ECONOMY

Vodafone Greece is the only mobile communications company in Greece that has been implementing, since 2005, the integrated bsafeonline program. Τhe bsafeonline program offers parents the suitable tools that help them establish, along with their child, the way in which they are to use their mobile phone and internet safely, on their mobile phone.

Since 2006, Vodafone Greece has made available for parents the parental control filters, which can be activated by parents themselves through Customer Care, should they decide to let their children use a mobile phone. These filters block access to adult content, normally available in Vodafone Greece MyWeb services menu, as well as the World Wide Web.

To better assist parents, since 2012 Vodafone has been offering the Youth Safe Pack, the first pre-pay card specifically designed for children, with pre-installed parental control filters that:

• Deactivate children’s access to adult-based content available online (for instance websites showing content pertaining to alcohol, smoking, guns, violence and racism).
• Do not allow calls to be made to high cost numbers (like for instance 901ΧΧΧ adult hotlines).
• Block incoming chargeable SMSs and outgoing high cost SMSs to 5-digit numbers.

The Youth Safe Pack is available at all Vodafone shops across Greece and can only be activated by adults.

Having recognized the growing use of smartphones, Vodafone Greece has developed the Vodafone Safety Net application, for Android smartphones through which parents can define – along with their child – the way the latter may use a smartphone’s functions. For instance:

• The hours their child can use their mobile phone (i.e. during school time, a parent can prevent their child from using their mobile phone).
• Whether the child has access to the internet via Wi-Fi (if a parent has activated parental control filters on their mobile phone, access via Wi-Fi deactivates them).
• Being able to receive calls or SMSs from a selected contact list.

Furthermore, the Vodafone Safety Net application is a very useful tool against digital bullying, as the user does not receive calls or SMSs from unknown or expunged numbers, while SMSs that are received by such numbers are stored in the mobile phone’s memory and can be accessed by the parent. 

Should the child wishes to deactivate this specific function on his/her mobile phone, the parent will be automatically notified, whereas in case of an emergency, the child can call emergency numbers, even if his/her parent has deactivated outgoing calls during that specific time of the day. 

The application is available free of charge for all Android smartphone users on Play store, regardless of their network.

Moreover, as far as information is concerned, Vodafone Greece offers the following tools:

• The vodafone.gr/bsafeonline website, and the brochure “Parents guide”, providing information on the internet’s popular services (facebook, twitter, blogs, apps, VOIP telephony and streaming television), as well as eventual challenges linked to them, such as spamming, malicious communication, cyber bullying, illegal content /scams, etc. 
• The Vodafone Greece Internet Team at Vodafone shops, which is available on a daily basis to answer any questions regarding safe internet use.
• Workshops carried out across Greece, in cooperation with specialised child psychiatrists from the Hellenic Association for the Study of Internet Addiction Disorder, in which it offers information to parents and teachers on safe internet use. To this date, more than 1,700 parents and teachers have attended these workshops.

In the context of this strategy, Vodafone Greece supports the “Odysseas” Mobile Unit, created by “The Smile of the Child” NGO to provide information and education on safe internet use by children and teenagers. In the framework of this program, the unit will travel around Greece, raising awareness among parents, teachers and children on safe internet use.