Parental Control is a service we offer to help parents to protect their children while they're online. It restricts internet access on a mobile to sites which are suitable and interesting for children.

To turn Parental Control on or off

Call 61818 to control web access on your mobile or use the online service

Call 1300 to keep your phone location private

'Location based services' are mobile phone services which depend on information about the location of a mobile in order to work. For example, when you're lost, you use Streetmap. And on O2 Active, there's a service to help you find the nearest cash point.

Although it might seem like a useful idea to be able to track where your child is via their mobile, it can actually bring with it certain risks. It means that any third parties, whether they have any harmful intentions or not, are able to find out the whereabouts of a child's mobile - and potentially, its owner.

When you buy your child a new mobile phone or pass down a used one, you should check the location based settings on the phone by dialling 1300, an automated response number. You'll then be able to select from a menu of four different privacy settings. To have maximum privacy for your child, select option 4. You can then check and change this setting as often as you like, by dialling 1300 from the mobile.

Please note: if there's ever an emergency and the police need to track down a person's phone, they will be able to request that the location based settings be switched back on, regardless of which setting has been selected.

Call 61018 to block 18+ content on your mobile

We respect our customers' freedom to choose what material they access. But equally, we want to help protect children from seeing things they shouldn't. So our approach to controlling access is strict.

You should check your child's phone is set at the right level by phoning the Age Verification automated service on 61018. Just dial the number and follow the prompts. This is especially important with a 'hand-me-down' phone, which could have been switched to the 18+ setting by its previous owner.

More about O2's work on helping keep children safe when using their mobiles

O2 adheres to the UK Code of Practice for the self-regulation of new forms of content on mobiles. Learn more about it here.