The Group’s companies have undertaken numerous initiatives in order to protect children from content that may harm their psychological and physical development (e.g. content that is violent, racist, offensive to religious sentiment, pornography etc.).
The Telecom Italia Group adopts precise guidelines for classifying and checking distributed content. These cover both the content offered directly by Group companies and content owned by third parties offering their own services on space acquired within Telecom Italia's portals. These guidelines are regularly updated to take account of new codes, standards and platforms.
In Italy, in accordance with current regulations and codes of conduct signed by the Group, filtering systems and procedures are implemented aimed at preventing children from accessing adult content on all the Group's service platforms (IPTV, web TV, generalist portals, WAP services, television broadcasters).
For services delivered by IP connection, the "Alice Total Security" software is available, which includes antivirus and anti-spyware services; parental control, firewall, advanced download protection, anti-phishing, SPAM protection, wireless PC protection.
For the purpose of combating crime and abuse, from an organisational point of view, Telecom Italia has identified, within its Security (Risk Prevention/Protection of Information) department, the role of “Key contact for the Postal Police”. This professional manages relations, and the flow of information, with the Postal Police (CNCPO - National Centre for the Fight against Child Pornography on line, CNAIPIC – National Centre against Digital Crime for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure etc.) and the competent authorities, and has the task of coordinating, within the Telecom Italia Group, the process of abuse management in accordance with the relevant legislative framework. Furthermore, the Telecom Italia Group has adopted an organisational model in accordance with Legislative Decree 231/2001, which defines the tools required to oversee and anticipate offences, particularly the dissemination of child pornography, as well as to ensure the organisational/disciplinary management of computer crimes. For this purpose, Telecom Italia has fielded resources, technologies, processes and instruments to prevent and combat “abuse”, meaning any activity committed in violation of the rules of conduct and legislation that governs the use of network services, digital systems or means of communication in general. In this respect, information initiatives have been implemented, aimed at children, parents and teachers, on the risks connected with the new technologies and navigation on the Internet (chat lines, instant messaging, forums, communities etc.). These initiatives have involved a number of important public and private stakeholders selected above all on the basis of their activities and commitment to safeguarding the rights of children (including, for example, the Postal and Communication Police, Save the Children, Adiconsum, GSMA, ITU etc.).
The Group has also implemented appropriate filtering and abuse prevention systems for services delivered in Brazil and Argentina. In particular, WAP services with adult content require user authentication while the delivery of adult videos on IP platforms, which is only available in on demand mode, requires a PIN to be entered and a parental control code to be activated.
Telecom Italia's commitment to promote the right cultural approach to the subject and prevent offences being committed translates into many initiatives (see Related contents).