Mobile content policy in Latvia

Mobile content service – any kind of services provided via the mobile telephone, transmitted as SMS, MMS, WAP, voice or any other ways of communication to the user of the mobile telephone, who is a client of the “Bite Latvija” or a user of a prepaid service.

Illegal mobile content service – a mobile content service, which provide the information forbidden by the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia, for example:

• Information containing pornography (including the information showing sexual relations with children (pedophilia), animals, sexual relations between persons of the same sex, one-man sex);
• Data beyond reality, which might damage dignity of a person;
• The information the purpose of which is to sneer at a person, a group of persons, to insult them, to defame, to damage the name of a legal person, to disdain, to encourage the hatred towards them or discriminate because of sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, beliefs, creed, opinion or other reasons;
• The information, which infringes the intellectual property rights of other persons, the privacy of a person, personal data protection and other rights protected by the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia;
• The information which fuels the military conflict, hatred towards any national, origin, disabled, racial, sexual orientation or any other type of a group;
• The information, which relates to criminal acts or any other violations of the law, discloses personal data of a minor, which is not hiding from the law and order institutions or the court, suspected of commitment of criminal acts or suffered from other violations of the law, and according to which it is possible to identify the personality of the minor;
• The information disclosing the data of the minor, which injured self or attempted to do that, committed suicide or attempted suicide, which makes it possible to identify the personality of the minor;
• The information which derogates dignity of the minor and (or) violates his/her interests by presenting the data about the minor;
• The information presenting opinions and judgments of the minors, as well as their photos or filmed media about them, abusing the trust and inexperience of the minors, in the background of negative social phenomena;
• Advertising forbidden by the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia;
• Other information forbidden by the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia.

Restrictive mobile content service – the service of mobile content, which provides the information restricted by the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia. The restrictive information is as follows:

• The information which has detrimental effect on the physical, psychical and moral development of the minors;
• The information pertaining to showing of physical and psychological violence and modeling of criminal acts; the information where killing, injuring or torturing of people or animals is showed in detail, as well as vandalism, positively treated violence, indulgence of violence or cruelty;
• The information, which positively treats criminal acts or idealize criminals;
• The information pertaining to erotic or sexual behavior of human beings, which encourages sexual desire, shows sexual intercourse, its simulation or any other sexual satisfaction, the private parts of human body, sex accessories, except for the cases when such information is attributed to pornography, which is forbidden;
• The information, which shows dead or injured people (except for the cases when this is necessary to identify the person);
• The information, which provokes fear and horror, promotes self injury or suicide;
• The information, where obscene sayings, words or gestures are used;
• The information positively treating addiction to narcotic, psychotropic substances, tobacco or alcohol, where the consumption, production, distribution or purchase of the mentioned is encouraged;
• Other information limited by the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia.

Mobile portals – the internet portals owned by the “Bite Latvija” - wap.biteplus.lv.

Mobile payment tools – all ways of mobile payments, provided by the “BITE” group for payments for the services via mobile telephone, for example, by an SMS, payment via wap or voice call.

In case of doubts how to qualify the service of mobile content, the Service provider shall contact independent experts according to their competences:

• Latvian Journalists and Publishers Ethics Commission;
• Journalists Ethics Inspector’s Service;
• Institution of the Controller for Protection of the Rights of the Child;
• National Personal Data Protection Inspectorate.

Resolution regarding the attribution of the service to the forbidden or limited mobile content service shall be adopted by the “Bite Latvija” based on the recommendations of the mentioned experts, but the recommendations are not mandatory and the “Bite Latvija” may decide at own discretion if the particular information might be disseminated.

The “Bite Latvija” under no circumstances participates in the distribution of services of illegal mobile content and does not provide any payment tools to the Service providers of the services of this type. Besides, the “Bite Latvija” does not publish in its portals any links or information on the services, the content of which is forbidden, provided by the Service providers.

The “Bite Latvija” does not provide any services of restrictive mobile content. Besides, the “Bite Latvija” does not publish in its portals any links or information on the services, the content of which is restrictive, provided by the Service providers.

The “Bite Latvija” provides payment tools for the Service providers, which offer the services of restrictive mobile content, in accordance with the order set forth by the laws, under condition that the Service provider properly controls the access to the restrictive mobile content service.

A Service provider, which use the “Bite” payment tools, performing the promotion activities of the services of the restrictive mobile content, shall follow the following requirements:

(A) The service provider on its Internet and wap pages must have an introductory page, where the users, in accordance with the order set forth by the laws, must verify their age and be warned regarding the content of the contained information. (B) The Service provider, when advertising its service in any kind of mass media or to other persons, shall not have the right to mention the “Bite Latvija” names and (or) show their brand marks, and also shall not mention that the services might be used by the clients of the “Bite Latvija” and etc. (C) The Service provider, when advertising its service in any kind of mass media or other persons, shall clearly specify that the advertised services are meant for a particular age group, and require the users to verify their age, in accordance with the order set forth by the legal acts.