Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews today launched a guide to mobile phones for parents, published by the Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA).
Mobile phones –a parent’s guide to safe and sensible use provides parents with an easy to use reference book, which describes the range of mobile phone services on offer in Ireland, as well as the latest technology available.
Speaking at the launch, Tommy McCabe Director ICIA said, “As mobile phones become more powerful and sophisticated it is difficult for parents to keep abreast of the many changes and advances. This booklet aims to help parents gain a better understanding of mobile phones from the basics such as talk, text and email to the more complex facilities such as playing music and videos or surfing the web.”
“While many parents want their children to carry a mobile phone for practical reasons, for example, to keep in contact at any time or place, some parents nonetheless have concerns regarding other possible uses of the mobile phone. This booklet outlines some simple measures for dealing with potential mis-use of mobile phones,” he added.
Issues addressed include bullying and malicious communications, spam, theft, illegal/malicious images and video clips.
The guide gives a range of useful tips and advice to parents on how to keep their child safe. These include:
· understand how the technology works so you can ensure your child uses their mobile phone safely and responsibly
· make sure your child has registered their account with their mobile operator
· apply for dual access to your child’s account
· ask the mobile operator to activate safeguards on your child’s account e.g. filtering technologies
· encourage your child to talk openly with you about any negative experiences they encounter while using their mobile phone (a child might hide a negative experience from parents for fear their mobile phones will be taken away)
· report offensive or illegal calls, messages or images to the Gardaí
· instruct your child not to respond to a call or text if they do not recognize the number
· text “STOP” to end a premium-rate subscription. Contact RegTel if this fails to work.
Representatives from mobile phone companies attended the launch, included:
Cara Twohig (Chair of ICIA) Vodafone,
Rachel Channing (Vice chair of ICIA) 3,
Jill Johnston O2 and
Amanda Carroll Meteor.
Mobile phones –a parent’s guide to safe and sensible use can be accessed on www.icia.ie, www.meteor.ie, www.o2.ie, www.vodafone.ie and www.three.ie. The guide is available free of charge in the retail outlets of mobile phone operators.