One Third Tokyo School Student Using Mobile Phone Filters

Only one in every three Tokyo middle school students has activated filters on their cell phones that block access to sites considered harmful to youth, a police survey has found.

Data was collected from 3,049 middle school students from a total of eight public and private schools in Tokyo last July in the form of a written questionnaire. Some 74 percent of the students owned cell phones, but only 36.6 percent had activated their filtering settings.

Since April 1, cell phone companies have been obligated to provide filters on cell phones sold to youth under 18 years of age. Though parents are not punishable under the law, they are required to inform cell phone companies if a phone they are purchasing is for use by a child.

Police consider parents the key to whether or not cell phone filters are used: Among the reasons given by students for not activating the filters, "Because my parents have not told me to" was highest at 42.1 percent. Likewise, the top reason for activating the filters was "Because my parents told me to" at 64.6 percent.

Filters generally fall under two main categories. "Black list" filters restrict users from viewing sites that cell phone companies have deemed harmful based on information provided by Internet research companies, while "white list" filters permit access only to study aids and other official Internet sites.

Under the "black list" system, users can access social networking site Mixi and other sites that Tokyo police are watching closely as sites that are increasingly being used as dating forums. The juvenile division of the Metropolitan Police Department is calling on parents to choose "white list" filters for their children to protect them from Internet crime.


Original articles

No comments: