Adult Content Filter for MMS Launched

The Irish software house, Telcotec has launched an adult content filter that can be plugged into MMSC's to provide a level of content filtering. People use picture phones to take pictures and send them to their friends and to get pictures from the internet. People who are concerned about the type of pictures their picture phones can receive will be able to protect themselves and their children from unwanted content.

"Picture phones are the current fashion fad in mobile phones and children take to the new technology with amazing speed and skill. Already children are exposed to pornographic images and mobile operators are being asked how they will deal with the unwanted pictures.", says Fran Fanning, Product Director, Telcotec. "Our Content Guardian gives operators the capability to filter pornographic images, viruses and spam according to the wishes of the mobile phone owner. Customers can decide for themselves how much filtering they would like."

The software works by using a series of filters that scan each image for levels of flesh colour tones and poses. The company says that the software may accidentally block a picture of a new born child, but it would permit facial shots to go through as the software would understand the context of the image.

"Mobile phone companies can expect 80% of traffic to the new third generation networks to come from users downloading porn while on the move. US$3 billion will be spent on pornography by mobile phone users annually by 2006" says Charles Prast, the Chief Executive of the Private Media Group."

Posted to the site on 5th May 2003