Safety and security: O2 Ireland
Responsible use of mobile phones
The Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA) updated its self-regulatory Code of Practice for the responsible use of mobile services in May 2006 - providing further standards for commercial content, internet access and age-verification.
The industry worked with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to define suitable levels of control for the Irish market.
Irish operators have also undertaken to appoint an independent classification body with responsibility for developing and implementing a classification framework for over-18 rated content.
New controls will be introduced by the end of 2006 and are being tested in advance. They will be designed to ensure that pre-pay customers are automatically barred from over-18 commercial content until they provide evidence of age.
Safe driving
It is expected that the Irish Government Department of Transport will soon introduce legislation to give penalty points to drivers caught using hand-held mobile phones whilst driving.
We fully support this move, and advise customers to follow our tips for correct mobile phone use when driving:
- Never use a hand-held mobile phone or device
- Never send text or multimedia messages.
- If you are a hands-free user, pull over to take a call.
- Keep conversations short and stress free.
- Set up voicemail to take your messages.
Parents’ guides
The ICIA has also republished its parents' guides, explaining in detail new ways to protect children from inappropriate content.
It is available from O2 stores or at www.o2.ie.
New phone packs will in future enclose a parental authorisation form for permission to access premium-rate content.
No Irish operator currently offers adult content or chat services. However, until the industry's new classification body is in place, we believe there may be some grey areas about exactly what constitutes appropriate content.
O2 Ireland is affiliated to the country's www.hotline.ie service, operated by the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland and supervised by the Government's Internet Advisory Board. The primary aim of www.hotline.ie is to combat illegal child pornograpy on the internet.
Emergency services
We have set up a Government Liaison Unit (GLU) to act as a single point of contact for government agencies, such as police and defence forces, to provide help in the following areas:
- Responding to requests for name and address information, call-traces and location searches, in accordance with the law.
- Supporting the Marine Casualty Investigation Board as part of its investigations into accidents at sea.
- Offering a 24-hour call service to the Irish Police Force for emergencies - usually involving the location of a missing person. The GLU estimates that this service helped to save 25 lives in 2005.
Issues in brief
O2 plc
- Safety first
- What are the issues?
- Keeping a close watch
- A policy of child protection
- Putting a ring around bullies
- Assisting emergency response on July 7
- What are location-based services?
- A matter of life and death
- Pictures and the law
- Collective action on spam
- When should we intercept?
- Privacy at what price?
- Data retention and protection
- A question of balance
