Brussels, 02/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission set out a strategy on Wednesday 2 May to make the internet safer for children. The self-regulation-based strategy will be implemented through coordinated action by member states, the industry and the Commission. The Commission will intervene only where necessary, however, if the preferred approach of self-regulation does not bring the desired results, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes made clear. She said that children need to be treated as a specific group of users, with their own specific needs: “Kids need simple, transparent and consistent internet tools, and the knowledge and skills to use them”. Restating the Commission's aim of getting everyone, without exception, connected, Kroes went on: “Our initiative brings every type of player together so that children get more of the quality content, services and protection they need to enjoy a positive experience online”. She will work with Commissioners Viviane Reding (Justice) and Cecilia Malmström (Home Affairs) to roll-out the strategy.
Member states each have their different approach to child protection on the internet, making it difficult for businesses to market child-friendly services and products EU-wide. To overcome these hurdles, the Commission has outlined a range of measures, which will be implemented in different ways which should lead to flexible and fast solutions in this field. Success is by no means guaranteed, however, without the full cooperation of stakeholders, in similar fashion to the coalition set up voluntarily by 28 technological companies in December 2011 with the aim of better adapting the internet to children's needs and making it safer for them to use. These companies agreed to initiatives making it easier to flag up harmful content, ensuring that confidentiality settings were age-appropriate and giving parents more options in terms of controls, taking account of the needs of young people who are using the internet at ever younger ages (see EUROPE 10507).
The strategy proposed by the Commission is grouped around four main goals:
1) to stimulate the production of creative and educational online content for children and develop platforms which give access to age-appropriate content;
2) to scale up awareness raising and teaching of online safety in all EU schools to develop children's digital and media literacy and self-responsibility online;
3) to create a safe environment for children where parents and children are given the tools necessary for ensuring their protection online - such as easy-to-use mechanisms to report harmful content and conduct online, transparent default age-appropriate privacy settings or user-friendly parental controls;
4) to combat child sexual abuse material online by promoting research into, and use of, innovative technical solutions by police investigations. This will complement the 116 missing children hotlines and the European Cybercrime Centre's network of national cybercrime alert platforms which are due to become operational in January 2013.
Keeping children safe online is a key commitment of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Although the internet was not created for children, they are using it at an increasingly younger age. Seventy-five percent of children regularly use the internet and a third have internet access through smart phones, that is, with no parental control. The most recent figures reveal that four in ten children report having encountered risks online such as cyber-bullying, being exposed to user-generated content promoting anorexia or self-harm or misuse of their personal data. While, by 2015, it is expected that 90% of jobs across all sectors will require technology skills, only 25% of young people across the EU say they have “high” levels of basic internet skills (such as using the internet to make phone calls, create a web page, or use peer-to-peer file sharing). Paying attention to the demands of children will not only offer them better protection online, it will also help develop skills which will be useful at a later time, when they are looking to join the jobs market. (IL/transl.rt)