Transcript for 'O2 - see what we can do to protect our children' film
O2 - see what we can do to protect our children
-SCENE 1-
In Europe, 23% of children aged 8-9 and 70% of 12-13’s own a mobile phone. Eurobarometer report 2006.
| Speaker | Comments |
|---|---|
| Father | Are you going to come and answer this? |
31% of children under 18 say they have received inappropriate material online or by text message – UK Children go online.
| Speaker | Comments |
|---|---|
|
Cath Keers, Customer Director, O2 UK |
There are many ways that children under 18 can access information that is just unsuitable for them. It could be pornographic, violent or even fraudulent information. And the ways in which to do it could be through downloading mobile internet pages through their mobile phone or it could be exchanging that kind of information between themselves through MMS or Bluetooth. |
| Son | Oi, leave my phone alone! |
| Father | You must take me for a right mug? Here I am helping pay for your phone, and for what? So you can look at this stuff? |
| Son | Blimey, it’s only a bit of fun, none of my mates parents care. |
| Father | Well I do! You’re only 15, you shouldn’t be looking at that! |
| Cath Keers, Customer Director, O2 UK |
O2 offer some tools to allow parents to take more control about what their children can actually access. One is a default control which stops children under 18 being able to access a lot of the content. The other is where we actually give web access to parents to be able to control what their children can actually download onto their mobile phone. |
-SCENE 2-
| Speaker | Comments |
|---|---|
| Father |
Alice! If you don’t hurry up you’ll be late! Looking on that phone again! |
| Alice | Dad! I thought I told you to knock before coming in? |
| Father | Who exactly are you texting now? |
| Alice |
Just some people from the chatroom. Right, are we going or not? We don’t want to be late! |
| Father | Chatroom? What an appalling idea! |
Mobile chatroom activity has grown 59% since 2004 – O2 UK 2007
| Speaker | Comments |
|---|---|
| Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO Childnet International |
Well children and young people love chatting, and that’s one of the great things about the internet and mobile phones that they can do. But clearly there are dangers and one of the dangers is, of course, you really don’t know who you’re chatting to. |
| Father | So what’s the big rush? I thought you were going to wander aimlessly round the shops as usual. |
| Alice | Actually, I’m meeting Steve. I text him everyday in the chatroom. |
| Father | Hang on. Now we’re going to talk to Mum about this before you go anywhere. |
| Alice | But Dad, he’s really nice and he’s the only boy I can talk to properly. |
| Father | Talk, I thought you said you were texting each other? |
| Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO Childnet International | Parents do need to take an active involvement in children’s use of technology to find out and ask them, who they’re contacting, who’s on their buddy lists, if they are wanting to meet up, to really make sure they really know where they’re going and if they can go with them. |
| Margaret Pollock, Child Protection Champion, O2 UK | Parents should be able to express to their children, their worries and concerns about giving information such as phone numbers or pictures, especially over the internet, especially people pestering to meet up. |
| Alice | Alright, bye Mum. |
| Father | I’m sorry Alice, but as your Mum said, we don’t know anything about this Steve. |
| Alice | It’s not fair; he’s so interested in anything I do! |
| Father | Well, that’s suspicious for a start! |
| Alice | Oh, thanks a bunch! |
| Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO Childnet International | It’s important to recognise that the tools we use now, mobile phones, the internet, in themselves are not evil or wrong its how people misuse them. |
| Margaret Pollock, Child Protection Champion, O2 UK | At the end of the day the phone is there for safety. It’s so they can contact you and you can contact them in emergencies. So you need to actually develop the relationship where your daughter can come to you or your child can come to you and say, ‘Look, I’m getting this problem, please can you help me?’ |
-SCENE 3-
| Speaker | Comments |
|---|---|
| Mother | Let me talk to your teacher? |
| Son | No way! I’m not being called ‘mummy’s boy’ as well! Its bad enough you walk to school with me. I mean, I am 13. |
| Mother | Well, can’t you just ask him to stop? |
| Son | Do you want me to get beaten up? |
| Mother | Well, I’m sorry but I don’t know what I can do then. |
Bullying by mobile phone is an offence liable to imprisonment or a fine – The UK Malicious Communications Act 1988
| Speaker | Comments |
|---|---|
| Margaret Pollock, Child Protection Champion, O2 UK | Our main issues we get are things like,’ I’ve been getting nuisance calls, what do I do?’ and that’s when we offer to do the first number change, free of charge, and then from there if they still persist, then we recommend to go to our nuisance bureau who fill in a form and they contact them directly. |
| Son | Don’t worry about it, I’ll do it myself. |
| Mother | So is that it is it? Everything I suggest seems to be wrong. |
| Margaret Pollock, Child Protection Champion, O2 UK |
The best and simplest way to stop this kind of issue is to report it to the school. Get your child to actually have the confidence to come to you and say, ‘Mum and Dad I’m having this issue, please help!’ If you really wanted to you could answer the phone to the person calling them, without actually saying hello and let them waste their money! Show them you’re not hurting and at the end of the day they’ll get bored and move on. |
| Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO Childnet International |
If the bullying is taking place within the school community, it’s vital that you tell the schools. School do have very important anti-bullying policies and increasingly, cyber bullying is going to be part of that. The other thing is that children need to remember how to block different users and feel empowered to be able to leave a chatroom if there’s inappropriate conversations’ going on. |
| Son | I’ve had this well good idea on what to do if he calls me next time! |
| Cath Keers, Customer Director, O2 UK |
We’ve done a number of things to really raise the awareness of child protection. In O2 Germany we’ve worked with an organisation to produce a CD-ROM called ‘Polly and Fred’ and in the UK we’ve worked with pfeg. Also on our website we have information and materials you can download to again raise awareness and educate people on what’s available. |
| Stephen Carrick-Davies, CEO Childnet International |
It’s a great opportunity for an organisation like Childnet, which is a small children’s charity, to make sure a company like O2 can first of all educate its workforce to help them understand the concerns and issues parents and children face using there mobile phones. But also, increasingly educate their customers. |
| Margaret Pollock, Child Protection Champion, O2 UK | O2 are doing a good job, not reacting to a situation, proactively going out and making parents aware of the situation. |
Access further information at www.o2.com/childprotection
