Porn on your phone gets a bit easier

Porn freaks can rest easy – mobile pornography is ready to take off in the US. Cingular Wireless has, amidst little fanfare, launched filtering devices and password enabled blockers for adult content. This step, which will limit underage viewing of adult content, is a likely first step to the easily availability of mobile adult content. Cingular’s move followed the issuing by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) of content rating standards.

Worldwide sales of mobile pornography will reach $1 billion this year, but only $30 million of that will be in the U.S., largely because access is difficult. The large carriers haven’t wanted to be viewed as pornography dealers, but they won’t want to miss out on the huge potential for profits. By setting up suitable controls to limit unsuitable viewing, they can license adult content and enjoy huge licensing profits.

By setting up parental controls, Cingular and other carriers can legitimately argue that they are transferring the responsibility for monitoring children’s downloads to parents while offering other users services that are in demand. In the end, though, it comes down to one thing. All carriers are starved for any source of new revenue and this has the potential to be extremely profitable.