Children and mobile phones

A mobile phone can be used for many useful and entertaining services and for purchasing products. The resulting costs are charged to the phone bill. As a means of payment, the mobile phone is comparable to a credit card: purchases are made on credit and the invoice is paid afterwards.

The mobile phone can be used to pay for items such as:

• ring tones, logos and icons
• games played on the phone
• humour services and horoscopes ordered to the phone
• services associated with TV games, chats and programmes, such as voting or a contest (e.g. Idols, Big Brother, the Eurovision Song Contest)
• purchases made in a virtual community, such as the Habbo Hotel
• soft drinks from vending machines
• transport tickets

Costs may arise from:

• one-off purchases, such as ordering an individual logo or wallpaper
• standing subscriptions, such as subscriptions for a weekly horoscope
• data transfer, such as downloading a game or a video clip from the Internet to the phone