Young people use mobile phones, computers and the internet to support their education, keep in touch and have fun

Children and young people regard information technology as a way of life today.

They use mobiles and the internet to stay in touch, ensure their safety, play games, share pictures and have fun.

We believe that, responsibly used, our technology provides a stimulating environment that promotes positive social networking, technology skills and knowledge.

According to an investigation by OFCOM into media literacy among children:

• Two-thirds of children aged 8-15 own a mobile phone and 82 per cent of 12 to 15 year olds.
• The most popular uses of a mobile phone are sending text messages and making calls. The third most popular use is for playing games.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/medlitpub/medlitpubrss/children/children.pdf

The fastest-growing group of new mobile phone users is children between the ages of 9 and 11. And with the Government encouraging greater use of information technology in schools – including pre-schools – the age at which children can competently use a computer continues to fall.

We are keen to encourage a safe mobile environment for children. To achieve this we continue to work closely with other parts of our industry and with key charities, child-safety campaigners, governments, law-enforcement agencies, regulators, schools and parent groups.

Trained staff moderate our public forums and chat services to help identify inappropriate, threatening or bullying exchanges - especially with children. We alert relevant agencies of any complaints and we work closely with the police.

We support the Teach UR Mum 2 TXT campaign, run by The Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

To help prevent mobile phone crime and theft, we continued to work with the Prison Service and the No Way Trust (Prison, Me – No way!) to take anti-crime message to young people through schools.

Engaging with stakeholders

We continued to work closely with the online child safety charity Childnet International and to maintain close dialogue with the Children’s Charities Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS). In 2007 we supported Childnet and DCSF with their national conference on Cyber-bullying, and helped to fund the distribution to schools of Let’s Fight it Together, a film and teaching resource to tackle cyber-bullying.

In 2007 we also established an excellent operational relationship with the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP), a police body set up in 2006 by the Home Office to stamp out online child abuse.

Internally our network of child protection champions enables widespread engagement between staff on online child protection matters. In 2007 we worked with Childnet International to provide further training to child protection champions in customer services and retail.