I’ll be upfront about my views on RIM and their BlackBerry platform: it’s woefully outdated and heading down the dangerous path of extinction. But if we’re going to criticze RIM’s failures and shortcomings, let’s actually do so to things which are legitimately their own problems — not this developing “story” (via: The Telegraph) about an alleged pornography problem on BlackBerry phones.

News flash: Any smartphone can pull up a bajillion (scientific number) different porn sites. Parental controls are great and all, but let’s be honest with ourselves. Most kids who’ve grown up with cellphones and smartphones already know how to get around such things.

As for claims that RIM’s specialized network, which uses their own servers to handle BlackBerry services contributing to the problem, we call BS. While the normal method of using NOC filters in the UK wasn’t specifically used by RIM to protect kiddies from the naughties of the web, RIM did provide tools/services for UK cellular carriers to make use of. The only problem: Only T-Mobile UK actually made use of said tools.

So why is Ofcom calling out RIM? Beats me. But “protecting children” isn’t the first/sole motivation. That is, unless there’s more to this story that hasn’t been revealed yet.

All that said, we have a hard time believing that presiding members of government and Ofcom are really incompetent enough to believe BlackBerries are the only devices which can be exploited by youngsters to view naughty bits — oh wait…no we’re not. Hopefully RIM can talk some common sense into Ofcom and the local cellular carriers, and maybe even convince them to use the tools they’ve already provided to deal with such problems. Stay tuned.