Call to regulate phone chat lines
A youth advocacy group yesterday petitioned the National Telecommuni-cations Commission (NTC) to regulate telephone chat lines more strictly following a report that 12 girls who used the service went missing in recent months.
Worrachet Kheowjan of The Mirror Foundation called on the NTC, the telecom industry regulator, to require chatters to register before they are connected to the communal line and to conduct random eavesdropping to prevent verbal abuse or persuasion to engage in inappropriate behaviour. The use of erotic or inappropriate images on advertisements for the chat services, which use 1900 numbers operated by TOT Plc, should also be restricted, Worrachet said. Any chat service providers found violating the regulations should be banned or fined heavily, the advocate said. The foundation's missing-person centre received reports from police and parents that all of the missing girls were regular users of the chat services and most of them were under 15, Worrachet said. National Telecommunications Commission deputy secretary-general Nissakorn Thadthiemrom, who received the petition, said she would look into the matter and work out new regulations for the services. Nissakorn said she would cooperate with the Social Development and Human Security Ministry to solve the problems surrounding phone-chat lines.
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