Mobile action against child sexual abuse content (child pornography)
In February 2008 the GSMA announced the launch of the Mobile Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Content. The objective of the Alliance is to obstruct the use of the mobile environment by individuals or organisations wishing to consume or profit from child sexual abuse content.
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 Alliance was founded by the GSMA, Hutchison 3G Europe, mobilkom austria, Orange FT Group, Telecom Italia, Telefonica/02, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile Group, Vodafone Group and dotMobi to create significant barriers to the misuse of mobile networks and services for hosting, accessing, or profiting from child sexual abuse content. These companies have mobile operations across the world, ensuring that the Alliance will have a global impact. The Alliance aims to stem, and ultimately reverse, the growth of online child sexual abuse content, maintaining a safer mobile environment for all of our customers.
Members of the Alliance will, among other measures, implement technical mechanisms to prevent access to Web sites identified by an appropriate agency as hosting child sexual abuse content. Members will also implement Notice and Take Down* processes to enable the removal of any child sexual abuse content posted on their own services, while supporting and promoting 'hotlines' or other mechanisms for customers to report child sexual abuse content discovered on the Internet or on mobile content services.
Governments need to ensure that they have the necessary resources in place to combat the spread of digital child sexual abuse content. Ideally, law enforcement authorities, or delegated international organizations, should have processes in place to be able to confirm that individual items of content are illegal.
The Alliance will achieve its objectives by a combination of technical measures, co-operation and information sharing. It will also encourage all mobile operators, regardless of access technology, and the wider mobile community to participate and will interact with other industry initiatives.
To download a flyer containing further information about the Mobile Alliance, click here.
If you are interested in joining the Mobile Alliance, please contact Natasha Jackson, Head of Content Policy, at the GSMA.
Supporting Quotes
Hamadoun I. Touré
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union
"As the specialized United Nations agency for information and communication technologies (ICT), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) welcomes the new Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse to protect children from the misuse of mobile broadband networks by child predators around the world. The World Summit on the Information Society called for national and international measures against the use of ICT in all forms of child abuse and encouraged the setting up of child helplines. Those measures have been endorsed by the ITU and they are being adopted by our distinctive membership of 191 Member States and some 700 private companies. The Mobile Alliance is a prime example of the proactive action industry can take and, together with government and law enforcement support, we can make significant progress in the global fight against child sexual abuse content online."
Viviane Reding
European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.
"I welcome this agreement. It gives a very clear signal that the mobile industry is committed to making the Mobile Internet a safer place for children. The fact that this initiative has grown out of the work carried out by the mobile industry in Europe shows that Europe is, once again, leading in building a trustworthy environment for doing business."
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