What is Yahoo! Mobile?

Yahoo! Mobile is a site that makes it easy to access Yahoo! content and services on your mobile device. You can use Yahoo! Mobile on your phone to:

• Check email
• IM with friends
• Get updates from your social networking sites
• Upload photos to Flickr
• Check the sports scores
• Get maps and driving directions
• Find showtimes
• Get celebrity gossip, and do much more

Because you can even customize your Yahoo! Mobile experience to get your favorite content from across the Web superfast, Yahoo! Mobile adds ease and fun to your day.

Yahoo! Mobile Help tells more.

What are some potential risks on Yahoo! Mobile?

On a mobile device, communicating by voice, email, text, or instant messages has similar risks to those that are possible when you’re connected to the Internet on a computer. So make your personal safety on a mobile device a priority:

• Protect your personal info. In email, text messages, or instant messages, don’t give out personal information that could divulge your physical location to people who are not trusted friends or family. Guard your password, cell phone number, and Yahoo! ID fiercely. Be super careful about using your phone camera. Think twice before sending your photo, because it can be re-sent and used in ways you don’t want. For example, it could be widely circulated in text messaging or posted on a webpage that anyone with an Internet connection can access, including bullies and strangers.
• Control harassment. If a stranger gets your mobile phone number or Yahoo! ID, or if bullies use that information, you might be a target of nasty, sexually suggestive, or abusive language. Think carefully about whom you want to communicate with and whom to ignore. Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger let you block other people. If you get many unwanted text messages, read your phone’s manual or contact your mobile carrier about how to turn off text messaging temporarily. In an extreme situation, you may want to get a new mobile phone number.

If you receive abusive or harassing messages as comments that show up in Yahoo! Mobile but are hosted on third-party websites (such as Facebook or MySpace), it’s smart to go to that website’s abuse page for instructions on reporting abuse. Popular social networking sites like Facebook have their own safety features and abuse reporting procedures.

• Report mature content. If you are subjected to explicit photos, videos, text messages, or instant messages sent from someone else’s phone or through Yahoo! properties like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, or Flickr, use our customer care form to report abuse.
• Use trusted third-party applications. Download applications through Yahoo! Mobile only from third-party developers you trust. Read their privacy policies!
• Use SafeSearch. This Yahoo! Mobile filter feature greatly helps keep mature content out of your search results. But no filter is perfect, so we cannot guarantee it will filter all of it from search results.
• Use caution when texting. Be cautious about what you send by text message to your friends, such as sexy pictures or inappropriate messages. Never text or share any personal or location information with people you don’t know and really trust. That’s huge. If you are receiving hurtful or offensive messages, pictures, or videos through text messaging, tell a trusted adult and report it to your phone carrier.
• Choose the right payment. Using the Internet — email, instant messages, Web browsing, and similar activity — can get expensive. If you are accessing the Internet on a mobile device, sign up for an appropriate plan.

You have the power to limit these risks. Know the Yahoo! Mobile safety features below, and ask your family for help staying safer when using Yahoo! Mobile. And remember, everyone using Yahoo! Mobile must follow the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

What features and safety features will help protect me on Yahoo! Mobile?

Many of Yahoo!’s most popular services and sites like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and Yahoo! Local are available for your mobile device. Compared with the PC version, the mobile-device version will have a modified look and set of features but will work similarly. Yahoo!’s Web services vary by carrier and phone model. But here’s the spectrum of Yahoo! Mobile features:

• Safe Searching. It’s on by default in Yahoo! Mobile’s OneSearch. If you’re signed in and under the age of 18, SafeSearch can’t be turned off.
• Widgets. You can design a totally you mobile environment through the Yahoo! Mobile Widget Gallery. Add widgets that link to your favorite social networking sites, Flickr, sports, entertainment, and more.
• Yahoo! Messenger. Check out our simple tutorial about how to sign in and out, write and read instant messages, and set your availability status on a mobile device. Yahoo! Mobile Help explains how to hide the status messages that tell other people when you are using Yahoo! on a mobile device. It also explains how to turn on invisible mode to hide your online status, and how to manage settings, such as your list of people to ignore.
• Flickr. Flickr Mobile lets you conveniently manage and share digital photos simultaneously with your Web-based Flickr account. Flickr Mobile Help explains how to customize settings and manage photos and contacts. Read about Flickr’s online safety features.
• Yahoo! Image Search. You can search Yahoo!’s image database from a mobile phone (and turn on SafeSearch to limit exposure to explicit images). Read about Yahoo! Image Search’s online safety features.
• Yahoo! Local. Yahoo! Mobile Help explains how to work with a map, get driving directions, and even review and rate businesses. Read about Yahoo! Local online safety features.
• Yahoo! Mail. The simple tutorial tells how to read, reply to, write, and delete emails on a mobile phone. Yahoo! Mobile Help explains how to manage email and spam. Read about Yahoo! Mail’s online safety features.

What can I do to use Yahoo! Mobile safely?

Check out our general tips for online safety that relate to accessing the Internet on a mobile device, including safeguarding your identity, keeping passwords secret, being cautious about contact with strangers, and creating a family pledge for online safety.

Yahoo! is committed to providing a safer Internet experience for everyone, and it complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Yahoo! Mobile has safety features to limit your potential risks. But protecting all of us using mobile devices is a responsibility we share with parents, teachers, and other caregivers.

Communicate openly and frequently with your family about your online activity. Communicating is a good way to ensure your safety on the Internet. Consider reviewing your mobile phone bill, because the bill should list all calls made and received, and how much time you use the Internet on the phone.