New guidelines for the design of ICT products and services to be used by young children

Manufacturers and service providers are starting to design, test and launch a stream of new products specifically for young children. To support the development of these new products and services, ETSI has published a guide.

The leader of the task force which produced the new guidelines, Anne Clarke, says that 'children under 12 years of age are becoming a significant consumer group for advanced computing and communications services. In some cases, children as young as four or five are using 3G phones and the Internet'.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) plays a major role in global standardisation of technologies, including telecommunications and broadcasting. ETSI unites around 700 member companies from nearly 60 countries, including manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers, research bodies and users.

After two years of research and consultation, a team of experts at ETSI has produced the ETSI Design Guideline EG 202 423. One of the features of the guide is the description of the attributes and requirements of young children, for ICT services, at various stages in their development. This means that the telecoms industry and service providers have, for the first time, an understanding of the age-related requirements of this key market segment.

Throughout its drafting the ETSI Guide has been supported by various organisations. These organisations include ANEC, BT, OTE, Siemens, and Telenor, who were the original five supporting organisations when the work was started. Throughout the work of the ETSI Special Task Force (STF 266), and the formal approval phase, many different stakeholders have shown an interest, including mobile service providers, designers, ICT product manufactures and particularly children’s groups. These organisations will use the ETSI Guide to inform their future work.

On the technical side, the guidelines provide explicit rules to guide industry and service providers. For example, for children, the physical design of terminals, the understanding of instructions and the navigation of content are different from that for adults. Of particular importance are the guidelines dealing with practical safeguards, such as the boundaries to use of children’s personal data. The new guidelines also address the question of location based services, where the hand set is in use by a child.

The new ETSI Guide is just the beginning of a major effort by ETSI. The next step in the programme is to develop guidelines for service providers who are providing services specifically for young children. This new work, which is expected to begin shortly, will build a consensus between regulatory bodies, and children's representatives on how service providers will deal with young users under the age of 12 years. At the recent Safer Internet Conference on Child Safety and mobile phones (Luxembourg 14 June 05), the EU Commissioner Ms Reding strongly urged this type of approach. Clarke will be co-ordinating the effort in ETSI, to ensure that the Institute plays its part in addressing the need for such guidance.

The new guidelines have been approved by vote of the ETSI Members, and are now available at-http://pda.etsi.org/pda/queryform.asp (see link below)

Associated Link: The guidelines

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