Softbank introduces Yahoo Kids content filter
Source: Wireless Watch Japan
I can’t read the press release because it’s in Japanese but luckily our mates over at Wireless Watch Japan had already written about it.
Mobile operator SoftBank has introduced a Yahoo Kids filter to limit the use of the web to specific URL. This is to make sure that kids cannot access gambling, adult, occult sites etc.
The content control is for parents of any children under 18 and a media campaign for the new service will begin in February.
What we think?
We hear all the issues about parental control and the wireless Internet. But personally, I am not sure parental control is wise. Lots of heavy rock lyrics or music bands might toy with ideas of gambling or the occult but not necessarily in a malicious to kids way. Banning of URL’s might sound great to some but; is it necessary.
Surely, cost controls enforced by parents would be wiser. Or wallet style services with bans on terms or payment services to certain sites.
Simply getting a parent to ban URL’s is like stealing the mobile Internet out of the hands of mobile youth – the potential drivers of the service.
On top of that many dangerous sites are masked with kids terminology and URL banning might not solve the problem.
There must be a better more innovative business model for controlling where or how youth access the mobile Internet.
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