Phone sex gets new twist with mobile drawings

By PATRICK GOWER

Pornographic pictures are being sent using text-messaging and phone companies are powerless to stop it.

The images are either built-up by users or downloaded from the internet and clearly show offensive or indecent acts.

The Herald has seen messages on the Vodafone network that range from stick figures performing indecent acts to others that show a lot of creativity in the use of symbols available on a telephone keypad.

Vodafone spokeswoman Avon Adams said the company believed the images were being constructed and forwarded mainly by children, and there was no way it would stop it.

"We can't prevent it. In the final analysis we provide the service, and it's up to people to control the way they use it.

"Companies produce the ballpoint pen but can't be held responsible for what people write with it, and it is a similar kind of analogy here."

Ms Adams suggested that parents be vigilant about how their children used their phones, in the same way they would monitor internet use.

Telecom had not been aware of the problem but spokeswoman Linda Sanders said the company was similarly powerless over use of text messaging.

"The text message is exactly the same as a conversation, and we have no control over what people say on their phones and nor would we ever want to.

"They are graphical characters that would only appeal to kids of a certain age and it is beholden on parents as much as anything to monitor what their kids are doing."