Web Safety

Telenor protects customers against modem kidnapping
In 2004, Telenor introduced a standard filter for all residential customers using dial-up connections. This has contributed to a significant reduction in so-called modem kidnapping.

Modem kidnapping emerged as a problem in the spring of 2003. It involves "kidnapping" of customers using dial-up connections, transferring them to network servers at remote locations, resulting in high telephone charges. Modem kidnapping is only a risk for Internet users using a modem and ISDN or analogue lines. Customers who are connected to the Internet via ADSL or cable TV will always be online and run no risk of being exposed to such kidnapping. Network servers to which customers may be transferred are often found at exotic locations, e.g. the Seychelles, Diego Garcia, Cook Islands, Bermuda or Haiti. Telenor has registered more than 50 destinations where modem kidnapping has occurred. Telenor recognised that this was becoming a problem for customers, and has developed and marketed a number of products and services to help customers avoid the problem. These have all been free-of-charge, although customers were previously required to actively take up the solutions themselves.

Telenor has recognised these initiatives have as insufficient, and in 2004 Telenor introduced a surfing filter for all telephony and Internet subscriptions. The filter will ensure that all calls, both via telephone and the Internet, to destinations within the areas defined by Telenor as conspicuous, will be stopped. Telenor's fixed line and dial-up Internet customers must actively choose to bypass the filter if they want to connect to the relevant destinations. This is done by calling 800 33 040 (a free-of-charge number), to request that the filter is turned off or on.

Initially, this solution is only provided in the residential market. Business customers must still actively install the surfing filter. This is done via the same telephone number as for residential customers.

Telenor and NEW KRIPOS lauch Internet child porn filter
In partnership with NEW KRIPOS, the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service, Telenor introduced a child pornography filter in 2004. The filter is designed to prevent users from accessing Internet sites offering material depicting sexual assaults on children. Telenor is responsible for the technical solution, and NEW KRIPOS will provide updated lists of websites that distribute such material.

The filter is applicable to all of Telenor's Internet customers, both via dial-up-lines and broadband. The filter is placed centrally at Telenor, and no installation at customers' computers will be required. NEW KRIPOS will provide lists of web sites containing child pornography, and Telenor will handle the technical management of the filter. Should any of Telenor's customers attempt to open a web site containing child pornography, a blocking site will automatically pop up, with information about the filter, as well as a link to NEW KRIPOS. Several hundred sites containing illegal child pornography are currently registered in NEW KRIPOS' files.

Telenor is not introducing any form of censorship; it will be up to NEW KRIPOS to decide which web sites customers should be denied access to. We do, however, want to make a contribution whenever we can, and this combined effort, whereby Telenor provides the technology and NEW KRIPOS the expertise, may lead to fewer assaults on children.

The child pornography filter comes free-of-charge, and Telenor will be happy to share its expertise and technology with other Internet suppliers. If other suppliers in Norway and abroad join this initiative, the filter could deal a serious blow to commercial distributors of child pornography.

For a number of years Telenor has cooperated with Save the Children to promote safer Internet use for children. As part of this cooperation, Telenor has developed an effective programme, KidSurf, to help parents control children's Internet use. Our partnership with NEW KRIPOS, in the struggle against child pornography, is a further step in our efforts to make the Internet a safer place and prevent assaults against children.