blocking pornography etc. on son's new mobile phone...

[timetosmile]

DS1 is having a new phone for Christmas....I'm balancing the fact he doesn't want my 12year old castoff phone and would love a top end samsung thingie.

I'm thinking about something like this
www.tesco.com/direct/t-mobile-sydney-black/347-6860.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=347-6860
as he wants a touch screen, facility to play music and take pictures and he would like wifi access because everyone else has a Blackberry, Mum
He's pretty responsible, but it'd be nice to know he can't access sites I don't want him to.
Is it possible to add something to a phone like this to curtail inappropriate websites? Can anyone recommend what to buy/to install for free etc etc?
Thanks a lot!

Marking my place, sorry I can't help op

at least it's not just me who doesn't know what to do Blue!

Your service provider can block access to 18 rated sites - mine does it automatically and I actually had to ring to unblock it so I could access various blogs (bit embarrassing)

My Ds has just got a new phone through orange and I had to text the word safeguard to 150 and that stops any access to over 18 websites, not sure if it blocks everything out though, not tried it before, so I think other networks would have similar set ups. HTH

Firstly mobile providers do block porn (or try to!) on their networks. Frankly the speeds it would be coming down at, few will bother trying.

The thing to realise is that the block from T-Mobile/O2 etc will NOT block your son from using your home wifi to access porn, nor will it stop him from swapping porn pics with mates at school. In short it's a speed bump, not a locked door.

The other thing to realise is that this phone is so cheap that chances are it will be very slow. And I bet he'll soon be nagging for a newer phone. One reason why kids have Blackberries is because they can text each other using BBM for free. This phone doesn't have it so he still can't do that. I'm not saying don't buy it, just two things which should be considered.

"One reason why kids have Blackberries is because they can text each other using BBM for free"

for those who don't have a Blackberry, it might be worth explaining 'BBM' and although you wrote 'free', I think it is often in an add-on that some/many/most networks charge for...

(PS I've never had a Blackberry, nor investigated fully, so cannot give an explanation myself, otherwise I would have...)