I hope that from the meeting we had more than six months ago the industry realises this committee was genuinely concerned about this issue and wanted a serious response from the industry rather than a PR spin job. It is important to recognise some positive things have happened. In the case of Vodafone and Meteor, consultation has gone on but we have not seen the products to the market yet, and that is disappointing, particularly from big companies that knew they were coming in this morning.
I have a number of questions on the products available because they are still not providing what we want. Can the Block It product block mobile phone calls or just texts? It is welcome that O2 has taken the Firefly product onto its network, but I recognise what the others have said, that this is primarily aimed at children younger than teenagers. I spoke at a primary school recently launching a whiteboard project and out of curiosity I asked the school how many children in the school had mobile phones. All but four children in the entire primary school had a mobile phone. I was killed by the teachers afterwards because they assured me that those four children would get telephones having been humiliated by me.
It is a bit patronising of the industry to say things like they should not usurp the role of parents or be regarded as oppressive by teens or children. Many parents want to make decisions on behalf of their children and should be given the tools to do that, whether the expert opinion confirms that or not. We want choice for parents and children. One is dealing with an entirely different challenge with a 15 or 16 year old than with a seven or eight year old or a nine or ten year old. Particularly Vodafone and Meteor offer nothing for primary school children. They are examining getting it right for teens, and I respect that is not easy.
It would be wrong to suggest it is simply a case of putting a Block It — type solution in place. I want parents to be able to go into a shop among all operators — 3, Meteor and O2 — and be able to choose a mobile phone they can control and give to their children. I cannot understand why the companies are not giving them that solution. I do not care whether it is Firefly. If Vodafone demanded in the morning from the suppliers or put a tender out to provide a Firefly-type product, it would have it within months. It need not tell me it would not. It dictates the type of telephones it wants to sell because it has the market to be able to do that. It is not good enough that they are not providing parents with that type of solution.
From O2's perspective I would like to see a hybrid between the Firefly telephone and Block It. I would like to see young children being able to text and receive texts from their parents because it is cheaper to do that. Having a Firefly-type telephone one can text on would be great. Children aged seven or eight do not need to access the web on their mobile phones or have camera phones. However, texting is in many ways what younger children want rather than voice calls, even with their parents. Children will want to text many of the 22 numbers they are allowed on a Firefly telephone rather than physically talk to them, and I would like to see that develop.
I recognise the industry is examining this and is spending money on it and that is welcome. However, I would like an answer on why one cannot block voice calls on Block It. That is necessary. If there is a teenage spat where a relationship is being ended and there is a lot of grief about that, one wants a girl to be able to cut somebody off from calling her, including voice calls as well as texts and picture messages. I do not understand why the Block It function does not do that.
Dr. Stephen Minton seems to be the expert. Maybe we should be talking to him and educating ourselves on the solutions required. The people who know their children best are parents. It is a little patronising for the industry to tell parents the kind of appropriate solutions their children should adopt, particularly empowering young teens. Parents should have the capacity to decide what their 12, 13 or 14 year olds are using. One has to trust the relationship between parents and children primarily because they buy the products, pay the bills and have the ultimate responsibility for their children.
While I agree that one has to empower teens above a certain age to make decisions, there is a crucial age between, say, nine and 14 when children mature at different ages. I cannot accept that parents should not be able to go into a shop, buy a telephone they can control and say to their child, frankly, "Tough. This is what you are getting." That is not being provided. We are trying to be too subtle on that. If I am cynical, I suspect that is because it would result in reduced revenue for the industry in texts and mobile phone calls. It is difficult not to be cynical about that. I am glad Meteor has received sanction for budgetary approval and the witnesses might indicate how much it has sanction for and how much money Meteor will spend in this area. If the company has received budgetary approval I presume there is an amount of money involved. I would like to know how serious Meteor is in establishing a new product.
I look forward to seeing Vodafone's product when it comes out in the autumn; it is welcome and there seems to be a genuine commitment to produce it. What will be the difference between that product and the Block It product, for example, as it seems to be more or less the same. Will Meteor have a similar product?
From my knowledge, which is not expert, the KidSafe product seems to be the most impressive on the market because it empowers parents to control voice calls as well as everything else. Crucially, it allows a parent to give a mobile phone to a child knowing the capacity of the phone. Ultimately, that is what the issue should be about.
Will we reach a point where parents who buy a phone for their child will be hit with very clear information as to what is available? When walking into an O2, Vodafone, Meteor or 3 store, I do not get a sense that a product is targeting parents with young children or teenagers. I call into such stores now and again to look at various products that I might be interested in and such a product should be available. It should be obvious to parents, most of whom simply do not know these products are available, regardless of what is on websites and so on. It should become the norm that every parent would know of such products when they go into a shop because they are told or can see that if they have a child under a certain age, there may be an appropriate product for them.
Whether this is KidSafe, Block It, a Firefly phone or something like that, it should be the first choice and a parent should have to decide not to go for it if they should choose an adult phone for their child. The parents must be directed in that and must make the conscious choice not to go for the limited phone if they give an adult phone to a child. This is instead of parents having to look for something in the market that will suit their child. We are not there yet and perhaps that is where we are moving to. From listening to parents and teachers who speak to me, that is where parents want to be.
I will not repeatedly intervene on this and I apologise for going on a bit. I know others wish to contribute. Mobile phones are a real headache in schools. I would like an answer to the question of whether parents with young children will be guided towards a child-friendly phone when they go into a mobile phone store and have to make a conscious choice if they look for an adult phone for a child. We are nowhere near that and parents must search for the solutions. There is no solution with a number of the big operators, even if a parent wants one.
I am not saying solutions are simple or easy from a technical or social perspective, and I accept the point being made by both Meteor and Vodafone. Those points primarily apply to those who are over 13 or 14 years. For people under that age, although bullying is not as much of a potential problem, it is an area where parents want simple solutions. I do not accept that the technical solutions are not there.
Why is the Firefly phone not available across all networks and what is the downside in that respect? I look forward to having another meeting in November or December to assess the Vodafone product when it comes out and I hope we will have a Meteor product of a similar nature. I also hope we will get something new and challenging that can lead the market so we can set the bar higher each time a new product is developed.
