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Sprint spokesperson discusses PCS Vision's "walled garden" and "open garden" approach to protecting underage cell phone users from pornography
Etopia Media Entertainment News Network #11
Overland Park, Kansas
June 7, 2005
by Marc Strassman
Those seeking to staunch the flood of sexually-explicit images into the lives of their children took heart from the recent passage of the "Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005," which legalized the use of ClearPlay filters to block objectionable content.
Reporter
Etopia Media Entertainment News Network
Etopia Media News Networks
Recent local television news stories, however, have reported on the ease with which underage cell phone users are able to, and/or are encouraged by such content providers, to access audio and video pornography on their mobile phones. Ironically, these phones are often provided to them by parents concerned about their children's welfare so that they can more easily reach them and/or monitor their activities.
Etopia Media's Entertainment News Network spoke today with Jennifer Walsh, a spokesperson from Media Relations at Sprint's corporate headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas, about this issue and about Sprint's policies regarding the accessibility of inappropriate content to underage cell phone users on its system.
Ms. Walsh indicated that this issue is often discussed in terms of the "walled garden" vs. "open garden" metaphor. A "walled garden" is a part of cyberspace controlled by an Internet service provider, in this case a cellular phone carrier, while an "open garden" is that part of cyberspace constituted by the rest of the general Internet.
In the case of Sprint, its 3G, or high-speed data, Internet access network is branded as "PCS Vision." Within the PCS Vision "walled garden," content-providing partners of Sprint are allowed to sell content "based on the assumption and expectation" that they will not offer any inappropriate content as defined by the indecency standards applied by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for broadcast television programming.
Sprint's 3G, high-speed data, PCS Vision service includes within its "walled garden" a range of multi-media content, including audio, video, ring tones, screen savers, and games, all of which must meet the FCC's indecency standards.
Sprint's 3G, high-speed data, PCS Vision service also allows Sprint subscribers to access the "open garden" of the general Internet, including content that may violate the FCC's indecency standards.
According to Sprint spokesperson Walsh, parents wanting to prevent their children from being able to access pornographic content available over the Internet from their cell phones have two alternatives: provide them with a cell phone that isn't capable of receiving and displaying content delivered over the PCS Vision 3G high-speed data network or, if the underage user's cell phone does have that capability, contact the Customer Care department at Sprint and shut off access to high-speed data, 3G, PCS Vision services for their account, leaving only the voice function intact for their account on that phone.
Ms. Walsh indicated that Sprint was "very cognizant" of the interest of parents in controlling what content can and cannot be accessed by their children, over cell phones as over any and all forms of electronic media.
She confirmed that efforts are underway at Sprint to develop a technical method that would enable the disabling of access to the wider Internet over their 3G, high-speed data, PCS Vision network, while still allowing access to their own "walled garden" of age-appropriate content.