Porn on my son's cell phone?

The cell phone, which already plays music, sends and receives e-mail and takes pictures, isadding a steamier offering: pornography.

With the advent of advanced cellular networks that deliver full-motion video from the Internet

—— and the latest phones featuring large, bright color screens —— the pornography industry is

eyeing the cell phone, like the videocassette recorder before it, as a lucrative target.

In recent months, that prospect has produced a cadre of entrepreneurs in the United States hoping

to follow the lead of counterparts in Europe, where consumers already spend tens of millions of

dollars a year on phone-based pornography.

The major American cellular carriers have so far refused to sell pornography from the same

content menus on which they sell ring tones and video games. But there are signs they may soften

their stance. The industry's trade group is drafting ratings for mobile content like those for

movies or video games, signaling that phones will be a subject of viewer discretion.

Roger Entner, a wireless industry analyst for Ovum, a market research firm, said the emergence

of content ratings, coupled with easier use of the Internet on phones, made it inevitable that

phone-based pornography would become a fixture.

"It has every component that has proven conducive to the consumption of adult entertainment

—— privacy, easy access, and, on top of it, mobility," he said.

For the carriers, it is a tricky proposition. Offering pornography would stir a tempest over

indecency and possible pressure from regulators or Congress. But conceding the field to third

parties, able to reach consumers through Web browsers in phones, would leave millions of

dollars on the table.

Sales of pornography over mobile phones in this country now amount to virtually nothing. But

the Yankee Group, a research firm, estimates that by 2009 sales of pornography for phones will

hit $196 million.

The likelihood that pornography will be accessible by phone has children's advocacy groups

mobilizing. This month, the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families,

which seeks to promote "biblical morality," met with leaders of the wireless industry to voice

concern that phones could provide minors with all-too-easy access to inappropriate material.

The Federal Communications Commission has its own concerns, said David Fiske, a spokesman.

"The commission takes very seriously the issue of inappropriate material reaching cell phones

that are in the hands of children," he said.