US 8,131,763 B2Granted

Age verification and content filtering systems and methods

AssigneeCellco Partnership

InventorsPaul Sharad Tuscano, Jesse Elliott Money

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Abstract

A system and method is provided for age verification and content filtering (AV/CF) on a wireless telecommunications system capable of providing enhanced products such as Internet, WAP, messaging, games, video, music, applications, etc. A profile controls content that is accessible by a user depending upon the user's age or restrictions placed on accessible content in accordance with content categories. Rating information is obtained from content providers and mapped to content categories or content is rated dynamically. User's requests for access may be recorded whether access is provided or denied and used to provide reports including reports to account holders responsible for the user's account. In some instances, attempts to access banned information may be reported to law enforcement officials.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A method of recording a user's access or attempted access of content over a wireless handset, comprising:

maintaining a plurality of predefined content categories, the plurality of predefined content categories including universal, youth, teen, age-restricted, and banned, each of the plurality of predefined content categories specifying and mapped to one or more user-permissible ratings in a plurality of content types to define the one or more user-permissible ratings for a particular age group, the plurality of content types including two or more of video, music, audio, ring-back tones, games, applications, messaging, and chat sites, wherein each of the one or more user-permissible ratings is specific to a particular one of the plurality of content types, wherein each of the plurality of predefined content categories is selectable, wherein selection of a particular one of the plurality of predefined content categories results in the user being permitted access to content with the one or more user-permissible ratings of the particular one of the plurality of predefined content categories;
receiving an indication of one of the plurality of predefined content categories to assign to the user, the indication comprising a single selection of the one of the plurality of predefined content categories;
assigning the indicated one of the plurality of predefined content categories to the user;
receiving from the user a request to access certain content;
determining a content category of the certain content by following a mapping of a rating of the certain content to a corresponding one of the plurality of predefined content categories;
determining whether the user is allowed to access the certain content based upon the mapping of the certain content to the corresponding one of the plurality of predefined content categories and the indicated one of the plurality of predefined content categories assigned to the user;
if the user is allowed to access said certain content, then providing the user with access to the certain content via the wireless handset, the wireless handset displaying the certain content to the user, and recording the user's access to the certain content;
and
if the user is not allowed access to the certain content, then denying the user access to the certain content on the wireless handset and recording the user's request to access certain content.

6 more elements

A method of accessing restricted content via a wireless handset, comprising:

receiving from a user of an account, wherein the account can be accessed by multiple users, wherein one of the multiple users of the account is an account holder, and wherein the account relates to accessing content via the wireless handset, the wireless handset displaying the content to one or more of the multiple users, an attempt to access restricted content via the wireless handset, the content being restricted based upon a rating of the restricted content mapped to one or more predefined content categories that at least one user of the multiple users of the account is restricted from accessing, the one or more predefined content categories including universal, youth, teen, age-restricted, and banned, where each of the one or more predefined content categories specifies and is mapped to one or more user-permissible ratings in a plurality of content types to define the one or more user-permissible ratings for a particular age group, the plurality of content types including two or more of video, music, audio, ring-back tones, games, applications, messaging, and chat sites, wherein each of the one or more user-permissible ratings is specific to a particular one of the plurality of content types, wherein each of the one or more predefined content categories is selectable, wherein selection of a particular one of the one or more predefined content categories results in the user being permitted access to content with the one or more user-permissible ratings of the particular one of the one or more predefined content categories, where each user of the account is assigned to one of the one or more predefined content categories by a single selection of the one of the one or more predefined content categories;
determining whether the user has an access code to access the restricted content;
determining whether the user is the account holder of the account if the user does not have the access code;
providing the user with the access code if the user is the account holder;
if the user is not the account holder, denying the user access to the restricted content on the wireless handset;
receiving from the user the access code;
determining whether the access code is valid;
if the access code is not valid, denying the user access to the restricted content on the wireless handset;
and
providing the user access to the restricted content via the wireless handset if the access code is valid.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.