Children, youth and mobile services

We have many young customers and we are increasing our efforts to make sure they get the most from mobile services in safe and cost-effective ways. We believe we should play an active part in getting this right through our day-to-day business operations and through the community projects we engage in.

In 2004/05 O2 Germany contributed €2,040,704 in cash donations to the various community projects and charities we support. The majority of our donations were given to projects for young people.

We do not market to children and do not offer post-pay contracts to anyone under the age of 18, but it is estimated that about half of 11- and 12-year-olds in Germany own and use mobile phones. Research shows that the figure for young people up to the age of 22 has reached 84 per cent. It is important for us to tackle this reality head-on by making sure young people are not getting access to unsuitable adult content, and to raise awareness about how young people can limit their spending against the many new mobile services that woo the youth market.

Last year we worked with other German mobile operators to draw up a code of conduct on mobile content. The Code, which is planned to come into effect during 2005, describes the minimum standards the companies will comply with in the future so that parents can monitor the content their children are looking at and listening to - including filtering, content selection and call barring.

We also monitor our chat rooms to make sure that they are not being used for inappropriate contacts. In its "Hinsehen.Handeln.Helfen" ("Look.Act.Help") campaign, the Ministry of Family has recognised our commitment in this area as well as our support for Power-Child e.V. as best practice. Power Child is an association that aims to combat child sex abuse under the auspices of one of our endorsers - German film star Veronica Ferres.

We support the 'Mobile Phone Course with Polly and Fred' initiative started by the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Teaching (FWU), and Outermedia, a Berlin-based multimedia agency. An interactive CD-ROM, with eight chapters on a handset-like software interface, uses the two characters - Polly an octopus and Fred a pigeon - to teach children how to use their mobile handset safely, responsibly and without consuming too much of their pocket money. In some German states, the product will form part of the curriculum for 8- to 12-year-olds.

We continue to offer a wide range of tariffs and pre-pay options to help all of our customers manage their mobile costs. With Tchibo, the well-known, value-for-money consumer brand, we created Tchibo mobil during the year. This has helped us to reach more customers with easy-to-understand pre-pay packages.