Speaking on Monday, Mr Ahern said:
"To protect Irish children I think we need to go beyond the present degree of protection – we need a national register of 3G phones. A national register of picture phones has proven impractical by virtue of the fact that we already had millions of GSM handsets in existence when picture-phones became available. But 3G is different."
Details of the proposals are not yet available, but the Minister is determined to work with industry to have the so-called 3G Register in place prior to the rollout of the next generation phones, planned for later in the year.
The 3G Register was just one of a series of measures affecting the mobile phone industry announced on Monday. Mr Ahern also launched the first ever Irish Code of Practice for the responsible and secure use of mobile services, on behalf of the Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA).
The Code of Practice represents a common commitment by the mobile industry to a set of clear standards that the three mobile operators in Ireland – O2, Meteor and Vodafone – will adhere to. In the UK another Code of Practice, published in January, governs mobile operators.
Issues covered by the Irish Code include:
Parental control of minors' access to mobile services: Operators shall facilitate authorised access for parent/guardian to their minor's accounts;
Malicious or offensive person-to-person communications: Operators shall assist customers in reporting malicious communications in a prompt and responsible manner;
Spam: Operators shall maintain reporting lines for customers and shall report and co-ordinate with RegTel and the Data Protection Commission where necessary;
Internet access: Operators will adhere to the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) Code of Practice and will advise customers to report suspected cases of child pornography to www.hotline.ie; and
Premium rate services: Operators shall adhere to the RegTel Code of Practice.
On Monday the ICIA also published 'The Knowledge - A Parents' Guide to Mobile Phones', which is designed to inform parents of the range of mobile phone services to which their children may gain access. The ICIA then announced that Ireland's three mobile operators have agreed to conduct the world's first mobile content filtering trial.
This unique trial, said the ICIA, will test content filtering software on a mobile network over the summer months. It is likely that the results will be available in the autumn.