Mobile operators join forces to prevent child abuse

The GSM Association has launched the Mobile Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Content in an effort to stop the distribution of child pornography via mobile internet connections and the like.

The Alliance is made up of many of the major mobile phone operators including Hutchison 3G Europe, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica/02, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Vodafone and dotMobi. The aim of the game is to create significant barriers to help prevent the misuse of mobile networks and services for hosting, accessing, or profiting from child sexual abuse content.

Members of the Alliance will prevent access to web sites identified as hosting child sexual abuse as well as introduce Notice and Take Down processes to enable the removal of any child sexual abuse content posted on their own services.

The GSMA said that while the vast majority of child sexual abuse content is today accessed through conventional connections to the Internet, there is a danger that the broadband networks now being rolled out by mobile operators could be misused in the same way.

The Association hopes that given the fact that the Alliance is made up of operators from all over the world that it will have a global impact.