Child protection

It's vital that our customers can use our services with confidence, especially in terms of security and privacy. Safeguarding children is particularly important, which is why O2 in the UK and Europe has adopted a common child protection strategy.

Our child protection policy is based around five key principles:

Guidance

We give parents, teachers and children the information to make safe decisions when using mobile phones and accessing the internet.

The parents section of the O2 website is full of useful advice on areas like privacy and online safety. Together with others in the industry and with our parent company, Telefònica, we have created the teacher resource www.teachtoday.eu - this provides valuable information and advice on the positive, responsible and safe use of new technologies.

Support

We work closely with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre - the UK's dedicated policing organisation for protecting children from sexual exploitation.

Leadership

We're an active member of the UK Council of Child Internet Safety. We also support, or are a member of, a range of other child protection groups

Innovation

We've developed technical solutions to give parents greater control over what their children are accessing on their mobiles. Parents can now block adult content from their children's phones, and we've introduced mechanisms to verify the age of a mobile user.

Respect

We acknowledge the rights, freedoms and privacy of parents and children.