Safety Concerns

Safety Concerns Safety Concerns

As part of the responsibility for telecommunications, we are working to provide services allowing everyone to safely and securely use smartphones and the Internet, through efforts to raise awareness to encourage appropriate use of them by children, and to prevent users from being affected by crime.

Initiatives to protect children

Smartphone rules discussed in the family

To ensure children can use mobile phones and smartphones safely and securely, it is essential not just to set filtering and other functions but also to fully discuss in the family how these devices will be used, as well as monitoring by parents and guardians, and creating rules for children to learn the correct way of using these tools. We offer information that parents and guardians should know when their children have smartphones, and key points to refer to for rules that parents and children must decide together.

Rules for using mobile phones

To ensure children can use mobile phones safely and securely, it is essential not just to set filtering and other functions for them but also to fully discuss in the family how these devices will be used, as well as monitoring by parents and guardians, and creating rules for children to learn the correct way of using these tools.

Manners for mobile devices

Making a call in a place where people gather, like a cinema or art gallery, is annoying to others, and using your mobile device while walking can lead to accidents. The fact that you can use mobile phones anywhere means that you have to adopt the right manners according to each place.

Photo-taking rules

Using the camera on your mobile phone to photo a magazine article in a bookstore is breaking the rules. The camera function is certainly very handy and useful, but care must be exercised not to cause a problem in certain places.

For secure use of smartphones

We provide filtering services and smartphones with security features in order to ensure that children can enjoy using mobile phones and smartphones in safety.

Services for safe use

Filtering services

As the use of smartphones becomes commonplace even among young people, there is a growing risk that children will access inappropriate websites through the Internet, leading to potentially harmful situations. To prevent problems and provide a safe Internet environment for children, SoftBank offers free filtering services that contribute to customer satisfaction and peace of mind

Fee plans

Our three brands of SoftBank, Y!mobile, and the new exclusively online LINEMO have fee plans meeting the diverse needs of our customers, to match the way they generally use our products.

SoftBank lump sum payments (preventing overuse)

Parents and guardians can fix settings in advance to prevent children from purchasing high-priced apps or content when unattended. Only the required apps are available, with restrictions on installing others or purchasing contents.

Fixed amount notification service

Parents and guardians are notified with a message if their child overuses their mobile phone. The amount can be set in increments of JPY 1,000 from JPY 5,000 to JPY 100,000.

Secure remote lock

If a child loses their mobile phone, or leaves it somewhere, the parent or guardian can remotely lock the device via the instructions from My SoftBank, My Y!mobile, or general guidance by calling 157 or 116, to minimize the risk of someone finding it and illegally using it or stealing personal data. Other actions that can be taken are lock release, erasure of SD memory card data,*1 and so on.

[Note]
  1. *1
    Erasure of SD memory card data only applies to smartphones and tablets. This function cannot be used from Android™ 9 or later versions.

Mobile phone or smartphone equipped with secure features

We provide a wide range of mobile phones and smartphones so that parents and guardians can securely allow their children to use them.

Kids phone 3

The Kids Phone 3 for elementary school students is limited to calls and text messages, and comes with crime-prevention features that allow tracking of the child's location, or to send a message with a photo of the surrounding area if their personal alarm is triggered.

Junior smartphone

We provide Junior Smartphone with specifications adapted for use by older children, with functions to block harmful apps and websites and restrict purchase of pay contents and in-app payments.

Literacy and morals when using devices

We believe it is important that children be able to use devices safely and also to gain the ability to think things out for themselves. This is why we support efforts to raise the information literacy and morals of both children and the people around them (their parents or guardians, teachers, etc.).

Supporting information morality education for proper use of ICT equipment

Supporting information morality education for proper use of ICT equipment

SoftBank Corp., LY Corporation, and the LINE MIRAI Foundation have launched the “Digital Usage Skills Development Project” to create an environment in which children and students can acquire knowledge about information morality. This project brings together the knowledge and expertise of each party in the field of information morality education to provide content that is easier to understand and use.

This initiative will promote the GIGA Workbook.
The GIGA Workbook is an educational material that focuses on information morality and information use, and provides enhanced information morality education content that teaches the characteristics of the Internet, appropriate communication methods, and the risks of information. In addition to the creation and provision of teaching materials, we also focus on providing guidance on their use, training and support for teachers.

Support for information literacy education in schools and homes

Support for information literacy education in schools and homes

We provided “Let's Think Together about Smartphones*2,” an information morality learning material consisting of a DVD and booklet, free of charge from 2008 to March 2023 to school personnel, PTAs, and community groups.

[Note]
  1. *2
    Planned and produced jointly with the Association of Corporation and Education NPO, which has a track record providing practical lessons in a workshop format.
Class implementation results
Number of trainings conducted 722 Number of training participants 60,205
Number of classes using teaching materials 2,477 Number of participants in classes using the teaching materials 75,941
[Note]
  1. *
    Number of trainings has been counted since 2008; number of classes using teaching materials has been counted since 2015.

Preventing communication trouble

SoftBank signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with Nagano Prefecture in September 2018, to produce a flip book called Friends Always by Tekken, a celebrity from Nagano, as part of our efforts to support children. As a video it shows the importance of connections between people on the theme of communication trouble caused by smartphones.

Awareness-raising material for use of the Internet (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)

Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has produced and made available a collection of examples of trouble concerning the Internet for young people, parents and guardians, and teachers, with awareness-raising material for young children (up to the age of around six) and the elderly for using smartphones safely and securely.

Protecting people from troublesome or criminal behavior

For the correct use of mobile phones and smartphones

We undertake efforts to prevent troublesome or criminal behavior with email or websites so that our customers can fully enjoy the use of our services. To prevent customers from either instigating troublesome behavior or being the victim of it, we have expanded countermeasures for mobile phones, smartphones, and the Internet, and are also undertaking awareness-raising activities for safety measures, such as preventing collisions due to carelessness when using mobile phones (e.g. smartphone zombies).

To prevent illegal behavior and infringement of rights

We will take swift action on receiving notifications from victims of troublesome behavior in networks, such as propagation of viruses, junk mail, or inappropriate postings by certain users of Internet connection services such as SoftBank Hikari and SoftBank Air. If a service provided by SoftBank is used as the source of spreading information that is illegal, harmful, or infringes someone's rights on the Internet, we take swift and appropriate measures based on the related laws and guidelines.

Troublesome behavior by subscribers to our services

We accept inquiries via email regarding troublesome behavior on the Internet by subscribers of our services.

[Note]
  • *
    Please contact us via the Support page (in Japanese) for the content of services we provide or about contracts and so forth.

Supporting sponsorship for activities to protect children

Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association (JISPA)

Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association (JISPA)

We belong to the Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association (JISPA), which is active in spreading information and raising awareness to realize a healthy Internet society.

Childline

Childline

Childline is a hotline for children to talk about matters that they cannot consult on with the people in their lives, such as bullying or violence. Childline differs from standard hotlines aimed at solving problems in that, after listening to the issues they have and understanding them, it helps the children to find their own solutions.

SoftBank endorses the activities of Childline and provides support for it.