[Herald-Sun, June 27, 2007]
A Victorian woman says she is disgusted and humiliated after finding 135 files of hardcore pornography on her new mobile phone. Debbie Tozer bought a new Sony Ericsson W880i -- worth almost $1000 -- on a plan, from Crazy John's at Watergardens Shopping Centre in Taylors Lakes, Victoria, Australia. She was looking through the menus on the phone on Sunday night when she found made the sickening discovery.
"It was full of hardcore porn. I was in absolute shock and disbelief," Ms Tozer said. She said the material -- video files, the vast majority of which appeared to have been downloaded -- was extremely disturbing. "It's absolutely disgusting," Ms Tozer said. "It's hardcore porn, some of it with animals. I felt insulted and humiliated. We all know sex is a part of life, but this is sick." A spokesman for Crazy John's yesterday said the matter would be fully investigated.
Last year, a Herald Sun investigation found used mobile phones were being "rebirthed" and sold as new, with some customers finding photos, messages and videos left on phones by previous owners. But the spokesman for Crazy John's said this had not occurred with Ms Tozer's phone. "We do not sell second-hand phones. They come from the manufacturer as a sealed product and they are sold as a sealed product," he said.
However, the spokesman said this was not the first time a mobile phone had been found to contain unauthorised content. "This is an industry issue. This is not the first time we have seen this," he said.
He said the phone would need to be examined to find where the videos had come from.
Ms Tozer said the pornography was saved to the phone, and not its memory card. A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson could not be contacted yesterday. Ms Tozer said the phone style would appeal to teenagers, and that the pornography could easily have ended up in the hands of children. "What if I had bought this for my daughter?"
Ms Tozer said she was also angry that her new phone -- worth around $1000 -- appeared to have been used. Two of the files on the phone were not pornographic and appeared to be private videos shot by a previous phone user. The spokesman for Crazy John's said she would be offered a replacement phone.
HARDCORE PORN FOUND ON A BRAND NEW CELL PHONE
