Parents trust a mobile operator to keep kids safe online

Many parents would trust their mobile operator to manage their children’s safety online. As well as parental controls, this includes gambling and violence. This is the finding from research carried out over in Sweden by a group Enea.

Whilst the survey was carried out across Europe and the US, it is encouraging for operators that the majority of parents trust their mobile operator when it comes to safety. Most would move operator if the choice was that one provided parental controls and the other did not. The majority of parents would pay a small premium for the service.

Interestingly, less than a quarter of respondents would trust Facebook, Google or other social media platforms.

The driver for a mobile operator to provide this service is that, particularly during the lockdowns, kids have been allowed unsupervised time online, mainly on mobiles or tablets. As a result, even kids younger than five spend 3-6 hours unmonitored online, while a larger proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds spend many hours online, unmonitored.

The research plays into initiatives within the GSMA, which aim to strengthen the role of the mobile operator in areas such as digital identity and fraud prevention. In fact, services are now coming to market that allow a mobile operator to accelerate onboarding, simplify authentication and ultimately improve the customer experience.

We have said before, many times, that trust is a real asset for an operator. So initiatives such as the ones being championed by the GSMA and research provide further proof that customers genuinely trust their mobile operator creates a real opportunity.

As trust in the likes of Facebook dwindles, driven by a seemingly unending arrogance that is backed up by very little and dented every day by stories of bullying and unacceptable content on their platforms, a mobile operator should seize that gap in confidence.

The question has been asked before – who would you trust more, your bank, your mobile operator or Facebook. It seems, in the increasingly murky world of social media and the internet, customers are ready to reach out to operators to keep them and their families safe. Disruptive.Asia