The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) are encouraging the launch of financial services by mobile phone in Haiti, following the January earthquake. Fewer than 10% of Haitians had ever used a commercial bank before the disaster.
The two organisations say enabling Haitians to send, receive and store money using their mobile phones has the potential to dramatically improve their lives and leapfrog more conventional banking models to safer, more affordable alternatives.
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Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, has urged mobile phone operators to raise parents' awareness of the potential risks faced by children who use smartphones, such as access to 'adult' content.
While welcoming the progress made by operators on their work to keep children safe while using mobile phones, she warned that parents were often "not as tuned into the latest developments in mobile phones as the younger generation".
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