O₂ joined forces with seven other companies from the sector in 2005 and reached agreement on the "   Code of conduct for youth protection in relation to mobile phones". This code represents our commitment to binding measures ensuring that children and young people are unable to access content that could put their development at risk. For example, the code defines rules for young people in relation to mobile use of chat rooms or downloading games and videos. The contracts between mobile phone providers and chat room providers have to be structured so that chat room providers respond immediately to problems and user inquiries. They also specify that illegal content should be deleted as soon as it is discovered.

The signatories - and hence O₂ - have made a commitment to continual development of the code of conduct in order to protect children and young people at all times against the rapid technical progress in the sector. Not least, the code of conduct defines the functions and rights of the youth protection officers appointed by the mobile phone providers. They are available as a contact to the customers and other parties with an interest in protecting young people. The officers are also consulted when new products and services are being developed and designed in the company. Discussions are also held with them on all decisions involving youth protection.

We formulated the "Voluntary commitment to protecting young people when using mobile phones" in 2007 in association with other mobile phone providers in a "Round Table" with the Ministry for Education, Science and Humanities, Youth and Culture of the state of the Rhineland Palatinate. The ministry represented the youth ministries of all the states at this conference. The voluntary commitment has been implemented since 2008 and the key elements are communicating with users about possible hazards, the promotion of media competence, and setting up a youth protection hotline free of charge. We also make a commitment to informing our customers about youth protection on a regular basis.

Since 2006, we have been a member of the Voluntary Self-regulation for Multimedia Services Providers (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter, FSM). The organisation was established in 1997 by the associations and companies operating in online business. We implement the "Code of conduct for protecting young people when using mobile phones" and the "Voluntary commitment to protecting young people when using mobile phones". We want to contribute to ongoing improvement in the level of youth protection for mobile phones and online services. Parents and teachers are able to find out about protection of young people when using the new media on the central website of the Voluntary Self-regulation for Multimedia Services Providers (www.jugend-und-handy.de).

In February 2008, the Global Trade Association for Mobile Operators (GSMA) launched an international alliance against child abuse. The association wants to combat the presentation of children being sexually abused on the Internet. Telefónica S.A. is a founder member. The objective of the initiative is to adopt technical measures to prevent access to specified websites. These need to be identified by the responsible agencies in advance. In the United Kingdom, Telefónica O₂ UK already blocks access to pages presenting child abuse. The aim is to extend this system to all countries where Telefónica is operating over the medium term. In 2009, there was an intensive debate in Germany within legal circles and the public domain about making access to sites promoting child pornography more difficult. Telefónica O₂ Germany engaged proactively in the task force set up by the Federal Ministry for Family, Pensioners, Women and Young People as well as taking part in the public debate. We support any solution that promotes the goal of effectively combating content of this nature. We want to develop processes designed to be able to remove relevant material from the servers quickly. The basic requirements for this are hotlines which can be used to report suspect Internet content.

In 2006, we signed the    code of conduct for value added services. The code defines guidelines for the provision of value added services by SMS, MMS or web-based services as a voluntary commitment. This initiative launched by the mobile phone sector is intended to ensure transparent prices and packages and to enhance confidence in mobile services. Providers of mobile telephony, services and content in the sector worked together to draw up the code. 28 companies have already signed it.

In September 2001, the companies in the sector reached an "Agreement on information exchange and participation of local authorities in the expansion of mobile phone networks" with the representatives of the local authority associations (known as the associations' agreement). We agreed concrete operations for cooperation on regional planning for mobile phone base stations that extend beyond the statutory requirements.

In December of 2001, we also signed a voluntary commitment with the federal government. The title of the agreement describes the issue at stake: "Measures to improve security and consumer and health protection, information and confidence-building measures in the expansion of mobile phone networks." As agreed in the voluntary commitment, we provide information every two years based on an independent expert report about the development of the measures defined in the commitment. The voluntary commitment was extended in June 2008 by all the signatories. The independent expert report we commissioned in 2009 will be submitted to the federal government in the second quarter of 2010. The expert reports prepared recently can be downloaded on the Internet site of the Information Centre for Mobile Telephony www.izmf.de.

The expert report analyses how we have fulfilled the four core issues of the voluntary commitment:

Communication and participation in site planning and decision-making,

Consumer protection and consumer information,

Research funding and

Monitoring centred on the focuses "Measurement of electromagnetic fields" (EMF Monitoring) and site database.

O₂ has complied with both voluntary commitments in expanding mobile phone networks in 2009. We consulted with the local authorities on network expansion and we informed consumers about SAR values for all mobile phones. Our customers can find information on the SAR values for all mobile phones in the shop and the online portal. Information on all transmitter stations in Germany can be found in the site database at the Federal Network Agency: www.emf.bundesnetzagentur.de. We supported research projects funded by the Federal Government with 83,334 euros. Comprehensive information on the projects we funded can be accessed on the Internet site www.emf-forschungsprogramm.de