Official Announcement of “Program for Promotion of Safe and Secure Use of Smartphones”

  The MIC has created the “Program for Promotion of Safe and Secure Use of Smartphones” which compiles the matters to be addressed by MIC in order to promote the provision of necessary information to consumers, encourage parties concerned to appropriately respond to issues in terms of privacy and information security, and improve an environment where consumers can safely and securely use smartphones in the context of rapid dissemination of smartphones. The specific content is as follows.
 

1.Nationwide expansion of comprehensive and concentrated public awareness activities for smartphones

  Necessary information for safe and secure use of smartphones is summarized and comprehensive public awareness activities are implemented in cooperation with related business operators, industry organizations, consumer organizations, PTAs, etc. In particular, concentrated public awareness activities will be implemented nationwide in cooperation with PTAs of high schools in view of rapid dissemination of smartphones among high school students.
 

2.Support for improvement of environment for safe and secure use of smartphones by smartphone-related business operators

  Based on the results of deliberations obtained so far at the related Study Groups, the MIC will make efforts for improving an environment where smartphones are to be used safely and securely by (1) supporting the creation of industry guidelines and privacy model examples by related business operators and organizations, (2) implementing cooperation for encouraging related organizations, etc. to work on application website operators and to provide information to technical colleges, etc. that engage in development of applications, and (3) cooperating in private-sector-led deliberations on systems for verifying applications by third parties.
 

3.Consideration on use by youths and the elderly

  The MIC will promote the improvement of environments for smartphone use necessary for youths and the elderly by providing support for enhancing filtering of smartphones, creation and utilization of indexes of Internet literacy of youths, and public awareness activities focusing on the elderly, taking into account the current situation where smartphones are becoming popular not only among youths but also among the elderly.