London, 15 May 2008 - Baker & McKenzie has advised a collaboration of 14 leading mobile network operators, mobile content providers, social networking companies and internet providers on the launch of an exciting new project - TeachToday.

TeachToday (http://teachtoday.eu/) is designed to help teachers encourage children to use the Internet and mobile technology responsibly and safely and was officially launched by Commissioner Viviane Reding in Brussels on 23 April 2008. Currently available in English, Czech, French, German, Italian and Spanish (with more languages to follow), TeachToday provides teachers across Europe with a wealth of information and services including lesson plans, case studies, reporting procedures, and outline policies, designed to keep them abreast of the changes and trends in communication technology.

This collaboration is the first time that the ICT industry has seen such widespread cooperation amongst major players. The collaboration included AOL, Bebo, Buongiorno, Facebook, Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile, Google, GSMA, Microsoft, MySpace, Telefonica/O2, Orange/France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Vodafone and Yahoo! in cooperation with European Schoolnet.

Baker & McKenzie TMT Partner Steve Holmes and senior associate Ben Allgrove advised on the contract which allowed this initiative to happen.

Steve Holmes said, "We have found that our clients in the digital media space have been increasingly focussed on issues relating to child protection, particularly with the recently released Byron Report and the Home Office Task Force's 'Good practice guidance for the providers of social networking and other user interactive services 2008'.  We were therefore very pleased to be asked to advise so many leading companies on this cutting edge contract, which we believe marks the first time such a large group of market-leaders in this field have worked together to address the complex issue of safely enabling children to take advantage of new technology."