Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks look for columns from Tom Huseby of SeaPoint Ventures, Mark Desautels of CTIA and more.
For those in mobile, the topic that still causes our colleagues to giggle is the topic of adult content. And in my role as president of the global Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), it is a question I often receive in regards to the role that the MMA will play in defining the rules for adult services. However, as I have learned, the services that we want to ensure proper protections and controls on are broader than adult-oriented and include a range of services which we will term age-appropriate content and contact services.
Some operators and vendors in our ecosystem refer to age-appropriate content as content and contact services which are not appropriate for persons under the age of 18. As an industry, determining our rules around not only a consistent definition but a consistent approach will be key to ensuring a common understanding of the age-appropriate “industry” globally.
There are four main areas to be resolved as an industry in order to ensure the effective and consistent deployment of age appropriate services. These include:
–Definitions/terminology: What are the services and do we have a consistent definition (at least by market)
–Guidelines: What is it acceptable or not
–Ratings: Content ratings play a key role in defining what is acceptable or not and vary operator by operator
–Age Verification Systems (AVS) deployment: Once you have determined that access controls should be implemented, finding an Age Verification System to provide access to the “restricted” content is key.
The opportunity for age-appropriate content and contact services is enormous and in some European markets already accounts for a significant portion of operator revenue. So what constitutes these types of services?
Content classified into age appropriate contain far more than adult (content of an erotic or sexual nature) – it includes all content which is deemed inappropriate for those under 18 including content depicting violence, community messaging services (e.g. dating) or adult-themed chat services and social networking. In some markets, commercial services such as gambling as well as malicious communications also fall under the same category. Content services refer to the explicit materials – and truly, what most people think of when they refer to adult. Contact services are probably the largest growing space and refer to the applications covered in dating, chat, social networking and so on. And remember, these services have not been created by the mobile industry, they have been around for much longer.
Age-appropriate services have long been segregated. In the physical world these have been delineated by lock and key or by bars. And in cyberspace, we have also long had protections in place – although we are also far from resolving the issues even here.
For an operator, the risks of deploying age appropriate content are as follows: brand risk and customer alienation. But there is even greater risk associated with not addressing the issues early on. These can include:
–Customer disappointment
–Losing control
–Outside regulation
–Perceived as irresponsible by the industry or even worse, by their customers
Operators have a stake in this. However, operator policy is somewhat subjective and is fundamentally different across various regions of the world. Most operators have adopted a strategy around age verification and access control for content not acceptable for those under their defined age group (to some 12, to others 18). Acceptable methods of age verification, in some markets, have included point of sale (driver’s license, citizen card), use of third-party agencies (Experian and others) or carrier or user generated opt in/opt out process for contract customers.
In the U.K., a model has been established for implementing a “code of practice” for 18+ content including WAP, games, chat, SMS, etc. In January 2004, the operators in the U.K. issued the “UK Code of Practice for the Self-Regulation of New Forms of Content on Mobiles.” In essence, the operators drew a line in the sand for content which is acceptable to everyone (they did not define restrictive content).
The intention of the code was to provide parents access to the information with which they can show their children how to use mobile devices responsibly and the power to influence the type of content they can access. All content deemed as inappropriate for those under 18 must be “behind” access controls and is only made available pending the process of age verification. By the end of 2005, each operator had an age-verification system in place.
Within the Mobile Marketing Association, we have not yet pursued the guidelines or best practices around age-appropriate content and contact services to date. In many markets of the world this is already managed by a combination of operator, vendor and government regulatory bodies.
In the United States, CTIA has taken a position in regards to content ratings but has left age-verification system selection up to each individual carrier. The MMA is being asked to address age appropriate contact services in its Consumer Best Practices Guidelines (www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf) and is evaluating potential next steps for our December revision. If you have an opinion, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
Special thank you to Adi McAbian, Managing Director, Twistbox Entertainment for his assistance in writing this article.
Definitions
–Access Controls: Methods of preventing unrestricted access to content, including barring, PIN controlled access and subscription only services. (Source UK Code of Practice)
–Age verification: A process by which reasonable and practical steps are taken to verify that a customer is 18 or over. (Source UK Code of Practice)
