child protection

Phones can help keep your child safe and in touch but they can also expose them to risk and temptation. We take seriously our responsibility to assist and support parents to protect children.
Practising the U-HELP rule can help you safeguard your child’s safety:

Understand and communicate key rules, such as explaining to you child that they should never agree to meet up with someone from a chat room or give out personal details, photos or contact information.
Help keep them safe by blocking access to inappropriate adult material (for more information on filtering and age verification visit your local country site).
Ensure they don’t use un-moderated chat rooms and supervise their online activity. Make sure that they tell you about anything suspicious and report it to a moderator.
Let them know that if they’re ever harassed or bullied by phone it’s best to not reply but to keep messages as evidence, then tell you and contact customer services (their phone number can also be changed if necessary).
Point out the danger and irresponsibility of making false emergency calls or sending unpleasant or indecent images to others.
 
We have rolled out several solutions aimed at preventing any abuse linked to the use of the internet or mobile telephones by children.
 
content filtering, a first step
For the Internet, our parental control service enables clients to block access to undesirable content. Since April 1, 2006, this service has provided a free analysis of content in six languages, detecting any malicious content, including pornography, terrorism, drugs, violence, cults and racism.
• In Spain, content aimed at an adult audience is easily identifiable using the ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) label, and is automatically filtered with the parental control option
• In Poland, TP is the only Internet provider entitled to use the Child Friendly logo for products accessible to children, an award given by the NGO Child’s Rights Protection.
Some content available through multimedia mobile phones may also not be suitable for young people. The Orange parental control option makes it possible to block access to sensitive sites free of charge, simply by calling customer services. We are looking into deploying this tool in all of our countries, in line with specific local cultural features.
• In the UK, the “Orange Safeguard” filter system is applied for all clients who are minors. For clients who pay by card, whose identity is not known, it is applied automatically and can only be removed after proof has been provided that the client is an adult.
• In France, we signed a family charter for multimedia mobile phones with other operators and the Ministry of Family Affairs in 2006 with a view to safeguarding children. The parental control option is now systematically explained and offered to our clients if the line is for use by a minor. To make protection against illicit content even more effective, our clients are encouraged to report any illicit content at www.pointdecontact.net, which can be accessed via our www.orange.fr site.
• In Romania, WAP or voice services for adults are clearly identified and confirmation is systematically required to be able to access them. A “chat” moderation service makes it possible to eliminate messages with any illicit content and includes putting their authors on a blacklist.
• In Slovakia, access to WAP* sites with adult content is protected by the allocation of identification codes restricting access to clients under 18.
 
raising public awareness
In light of the very rapid development of new technologies, filtering cannot eliminate all risks. We therefore work with experts to raise awareness among parents and children.

In different countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Spain, we have published parent’s guides to promote the good use of mobile phones by the children. Developed with child and family protection associations, these guides are now available in seven languages and are available on our European subsidiaries’ Web sites link to our network. We are now looking into how to adapt them for our subsidiaries located outside of Europe.
In 2006, we also developed responsible marketing guides to ensure that our future advertising campaigns are in line with international codes of conduct and our commitments to corporate responsibility, and do not target children.
 
controlling spending
Through the use of mobile phones, children exercise their right to independence. To keep their spending within a planned budget, Orange offers adapted services for younger clients, such as the Zap blocked subscription in France.

Orange Switzerland has also set up various systems for parents to keep control over the amount spent on the telephone by their children. By simply calling customer services, they may for example block services for downloading logos or ringtones as well as chat sites. A specific procedure is in place to ensure that children cannot reactivate these services without their parents knowing.