Comment: Content regulator ICSTIS gets new chairman

INEFFECTIVE. THAT'S the best way of describing the body responsible for policing mobile content in the UK - ICSTIS. First The Inquirer and now Which? Magazine - published by the Consumers' Association - have shown that there are huge holes in the measures intended to block access to adult content.

The good news is that from June 1st 2006, ICSTIS will have a new chairman in the shape of Sir Alistair Graham. He succeeds Sir Peter North who's been in the job for seven years. Sir Alistair has previously been Chairman of the Police Complaints Authority.

Which's gripe with ICSTIS was that it had been "assured by ICSTIS that any attempts by people aged under 18 to access [porn] sites via text message should be blocked by the phone company." So it got a 15 year old girl to buy an O2 mobile and lo and behold she could gain passwords for Web based porn sites.

The sites simply charged her mobile phone £1.50 by sending her handset a premium rate text. According to Which? "When we contacted O2, it admitted there was a loophole for adult sites using texts for payment."

O2's response was "Whilst it is the responsibility of those websites to provide protection to prevent under-18s from viewing the content on a computer, we are looking at the process whereby payment is collected by mobile to see if there are additional safeguards we can introduce."

In other words, there are loopholes which enable companies to charge for premium rate text messages without the need to check whether the content that's going to be delivered is of an adult nature.

It also lulls parents into a false sense of security. The 8 year old who received girlie pictures from T-Mobile (see T-Mobile sends smut to 8 year old) possessed a SIM card which still had its 'Content Lock' firmly in place.µ

Let's hope Sir Alistair's arrival makes a difference before there are calls for an end to self-regulation and the introduction of legislation. µ

L'INQ
ICSTIS