Protecting our customers from illegal and potentially harmful content

Many Telefónica O2 UK customers use content-rich 3G mobile services and applications connecting to the open internet.

Along with the roll out of our third generation (3G) mobile network we have established the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) protocol - which provides data services at greater speeds.

This has changed the way people use their mobiles. A mainly verbal and simple text device in the past, mobile’s new applications - video streaming, picture messaging and internet browsing - are growing in popularity.

The growth of data services in 2007 together with our launch of fixed-line home broadband put our responsiblity to protect customers from illegal and potentially harmful content into even sharper focus.

Potentially harmful content includes pornography, racism, violence and gambling. The ability to generate users’ own content, and to upload and share it with ease adds a new dimension to abusive behavior such as bullying and child abuse. 

To ensure that our customers, especially families and children, enjoy our products and services safely, we offer parental controls on all our products and have invested in our capability to offer parents consistent, real, honest and practical advice about the risks their children face online.

We do not see our role as a moral arbiter. We respect our adult customers’ freedom to decide what legal content and services they access through our networks. But we have acted to make the internet and mobile environments hostile to the distribution of illegal images of child abuse.