ETSI has designs on the young consumer

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 October 2005 16:06

Business IT - Technology

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, has developed a guide to the design of IT products that are expected to be used by children as young as four.

After two years of research and consultation, a team of experts at ETSI has produced the 'ETSI Design Guideline EG 202 423'. The leader of the team, Anne Clarke, said: "children under 12 years of age are becoming a significant consumer group for advanced computing and communications services. In some cases, children as young as four or five are using 3G phones and the Internet".

One of the features of the guide is the description of the attributes and requirements of young children, for ICT services at various stages in their development. According to ETSI, "This means that the telecoms industry and service providers have, for the first time, an understanding of the age-related requirements of this key market segment."

The document provides "explicit rules to guide industry and service providers". For example, "for children, the physical design of terminals, the understanding of instructions and the navigation of content are different from that for adults."

ETSI says the new guide is "just the beginning of a major effort". The next step in the programme is to develop guidelines for service providers who are providing services specifically for young children. "This new work, which is expected to begin shortly, will build a consensus between regulatory bodies, and children's representatives on how service providers will deal with young users under the age of 12 years."

The guidelines can be downloaded at no charge from ETSI. Full details here.