Brussels, 23/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - By unanimously adopting the Ann Davison (United Kingdom, group of various activities) report, on the "action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks", the European Economic and Social Committee calls on the American courts not to impede European efforts aimed at protecting the citizens surfing on the Internet, especially as regards racist lies.
The Committee is sceptical bout the sufficiency of self-regulation on the Internet, noting that "it has not achieved content protection for children, because rating systems have not been adopted by a critical mass". The general legal obligation to ensure child protection on-line which is that of Internet service providers would also imply safety messages and systems to reduce paedophile approaches and child pornography on-line, the Committee stresses. It then recalls that, according to it, in its opinion on cybercrime (for which the rapporteur was also M. Davison: see EUROPE of 30 November 2001), it had called "for a much firmer approach to racism on the Internet", and observed that "ninety percent on the site operate through American servers, safe in the knowledge that the EU authorities cannot compel US providers to reveal the identity of the site provider". …/..
It then adds: "content providers should always register real world addresses so that police access to potential suspicious on-line material can be improved. While freedom of expression is to be valued, it should not be an excuse for allowing crime to flourish". "American justice must be told that it has to respect European provisions (Directive 2000/31/EC) on electronic commerce. American courts may not block our efforts at putting an end to on-line racism. We are not going to abandon our campaign to protect our citizens, and especially the more vulnerable, surfing on the Internet", said Ann Davison. You may recall that Ms. Davison had already raised the question of child protection surfing on the Internet, asking Commissioner Erkki Liikanen to improve the system of filtering on the Internet (see EUROPE of 26 April 2002).