Brussels 01/12/2011 (Agence Europe) -Twenty-eight international businesses in the technological and media sector created a “coalition”on Thursday 1 December to better adapt the internet to the needs of children and to make it safer, according to a press release issued by the European Commission, which is heading up the initiative. The companies involved, which include Apple, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Nintendo and Microsoft, will carry out “priority actions including making it easier to report harmful content, ensuring privacy settings are age-appropriate and offering wider options for parental control, reflecting the needs of the generation that is going online at an increasingly young age”, the Commission explained.
The companies which are members of the coalition adopted a statement of intention, pledging a range of actions: simple and robust reporting tools, easy-to-find and recognisable features on all devices “to enable effective reporting and responses to content and contacts that seem harmful to children”; age-appropriate privacy settings: settings which take account of the needs of different age groups (such settings determine how widely available the information pertaining to a user is, for example whether contact details or photos are accessible to the general public or only visible to close contacts); extending the use of content classification systems: to develop a generally valid approach to age-rating, which could be used across sectors and provide parents with understandable age categories; increase the availability and use of parental control or ensure that child pornography material is quickly taken down, by improving cooperation with the law enforcement authorities and emergency telephone lines, the Commission continues, which hopes that other companies will join the platform.
According to Commissioner Neelie Kroes, “the founding coalition members are already leaders in children's safety online. Working together, we will be setting the pace for the whole industry and have a great basis for fully empowering children online”, she stated in a press release.
In June of this year, the commissioner for the digital agenda voiced her disappointment at the results of the study on company behaviour regarding the protection of minors and privacy settings, when positive marks went to just a handful of sites, such as Myspace and Bebo, in an investigation into 14 social networking sites, including Facebook. Amongst other things, the Commission flagged up weaknesses in the fact that it is possible for 'non-friends' to have access to children's profiles. (SP/transl.fl)