RIP and children (It's all Ross Anderson's Fault)

[Mary Hawking]

In article <5.1.0.14.2.20020318173258.03e798f0@pop3.benzo8.org>, John 
Sullivan <lists@benzo8.org> writes
>At 05:07 PM 18/03/2002, you wrote:
>
>>My own daughter (now 12) has been suffering from heavy SMS spam ("TXT
>>FLIRT: someone fancies you - phone this number to find out who"). The
>>number, I guess (we didn't call it), being a premium-rate line
>>presumably of "adult" content.
>
>Text Flirt is a product of one of the music television channels - I 
>can't remember which one at the moment - but basically, people call 
>them and they act as intermediaries so people can tell other people 
>they fancy them.

if that is the case, are the people fancied identified by the people 
fancying them? If so, how are they identified? (I would be very 
concerned if there was a targeting of any 12 year old) If it is not 
aimed at individuals -  e.g. aimed at a purchased mailing list - how are 
the recipients identified? What (if any) penalties are there for adding 
a 12 year old's contact details to any mailing list without *express* 
parental consent? - or even without the 12 year old's consent?

>It all sounded pretty childish when I saw the adverts, but I don't 
>think there's pornography or adult content involved.

How did the adverts say the recipients - any age - would be identified - 
and protected?

>
>That said, obviously a 12 year old girl is far too young to reciprocate 
>and "fancying" that may be going on, so the company ought to have a 
>minimum age limit for "targets", and 40 contacts a day is either a 
>mistake by the company's software (in which case they ought to be 
>liable), or there should be a maximum contacts per period limit on any 
>one "target"..

Please remind me of the *legal* definition of "harrassment". If anyone 
knows of any legislation regarding the spaming of unwilling recipients 
of text message recipients, I'd be grateful for a URL

Mary Hawking
>
>Me...
>

-- 
K.Mary Hawking
Kingsbury Court Surgery Church Street Dunstable Beds LU5 4RS
tel 01582 663218
fax 01582 476488
email Mary.Hawking@gp-E81045.nhs.uk