Brussels, 04/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission welcomes the new PEGI Online service launched last Friday by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE), which aims to protect young video game users. PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) is an improvement on the earlier service that has already proved its worth in recent years by providing detailed recommendations on the content of interactive games. The former system provided reliable and easy-to-understand information in the form of age group classification labels as well as a description of the content given on video game packaging, thus allowing a well-informed decision to be taken at purchase. Now, PEGI Online enhances the Safety Code which makes it an obligation to prohibit all illegal or shocking content that could be harmful for younger users, as well as any undesirable links, and to create barriers for the protection of minors and for protection of their personal data disclosed during on-line gaming. All on-line product providers that meet the Safety Code requirements receive a special logo granted by the PEGI Online administrator. The PEGI website has, moreover, been improved to give parents a clearer view of the multitude of on-line games available to their children. “This is a good example of an industry initiative developed in cooperation with other stakeholders which allows a rapid and flexible solution to the problems of new technologies and greater safety for our children”, stressed Viviane Reding, the information society commissioner. For the future, she wants the system to be more visible for parents to heighten their awareness of the interactive games used by their children, and also for retailers. According to Ms Reding, the main difficulty for actions such as PEGI is that a good balance must be struck between the obligation to ensure users have full freedom of choice in the use of the internet as stipulated in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (freedom of expression) and the fact that the objectives of the recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity, adopted in December last calling for action with regard to media education, must be met. The commissioner gave her assurance that she would be working this year in cooperation with Meglena Kuneva, the commissioner for consumer protection, to draft an assessment report on the recent developments made in the labelling of video games and ICT games since adoption of the resolution in 2002 (2002/952/EC). The report will be available at the end of the year and forwarded to the European Parliament and to the Council of Ministers. The Commission will also adopt a communication on media education during the last quarter in the aim of shedding light on the subject and to promote a series of best practices for labelling at European level. It will also suggest action to be taken. (il)