The Times: Tech column - Mobile-phone porn/Baghdad blogs
By David Rowan
GET ready for a moral backlash. The announcement last week by Playboy and Hutchison, the mobile-phone operator, that British third-generation customers will soon be able to dial up 13 million naked photos, and 2,000 hours of raunchy video, marks the most significant financial lifeline for this troubled industry.
The market for "adult content" on mobile phones in Europe, Strand Consults says, will grow from about £394 million this year to at least £1.9 billion in 2006. Now can you see how these firms hope to recoup some of the billions wasted on their 3G licences?
Other UK operators, such as Virgin Mobile, are planning their own porn-on-the move services. Last month the Private Media Group, a "worldwide leader in premium-quality adult entertainment products", announced its own huge deal in the US that would charge for pictures through premium-rate text messages.
What should worry parents is the phones' popularity among children, and the industry's inadequate safeguards to keep porn out of the playground. Stephen Timms, the minister for e-commerce, promises a voluntary code of practice to ensure that "access by minors to inappropriate or illegal material is as hard as it is via any other medium". Such vague pledges will not prevent the scandalised headlines we'll see later this year.
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WITH around half a million weblogs competing for attention, it takes something special to spur an international cult. For Salam Pax (now back at dear_raed.blogspot.com), the secret has been an enlightening commentary from Baghdad during and since the war.
Dave Walker, a church youth worker in Cookham, Berkshire, has found a more English path to celebrity. His site is called "The dullest blog in the world" - and readers globally have been transfixed.
Like other bloggers, Walker's site (www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull) chronicles the minutiae of his daily routine. But he, at least, knows his limitations. Headings last week included "Pausing briefly to look at the bottle bank"; and "Making a note of something".
Gripping. Now, with the blog among the summer's most linked-to, the US media has caught up: "Walker has raised dull blogging to an art form," is The New York Times's view. Hollywood will soon be calling - and what a terrifically dull movie it would make.
(The Times, May 27 2003)
GET ready for a moral backlash. The announcement last week by Playboy and Hutchison, the mobile-phone operator, that British third-generation customers will soon be able to dial up 13 million naked photos, and 2,000 hours of raunchy video, marks the most significant financial lifeline for this troubled industry.
The market for "adult content" on mobile phones in Europe, Strand Consults says, will grow from about £394 million this year to at least £1.9 billion in 2006. Now can you see how these firms hope to recoup some of the billions wasted on their 3G licences?
Other UK operators, such as Virgin Mobile, are planning their own porn-on-the move services. Last month the Private Media Group, a "worldwide leader in premium-quality adult entertainment products", announced its own huge deal in the US that would charge for pictures through premium-rate text messages.
What should worry parents is the phones' popularity among children, and the industry's inadequate safeguards to keep porn out of the playground. Stephen Timms, the minister for e-commerce, promises a voluntary code of practice to ensure that "access by minors to inappropriate or illegal material is as hard as it is via any other medium". Such vague pledges will not prevent the scandalised headlines we'll see later this year.
++++
WITH around half a million weblogs competing for attention, it takes something special to spur an international cult. For Salam Pax (now back at dear_raed.blogspot.com), the secret has been an enlightening commentary from Baghdad during and since the war.
Dave Walker, a church youth worker in Cookham, Berkshire, has found a more English path to celebrity. His site is called "The dullest blog in the world" - and readers globally have been transfixed.
Like other bloggers, Walker's site (www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull) chronicles the minutiae of his daily routine. But he, at least, knows his limitations. Headings last week included "Pausing briefly to look at the bottle bank"; and "Making a note of something".
Gripping. Now, with the blog among the summer's most linked-to, the US media has caught up: "Walker has raised dull blogging to an art form," is The New York Times's view. Hollywood will soon be calling - and what a terrifically dull movie it would make.
(The Times, May 27 2003)
posted by David Rowan at Tuesday, May 27, 2003
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