The jaXmobilem project promotes safe use of mobile phones

• The third edition of T-Mobile's jaXmobilem project focuses on the protection of children while using mobile phones
• 25% of children communicate with people they do not know; 10% of children have experienced cyber-bullying
• Parents are interested in services that block illegal and harmful content

Prague, 8 April 2009 - This year, T-Mobile is organizing the third edition of the jaXmobilem project. Whereas the previous editions focused on mobile etiquette and mobile-phone recycling, this year's edition focuses on the safety of children while using mobile phones, e.g., in relation to harmful content and harassment. The project is based on the latest InsightOut survey conducted for T-Mobile by TNS Aisa in March this year that revealed interesting information on children's behavior on the internet and their parents' attitude to this phenomenon.

"T-Mobile considers the protection of children as a vital part of its corporate social responsibility program both at the local and international levels," says Jitka Chocová, CSR Manager, adding: "We have found that neither parents nor children have sufficient information in this area and we have decided to change this situation."

Providing more information is one thing, but to offer specific solutions is quite another. T-Mobile has decided to actively participate in the child-protection program, offering parents means that will help them protect their children when they are using the internet as well as mobile phones. The mobile operator has also decided to encourage active involvement of youths in the project by offering grants for school projects aimed at combating cyber-bullying and by becoming a partner of the MobilStory competition organized in cooperation with Saferinternet.cz.

Children and youths aged 9-17 = the virtual generation
Children most often access the internet at home (85% on a daily basis). The second most frequent place of accessing the internet is school, followed by friends' residences. On weekdays, children spend an average of 1.5 hours browsing the internet compared to 2.5 hours on weekends. The older the children are, the more likely it is that their parents do not know what their children are doing on-line, and the more likely it is that families have no rules for using the internet.

Children use the internet primarily for communication (e-mail - 91%, instant messaging - 81%), searching for information (87%) and activities focused on music content (listening to music and watching videos - 85%, downloading and saving music - 75% and 71% respectively). Eighty-four percent of children and youths play on-line games. The least common activities among young people are on-line dating services (21%) and maintaining their own websites (28%).

Rules for using the internet and mobile phones
Most parents pay attention to how much time their children spend surfing the net and which websites they visit; however, the degree of their attention diminishes as their children grow older. Thirty-nine percent of parents (and 22% of children) claim that in their family there are no rules for using the internet.

If parents monitor their children's mobile-phone usage, they focus primarily on with whom they talk or exchange messages. Parents tend to disregard the content of multimedia messages.

The most frequently applied rules include prohibition of certain websites and inappropriate types of games, time limitations and restrictions on disclosure of personal data.

Although children know that they are not supposed to disclose their personal data, only a third of them observe this prohibition. They have no problem giving their phone number to friends, classmates and generally to people they know. Only 6% of children would give their phone number to unknown people they know only from the virtual world.

Virtual communication has its risks
On the internet, children communicate mainly with the people they know personally: 92% of them communicate with friends, 78% with classmates and 63% with family members. However, one-fourth of children maintain contact with people they do not know well or have never met at all.

Every fifth child has been approached online to meet with an unknown person. Of the children so approached, less then 20% actually had such a meeting. Ten percent of children have communicated with an unknown person via mobile phone, a fact which they most often try to conceal from their parents.

One-fifth of children have been approached by a stranger with a request for their photo, 5% of children have even been asked to provide a nude photo. Ten percent of children have encountered bullying via mobile phone; however, they mostly state that it happened to "someone else".

Parents perceive the risks associated with mobile phones as being less worrisome than those associated with the internet. Three-fifths of parents discuss these issues with their children at home while only two-fifths of children say these issues have been talked about at school.

Parents express their strong interest in services allowing them to block illegal or harmful content on mobile phones. If such services were available, more than 75% of them would activate them for their children.

T-Mobile and child protection
"We are convinced that child protection is a topic which is not limited to country or industry. Therefore we are looking for partners with which we can develop cooperation in this area," says Jitka Chocová. "In the Czech Republic, T-Mobile has for a long time cooperated with the Saferinternet.cz association and is a member of the "Safer Mobile for Children" task force established within the Association of Mobile Network Providers. Representatives from T-Mobile International are also active in organizations such as INSAFE, INHOPE and TeachToday."

T-Mobile strives to provide children and their parents with the maximum of information regarding safety and therefore it created a special website, www.prosvetkolemnas.cz/ochranadeti, which is devoted solely to this topic.

T-Mobile also decided to implement active measure which are aimed at increasing the children's safety when using the internet. Such measures include particularly blocking of illegal content (e.g., child pornography) based on the British Internet Watch Foundation's database, and introduction of the service called "Child Lock" which keeps children from accessing harmful content. The third area is child protection with regard to mobile phone spending. In this respect, T-Mobile offers several services that allow children and their parents to keep track of mobile phone expenses. Information on the Můj limit (My Limit), Moje přečerpané jednotky (My Overdrawn Units) and Moje útrata (My Spending) services is available at www.t-mobile.cz under Péče a podpora.

"We are convinced that blocking illegal content is a step in the right direction. Everybody who witnesses illegal conduct, whether on the street or on the internet, is obliged to report or try to prevent such activity," says Jitka Chocová, commenting on T-Mobile's plans. "We want to behave responsibly towards our customers and our plans fully correspond with our views."

Combating cyber-bullying
Increase in cyber-bullying represents a growing problem nowadays. T-Mobile decided to approach middle and high school students, which is the group where the majority of cyber-bullying instances occur. In cooperation with the AISIS association, T-Mobile is launching the jaXmobilem competition promoting safe use of mobile phones. Within the competition, students will be able to apply for grants for their activities aimed at combating cyber-bullying.

To take part in the competition, the participants must propose an educational activity promoting safe use of mobile phones, using positive examples as well as examples of unacceptable behaviour. The activity may be in the form of comics, photo series, informational poster, video story or even theatre performance. There are no limits to fantasy.

The expert committee will then choose three best proposals in each category, which will be rewarded with a grant of up to CZK 30,000 each for their implementation. (A total of CZK 180,000 is therefore available for six winners).

The winning teams will be able to use the money for purchasing equipment (e.g., camera, colours, costumes, etc.) necessary for the implementation of their project. The deadline for receiving the applications is 18 May 2009. The grant proceedings are coordinated by AISIS, o.s. having its registered office at Gorkého 499, 272 01 Kladno.

For more information, please visit www.jaxmobilem.cz.

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.