TELEFÓNICA O2 CHILD PROTECTION WEBSITES GO LIVE ACROSS EUROPE Secure Mobile Use Tops Agenda for Safer Internet Day

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1 TELEFÓNICA O2 CHILD PROTECTION WEBSITES GO LIVE ACROSS EUROPE Secure Mobile Use Tops Agenda for Safer Internet Day Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 11 February 2008 Telefónica O2 Europe today announced that dedicated child protection websites had gone live across all of its European operating businesses to promote the safer use of mobiles by younger teenagers and children; the first mobile operator to have provided such websites across all its businesses. O2 businesses in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the Czech Republic now have their own websites geared towards safeguarding young teenagers and children against inappropriate content and usage, while offering valuable advice to parents and guardians. Today, is Europe s fifth annual Safer Internet Day, which aims to get adults and children thinking and talking about internet safety. As part of this, O2 has sponsored a competition for young people across Europe who have produced multimedia projects focusing on whether the internet is a positive or negative element in today s world and whether mobile phones are only about connecting people, see for further details. To date, Telefónica O2 has introduced parental controls, age verification procedures, and other capabilities that may be used by parents to customise access to content by children using mobiles. These can include specific services, barring or filtering, parental registration on their child s account or billing control.

2 Child safety continues to be a top priority for us, said Matthew Key, chief executive and chairman of Telefónica O2 Europe. We are committed to this work and will continue to alert parents and their children to the potential dangers of mobile use and the safety mechanisms that can be put in place. Telefónica has for years led the drive within the mobile industry to alert and educate the public on child protection and the risks associated with children making inappropriate contacts or viewing unsuitable content. O2 was the first mobile operator in the UK who provided a dedicated child protection website, and is now the first operator to launch such websites in each of its O2 markets. This week Telefonica has signed up to the Mobile Alliance, a GSMA led alliance of mobile operators, aiming to make the mobile environment hostile to individuals or organisations wishing to consume or profit from child sexual abuse content, includes commitments to blocking illegal URL s, notice and take down processes and support for national hotlines. This has been announced at Mobile World Congress this week. Key added: Many young people see their mobiles as a way of life, important for staying in touch, helping to ensure safety and security and for having fun. However, we recognise that there is a lot of debate about whether children should own mobile phones. We respect parents rights to consider the pros and cons of allowing children to own or use mobile phones and, we are committed to educating our customers about how to keep children safe, he said. Telefonica has recently included in its customer bills, information to raise awareness around child protection. The information has been sent to all five million of its customers in Spain. With Telefonica s support for the charity organisation Protegeles, studies and awareness campaigns in schools have been developed to improve the safety of children on the Internet as well as promoting child responsible and safe use of mobile

3 phones. The charity has developed the concept of the professionalised helpline for minors on the Internet. Various teams of psychologists currently support three established helplines: The Anorexia and Bulimia Helpline, The Bullying Helpline and the Helpline on New Technologies for parents and educators. Since 2004, Telefonica has participated in the Safenet programme to promote safe use of the internet and recently together with the University of Navarra, who are driving a huge research project among Latin American Students with the aim to learn more about how new technologies are changing the way children live. Additionally through Educared, the Telefonica Foundation is working to provide education in each of Telefonica s markets and reaches more than 25 million people all over the world. In the UK, O2 provides a free phone service to over one hundred child support help lines. Including Crimestoppers, Childline and Get Connected. Our German business launched a youth protection system last year to prevent access to potentially inappropriate content (WAP) for young people. The system has been assessed by the German Body for Voluntary Self Control (FSM Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle MultiMedia Diensteanbieter). Further more O2 Germany has extended its voluntary code of conduct on youth protection. The new commitment contains obligations regarding communications procedures. O2 Germany has also produced various brochures and information material for customers. O2 Germany is a founding member of a publicprivate-partnership between the German Government and the ICT Industry. The project Net for Children has the aim to cerate a safe Walled Garden internet space for children works on the basis of a white list. Our Irish business is affiliated to Hotline.ie, a service provided by the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland. The aim of the Hotline.ie is to combat illegal child pornography on the internet. O2 Ireland is also a sponsor of the 2008 MakeITSecure initiative from February This is an all Ireland public information campaign designed to raise awareness amongst the general public of the safe and efficient use of ICT with special focus on child protection / social networking as well as phishing and identity theft. O2 s Czech Republic business supports the Czech Safer Internet Awarenode - Internet Helpline the first Czech Helpline for safer use of modern technologies, in specific, the internet which is provided by Sdružení Linka bezpečí (Safety Line Association) that Telefonica O2 Europe support through the O2 Foundation. The Internet Helpline is a crisis intervention line to protect children against the internet and modern technologies misuse.

4 If you have any questions about its content, or would like to find out more about what O2 is doing in this area, then please do not hesitate to contact us at Note to Editors O2 s role is to ensure all our customers get the most out of its services, while protecting children and giving parents more control over their children s mobiles. Here is an overview of what O2 is doing. O2 s concern goes beyond adult content to all risks faced by young people using mobile devices. O2 has invested in technological means to protect children, including bars, content rating through The Independent Mobile Classification Body (IMCB), and moderation of the different mobile channels. O2 can restrict children s web access to a limited number of sites which are suitable for them. O2 has a dedicated Nuisance Call Bureau, which can take a number of steps to help customers who are receiving nuisance or malicious calls. This includes offering a change of phone number and assisting the Police with investigations into malicious calls. O2 works with schools in the UK, Ireland and Germany to combat bullying through mobile phones and many of its volunteers offer mentoring services to young people. O2 alerts parents and guardians to the dangers through its dedicated child protection websites. Armed with this knowledge they can begin to minimise the risks for their children. The child protection websites can be viewed as follows: Germany website: / Ireland website: UK website: Czech Republic website: Telefonica SA website: O2 continually examines its network at a detailed technological level to identify weaknesses that a paedophile might exploit, and introduce means by which we could trace and trap them. O2 has implemented the industry s code of practice on Content. O2 does not believe the issue of content and contact can be separated. O2 revised its guidelines and policies for the providers of third party contact channels. O2 s customers publishing their own WAP pages must now classify them as adult or not. About Telefónica O2 Europe Telefónica O2 Europe comprises integrated fixed/mobile businesses in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic, along with mobile network operations in Ireland and Slovakia - all of which use O2 as their consumer brand. Telefónica O2 Europe also owns 50% of the Tesco

5 Mobile and Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture businesses in the UK, Ireland and Germany respectively. In addition, the group includes the Isle of Man fixed/mobile operator, Manx Telecom. Telefónica O2 Europe, part of the Telefónica group, is headquartered in Slough, UK, and has more than 40 million mobile and fixed customers. About Telefónica Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of number of clients and market capitalisation. Its activities are centered mainly on the fixed and mobile telephony businesses with broadband as the key tool for the development of both. The company has a significant presence in 24 countries and a customer base that amounts more than 218 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, the rest of Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy. Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.7 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4,773,496,485 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia) and on those in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, New York, Lima, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. For further media information: Simon Lloyd Head of media Relations Telefónica O2 Europe plc Simon.lloyd@o2.com +44 (0)