Watch out for mobile charges this Christmas

With mobile phones likely to be on many children’s Christmas lists, a new campaign has been launched to make parents and children more 'phone aware'. Make sure you are aware of the high cost of many phone-paid services like ringtones and games, and avoid a hefty bill this Christmas.
 
Mobile phone awareness campaign

To help make parents and children more phone-aware, PhonepayPlus, the UK’s phone-paid services regulator, has launched its ‘A phone is for life, not just for Christmas’ campaign.

Phone-paid services include:

calling directory enquiries
voting on a TV show
booking cinema tickets
ringtones
games

Most phone-paid services are run fairly. But if they’re not careful your child could end up signing up for expensive phone-paid services and getting charged on a regular, rather than a one-off, basis.

Protecting your child - mobile phone advice

If you are thinking about buying your child a mobile phone this Christmas, make sure that you:

check the bill regularly to keep and eye on their spending and see if they’ve signed up for any phone-paid services

register the user as a child with the phone’s network provider - this stops your child from viewing material that has been rated unsuitable for children

are careful with phones that have internet access – ask the operator to activate the internet filter, although this won’t cover chatrooms

make your child aware of how much phone credit they have per week (or month) and get them to stick to this

make sure your child can recognise phone-paid services, knows how much they can cost and understands the need to check the small print before signing up

agree which phone-paid services your child can use and how frequently

tell your child that, if they receive a text message and they don’t know where it’s from, they should reply STOP to avoid receiving them again and to let you know it’s happened

request an online breakdown of all mobile phone calls your child makes and check the cost of their bill

For more information on phone-paid services, visit phonepayplus.org.uk and phonebrain.org.uk.