DoCoMo: Current filtering system does not meet user needs

In a CNET Japan article reporting on the January 24 DoCoMo press conference published last Friday (source in Japanese), Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, Executive Vice President and Managing Director Products & Services Division NTT DoCoMo was quoted saying the content filtering system (designed to protect minors from mobile sites with potentially harmful content) in use today is insufficient and does not meet user needs. According to Tsujimura, the current blacklist system employed by DoCoMo, under which all sites deemed as potentially harmful - including all “inofficial” (off-portal sites) and even some “official” (on-portal) sites enabling communications, such as mixi - are filtered out by default, is not granular enough since, for example, schoolchildren using handsets with the filter set to “on” cannot even access their own school’s mobile site anymore. Thus, Tsujimura states DoCoMo is currently evaluating a “customizable whitelist” approach which would let parents select the sites they allow their children to see. Takeshi Natsuno, the “Father of i-Mode”, adds some additional information regarding DoCoMo’s recent announcement to use Google as its official mobile search engine, which so far had remained unclear: For users browsing the web on handsets with the filter activated, Google will only display search results from sites that are not considered potentially harmful.

Posted by:Billich | Entry Date: 2008年1月28日 12:18