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Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.
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Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
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Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
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UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
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Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
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Opinion Articles

Friday, July 22, 2011

The fight against mobile bullying gets smarter with Bully Block

Mark Bridge writes:

With mobile phones becoming smarter – and increasing numbers of children using these smartphones – it’s not surprising to hear that bullies are taking advantage of mobile technology. ‘Cyber-bullying’ is now in the Oxford English Dictionary... and some people have even called for a ban on mobiles in schools in an attempt to reduce bullying.

Taking a high-tech perspective in the fight against mobile bullying is Sedgrid Lewis, CEO of Spy Parent LLC. His company recently launched an anti-bullying application for mobile phones. It’s called Bully Block and currently costs just 80p ($1.29) in the Android Market.

Before becoming an app developer, Sedgrid had experience in the fields of juvenile crime and social work – so he seemed the perfect person to talk to about mobile phone bullying. I started our conversation by asking him how much of a problem mobile bullying and cyber-bullying was.

“From our experience it’s a huge problem here in the United States with the explosion of social media. There used to be more of a ‘traditional’ bullying situation where kids would get into fights in schoolyards; now it’s a lot more of kids harassing each other - verbal attacks, a lot of threats - over their cellphone, over the internet. The US Department of Education did a study: over a million kids have been [cyber] bullied over the last year. Parents haven’t caught up with the technology.”

So what does Bully Block do?

“It has a couple of features. One is your standard ‘block’ feature, which means that any inappropriate call that comes through, any inappropriate text message, any inappropriate picture, the user of the phone can block those pictures, those texts and those phone calls. The other feature is there’s a ‘stealth recorder’ to address more traditional bullying. If a kid is surrounded by a bully, there’s a button that will turn the application into a stealth recorder, meaning they can record any sound around them without that person knowing.”

Sedgrid also offered advice for parents whose children are being cyber-bullied.

“Don’t take away a child’s line of communication. We see a lot of parents that take away the cellphone once these incidents start happening; that’s one of the worst things you could do because what usually happens on a child’s part is they don’t tell out of that fear they’re going to get their equipment taken away. Don’t over-react, listen to what they have to say.”

You can listen to the full interview with Sedgrid Lewis about cyber-bullying and Bully Block on our website, via iTunes or by downloading the MP3 file.
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