§ Mrs. LaitTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what protection parents have from the excessive use of premium rate phone calls by children responding to magazine competitions.
§ Mr. LeighThe Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services—ICSTIS—recognises that children are a vulnerable audience for premium rate telephone services and are not responsible for paying for them. The ICSTIS code of practice therefore contains a number of measures which help to protect children and their parents. No children's service may exceed seven and half minutes in length and all children's services must terminate automatically. Promotional material must feature a clear and prominent statement giving the maximum cost of the call and stressing that the service should only be used with the permission of the bill payer. In addition, any children's