Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry devices, is scheduled to meet with the telecommunications regulator in the United Kingdom over concerns that minors can access adult content on their smartphones.
Ofcom has summoned RIM and other mobile networks at a meeting to discuss the issue, The Telegraph reported, citing a glitch that allows pornography to be viewed on smartphones.
"It was brought to our attention that there was a problem," an Ofcom spokesperson told The Telegraph. "It is to do with the way in which the BlackBerry operating system works. We are very concerned and want to get this resolved as quickly as possible."
RIM told the Inquirer that it makes significant efforts to place child protection on its devices. "Content filtering support is available to operators from RIM that enables the operator to perform the content filtering function for BlackBerry smartphones," the Inquirer quoted RIM as stating. "It is offered to our operator partners without charge. Operator partners around the world have implemented content filtering, including operator partners in the UK. Any reference to content filtering having been turned off is inaccurate."
RIM may have been responding in part to the Telegraph article, which claimed that mobile-phone operators have been unable to apply filters to BlackBerry handsets because data flows through BlackBerry's services rather than those provided by the networks.
