More and more children are using mobile phones as part of their daily life. Indeed, in some European countries there are more children using mobile phones than the internet.While both internet and mobile phones give young people great opportunities, at the same time, young people may encounter risks when using these technologies.

The European Commission is concerned by the protection of children against harmful or illegal content in the new media, whatever the delivery platform for this content. The Commission has been active both in the regulatory and non regulatory fields, in particular through the Safer Internet programme, which promotes safer use of the internet and new online technologies by combating illegal and harmful content.

Since 2005, a number of actions have been launched specifically concerning the use of mobile phones: the Commission launched the debate at European level by organising a plenary session of the Safer Internet Forum on this issue in June 2005, which attracted 200 representatives from the industry and child welfare organisations.

In June 2006, the Commission opened a Public Consultation to collect views on the risks raised by the use of mobile phone services by children and teenagers, and possible solutions.74 replies came from 20 EU countries, from industry actors (Mobile network operators, content providers), associations (children's rights and welfare, consumer), and public administrations (IT, media, police and regulators). Detailed results have been published and the Commission will release the summary of results and its conclusions on 6th February 2007.

The Commission would like such a European level debate to lead to the kind of self-regulation which is already developing in some Member States. It is therefore supporting several related initiatives of mobile operators, NGOs and other stakeholders.

European Commission, Information Society and Media Directorate-General