NTT Group CSR > Raising Public Awareness about Appropriate Use of Communications Technology

Raising Public Awareness about Appropriate Use of Communications Technology

Studying issues related to the spread of ubiquitous broadband communications from a social sciences perspective
Raising public awareness about appropriate communications technology use
Ensuring child safety with ICT

Research in support of safety and security in the age of broadband communications

The NTT Group is involved in research from a social sciences perspective to identify issues related to the spread of broadband ubiquitous communications and ways to address them.
InfoCom Research, Inc. (ICR) and NTT DATA Research Institute for Systems Science conduct research from various perspectives on the relationship between social trends and information communications. In fiscal 2007, ICR announced research findings concerning the economic ramifications of the ICT and mobile communications industries.
The Mobile Society Research Institute conducts research into the benefits and pitfalls of mobile phones with the aim of promoting the appropriate use of mobile communications and the betterment of society through leveraging mobile communications. In fiscal 2007, the Institute published research findings on the psychology of mobile phone dependency, and on the use of mobile phones during disasters. NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories has developed a Gross Social Feel-Good Index to evaluate ICT service sustainability. The index evaluates triple bottom line satisfaction and the extent to which people are satisfied with their lives.
The NTT Group will continue to conduct a range of research projects aimed at ensuring the safe and secure use of ubiquitous broadband communications.

Index of Activities
Activities	Company
Mobile Society Research Institute	NTT DoCoMo

ICT service sustainability: The degree to which ICT services can contribute to society on a continuing basis.

Triple bottom line: An idea promoting balance between economic, environmental, and social concerns, coined by John Elkington, cofounder of SustainAbility (a UK-based think tank).

Promoting appropriate use of ICT

The Internet and mobile phones have already become indispensable tools in our society, but they have also given rise to a range of social issues related to the appropriate and ethical use of ICT. To address such issues, we have been educating the public on appropriate ICT use and working to foster a wholesome ICT culture. Through these activities, we hope to contribute to the resolution of ICT-related social problems and the creation of a safer and more secure Internet and mobile communications environment.

Educational activities to promote appropriate communications technology use
	Name	Description	Organization
Events	Educational support	NTT Group companies dispatched instructors for the e-Net Caravan organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and accepted teachers for private sector training, etc.	NTT Group companies
	NTT Dream Kids Net Town 2006	Events at which children can learn about communications. Held in Tokyo and Sendai in fiscal 2007, attracting 940 participants.	NTT Group companies
	Internet Safety Workshops	Held at elementary schools to inform children about skills and manners for trouble-free communication in the digital age. In fiscal 2007, 3,078 students attended the workshops, which began in September 2006.	NTT EAST
	Internet Basics	Classes on Internet use aimed at contributing to IT education and the improvement of information ethics, and bridging digital divides. Held three times in Tokyo and once in Osaka in fiscal 2007.	NTT Communications
	Mobile Phone Safety Program	Classes providing guidance to children and others on topics such as safe and secure mobile phone use, the risks of using online dating sites, and how to deal with spam e-mail. About 1,400 classes were held nationwide in fiscal 2007 in elementary, junior and senior high schools, local community centers, and other venues.	NTT DoCoMo
Online activities	Super Media Kids (in Japanese only)	A website for teaching children how to use various media over the Internet and on phones. Contents also include quizzes on Internet Safety Workshop contents and information for parents and educators.	NTT EAST
Online activities	Kids' goo (in Japanese only)	Kids' goo is a web portal offering safe, convenient, and useful Internet services for elementary school students, and information on safe Internet use for children. Other contents include the Seven Rules of Internet Use and columns by elementary school teachers offering advice to parents.	NTT Resonant

Helping to protect children

Children today face a rapidly changing environment in which they are increasingly falling victim to crime, leading parents, schools, and entire communities to urgently consider protection measures.
The NTT Group is focusing resources on various initiatives to ensure the safety of children. NTT DoCoMo, for example, offers Kids' PHONE mobile phones with protection alarms and GPS functions that allow parents to pinpoint their child's whereabouts. In addition to crime prevention functions, NTT DoCoMo also offers services that enable children to use mobile phones without worry, such as an expanded version of its Kids' iMenu and a function to ward off nuisance calls, both of which were launched in fiscal 2007. NTT Group companies have also started offering systems for local governments that use IC tags to track the whereabouts of children, and services for schools to simultaneously send emergency messages to the phones, faxes, e-mail addresses, mobile phones, and mobile phone e-mail addresses of every parent or guardian.
The NTT Group will continue to put the technologies of its member companies to use in initiatives aimed at ensuring child safety.

Topics

Meru-Robo Digital Log

NTT has developed Meru-Robo Digital Log, an interactive child monitoring system that combines Action Switch Platform ? a technology from NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories for controlling robots from mobile phones ? with a personal robot (called "PaPeRo", and developed by NEC Corporation). The Meru-Robo feature in this system enables parents to check on their children from a remote location and monitors children according to instructions included in mobile phone text messages sent by parents.
In 2006, field tests using the system were conducted between parents and two facilities ? Might Project (a day-care facility for the early development of abilities) and Makoto Aijien (a nursery facility).
Parents participating in the field tests operated the robot from distant locations, checking on the wellbeing of their children, and sending messages to their children that were read out loud by the robot. Video messages of the children filmed through the robot's eye-installed camera were also sent by the system to parents' mobile phones. The Robo Digital Log feature in this system ? a blogging function for communication between facility staff and parents ? was also tested.
We plan to build on the results of this trial to make further improvements to the Meru-Robo Digital Log system.

This is a photograph of a mobile phone screen displaying a message sent to the Meru-Robo Digital Log robot.

This is a screenshot of a Robo Digital Log blog.

Mobile phone access restriction services

To create a safe environment for mobile phone use by minors, NTT DoCoMo provides filtering services for restricting access to inappropriate sites, and in March 2007 launched new initiatives to further promote the use of these services.
For example, all new subscribers, both adults and minors, were asked if they wanted to use these services, and service names were changed to make them more appealing to junior and senior high school students.
NTT DoCoMo also joined the Telecommunications Carriers Association , KDDI CORPORATION, and SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. in launching a Protect Children from Inappropriate Sites! campaign, and in March 2007 held joint events to promote the use of such filtering services.