Child protection

We do not market to children or young people under 16 years old.

The protection of minors and the vulnerable is an important part of our role in society. We promote awareness by raising the issues in our industry and by engaging with charities, child-safety campaigners, governments, law-enforcement agencies, regulators, content producers and parent groups. We have helped to develop codes of practice on the responsible use of mobile phones in the UK, Germany and Ireland.

But our policies recognise that many parents want their children to have a mobile phone. We respect parental choice so we are committed to encouraging a safe mobile environment for children.

Nevertheless, the fastest-growing new group of mobile phones users are children between the ages of 9 and 11 – and we want to help them manage their phone use safely and responsibly.

In the UK, our recent wholesale agreement with the Walt Disney Company, which will allow Disney to launch a new family-friendly mobile phone service, underlines our commitment to this. After a long period of exhaustive consultation with government, health agencies, children’s charities and child-protection groups, we are satisfied that the launch of a service that automatically provides inbuilt parental controls is both responsible and endorsed by our stakeholders.

Parents want to be sure their children’s mobiles are used appropriately and responsibly. Our policies are guided by self-regulatory codes of practice or law (or both) in each of the countries where we operate.

In Germany, we comply with all the rules of the State Treaty on Youth Protection and we do not sell products to the under-16s. These rules commit us to not marketing directly at children or capitalising on their inexperience. Our advertising is designed to ensure it can never inflict physical or mental harm on children or young people or impair their social development.

We support a ‘mobile phone course’ - on how to use mobile phones responsibly with regard to cost, etiquette and to limiting its use - for 8-12 year old schoolchildren. We hope to be able to expand access to most German schoolchildren in that age bracket.

O2’s child protection policies and procedures concentrate on five key areas:

• Internet content.
• Commercial content.
• Location based services.
• Subscription services.
• Spam.

In the UK, Ireland and the Isle of Man we publish child-protection leaflets providing practical help on such issues as handset theft the safe use of camera phones, and grooming by paedophiles via chat rooms.

The leaflets are available from O2 stores and through our websites, including:

• What your child’s mobile can do
• Bullying on mobile phones
• Sensible use of camera phones
• Safe use of mobile chatrooms
• Helping children deal with nuisance calls
• Protecting your child against crime

In Germany, we publish ‘tips and tricks’ on our website and in Ireland ‘A Parent’s Guide to Mobile Phones’ includes key safety advice for parents.

During the year, O2 sponsored an online debate on child protection, supported by key speakers from a range of interest groups on the challenges of child protection. The debate and resultant dialogue with external parties helped to inform our continuing efforts to support young people and parents in this area.

O2’s UK Nuisance Call Bureau is designed to help our customers if they are being harassed, threatened or bullied.

If nuisance calls persist we work with the recipient to unmask the caller’s number. The victim can then inform the police and get a crime reference number. We will then forward the offending numbers to the police.

All initial enquiries about nuisance calls and child protection should be directed through our customer service centres (202 for pay-monthly customers or 4445 for pay-and-go customers). If necessary, customer service will request our specialised  teams to contact you, if further assistance is required.

We are involved in several social programmes to help children keep safe and to use their mobiles responsibly. These include an interactive CD, Polly and Fred, for schoolchildren in Germany and our support for The Suzy Lamplugh Trust in the UK, which promotes text messaging for parents and children to keep in touch.

O2 UK and O2 Germany operate public forums/chat lines and these are moderated constantly by trained staff to help identify inappropriate, threatening or bullying exchanges with children. We undertake to alert relevant agencies to any complaints and we work closely with the police when appropriate.

Text bullying on mobile phones

We engage with teachers, parents and children regularly to warn them that mobile phones can be used inappropriately or maliciously by bullies.

But although the mobile phone provides bullies with an alternative to the playground or street to taunt their victims, it also provides the victims with ways to combat and control nuisance calls or malicious behaviour.

Our literature and awareness programmes remind young people that malicious callers may use the phone to hide behind.

During the year, a study by UK psychologists revealed that cyber bullying – bullying by email or text messaging – is on the increase.

O2 is keen to prepare children and young people for such incidents. We publish advice on how to deal with Bullying on mobile phones on our website and in the UK we regularly check to make sure the materials are clearly displayed in our retail stores.

We work through our schools mentoring schemes to help children cope with bullying by text and to coach them to avoid involving themselves in any malicious behaviour. We also work in consultation with the police through Prison Me? – No Way!, a schools community programme in the UK with the Prison Service, to educate young people.

In Germany our Polly and Fred interactive CD to help children use their mobiles responsibly and safely has been approved to be part of the national curriculum and is currently used by one federal state.

Our National Call Bureau in the UK tackles bulk and nuisance calls, including malicious or inappropriate contact.