not much work has been done [here].”
Lawson says operators have not necessarily enabled parents to ensure their kids' online safety in the best way. He cites an example of an international measure, in the UK, whereby adults have to apply to have the adult content block lifted on a new cellphone contract. “This includes access to sites such as wine buying sites, for instance.”
Co-founder Vanessa Clark says Mobiflock's parental control platform, launched commercially about two months ago, has seen significant uptake in SA, highlighting the desire of parents to filter their children's cellphone activity. “Globally, SA is fourth in terms of the number of users signed up to Mobiflock's parental control service, after the US, Canada and the UK.”
Dave Pryce, vice-president of government relations for EMEA and APAC at Research In Motion (RIM), says BlackBerry remains a popular platform for the youth and the company has “come to realise how important [the protection of children on mobile phones] is”.
He says, to this end, the company is finalising BlackBerry-specific applications in terms of parental control and content filtering. “These will be in-built on all new devices, including those running BlackBerry's 7.1 software - which is already available. For older devices, without the in-built service, we will add an app to the BlackBerry App World that has the same functionality.”
He says third parties, including Vodacom and MTN, are currently unable to institute their USSD solution on BlackBerry handsets, because the company has, for security reasons, blocked its application programming interface. “Due to RIM's architecture and the BlackBerry solution that is based on specific coding, third parties cannot disable or block content or set the browser.”
While no specific time frame has been established, Pryce says RIM's comprehensive standalone app, which will go a long way in assisting parents with filtering their children's smartphone activity, will be available across the board in the near future.
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