Beyond Borders Inc., a Canadian anti-child pornography advocacy group, is claiming Manitoba Telecom Services' plan called Evolve, which allows teenagers to buy prepaid cellular service without parental approval, makes teens easier targets for pedophiles.
"We think it's unacceptable to provide kids with a cellphone without parental control, when we well know that they can access the web with those cellphones," Beyond Borders Vice President Norman Boudreau said.
Almost any basic cellphone allows its user to surf the Internet, join chat rooms and receive text messages. Such features could allow pedophiles to lure kids without any possibility of parental supervision, Boudreau said.
But MTS Spokeswoman Michelle Bailey said children can access the Internet through many avenues, adding that it's up to parents to teach their teens about safety.
"We have to be involved in [kids’] everyday activities as much as possible and teach them that things like the Internet, things like their cellphones need to be used responsibly," Bailey said.
MTS’ Evolve program was launched last summer, along with a marketing campaign aimed at teens, including television ads showing sad-looking teens without cellphones in baby seats and on child tethers.
Bailey said the plan has proven popular with teens, allowing family members to stay in touch with each other. She also said MTS is fighting child pornography by helping fund national programs such as Cybertip, a toll-free line allowing the public to report websites that include child pornography.
MTS's Internet division also offers its customers filtering software that restricts access to pornographic sites, Bailey said.
"We think that we are actually a very responsible organization overall," she added.
Beyond Borders has requested that Canadian companies follow the lead of British Telecom, which maintains a filter on its own servers. When attempting to access a website found to contain child pornography, customers receive an error message.
Last year, British Telecom reported its filter blocked 23,000 daily attempts to access illegal child abuse websites.