Orange is a European mobile device company offering a broad range of voice and date communication services in 17 countries.
An Orange spokesperson said implementing the age-related filters has been “a technically complicated project to get right” and the company wanted “to make sure it was robust.”
The decision to include the filters comes after a recent survey, conducted by Nigel Hawthorn of Blue Coat, a web filtering firm, found that teenagers are allowed to purchase Orange cellphones without age checks and without any type of filtering device. The survey also found that other mobile companies allow access to adult pictures, videos, chat rooms and gambling services only to customers aged 18 and over.
"Some companies block access to adult content by default, but others don't,” Hawthorn said. “It's something worth checking on if your children have phones which are web-enabled.”
According to the survey, about 1 million children under the age of 10 have a mobile telephone, most of whom are capable of browsing the Internet.
This week T-Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile confirmed they have introduced age verification systems to block access to the Internet for minors. Customers who buy a mobile telephone can visit adult websites or download adult content only if they prove their age by providing a credit card and address details.