Telemarketers
will be stripped of their business licenses from Monday if they send
advertising messages to mobile phones without the recipient's consent.
The S. Korean Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced
new measures on Wednesday whereby information providers must get prior
consent from subscribers before sending advertising messages.
In a bid to protect the privacy of mobile phone users, ``spam'' messages,
unsolicited advertising, will not be allowed to be sent after 9 p.m., even
after senders get consent from subscribers.
The MIC predicted that the new measures would reduce spam by 70 percent.
The MIC will also launch a new monitoring system to censure obscene
messages by tracing unauthorized information providers through an automatic
recording system.
Prior to the new measures, the telemarketing sector has been
self-regulated, leading to complaints of the adult content of some messages.
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