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Japanese mobile telephone content providers are setting up
safeguards to protect young people amid shock after a disgruntled
young man used his phone to document his plans for a stabbing
rampage.
An association representing the
mobile content industry announced this week a list of 22 criteria
that would allow online sites to use a label showing that they are
suitable for minors.
Nearly all Japanese mobile
telephones allow access to the Internet, where special sites
designed for the small screens have become an increasingly lucrative
business.
"We want to support the
upbringing of young people by giving them the means to use new
technology in complete safety," said a joint statement
outlining the new label.
Mobile phone websites that want
the safety label would have to agree to abide by 22 criteria
including that they will closely monitor postings and report
suspicious messages to authorities.
Mobile content providers have
been alarmed by bad publicity as a number of people use websites to
arrange group suicides or announce plans for crimes.
Last month, troubled 25-year-old
auto worker Tomohiro Kato posted dozens of messages warning of plans
for a massacre as he drove a rented two-tonne truck to Tokyo.
He killed seven people and
injured 10 more by swerving his truck into a crowded pedestrian area
and then bursting out and stabbing people at random.
Authorities came under fire after
the crime for failing to spot his warnings.
Kato, who also posted hundreds of
messages earlier detailing his loneliness, told police that he grew
even more agitated as he was ignored in the virtual world.
The government said after the
massacre that it would research new technology to filter messages on
the Internet.
-- AFP
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