EU telecoms ministers promise safer Internet

EU telecommunications ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels a new multi-annual programme to promote safer use of the Internet and new online technologies.

The Safer Internet Plus programme, which aims to empower parents and teachers with internet safety tools, will have a budget of EUR 45 million over four years to combat illegal and harmful internet content. The new programme also covers other media, such as videos, and explicitly addresses the fight against racism, and also 'spam'.

A new EU-wide Eurobarometer survey on Internet use shows that the more parents know about the Internet, the more they want information on how to make it safe for their children. The survey reports that many parents are still not aware of the risks that their children encounter when surfing the Internet, and that almost 60 per cent of Europe's parents do not know where to report illegal and harmful content.

Internet use among children is highest in the 15 'old' EU Member States, but several new Member States are not far behind: Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK (64% each), Sweden (63%), Finland (62%), Estonia (60%), the Czech Republic (58%). Internet usage among children is very rare in the two Greek-speaking countries (Greece: 15%, Cyprus: 20%), as well as in Slovakia (30%) and Portugal (31%).

Activities under the four 'Safer Internet plus' action lines will include:

• Fighting illegal content: hotlines that enable the public to report illegal content and which pass the reports on to the appropriate body for action. The programme will fund individual hotlines and network co-ordination, and will be extended to helplines for children worried by illegal and harmful content.
• Tackling unwanted and harmful content: funding for technology that enables users to limit the amount of unwanted and harmful content they receive, or that can be used to test the effectiveness of available filters.

Funding will also be available to develop better filters and promote exchanges of information and best practice on anti-spam enforcement. Better anti-spam enforcement is seen by the Commission as complementary measure to the existing 'ban on spam' in the EU's ePrivacy Directive.

• Promoting a safer environment: the EU supports self-regulation, which offers flexibility and understanding of needs in an area combining high technology, rapid change and cross-border activity. The Commission will provide a Safer Internet Forum for national co-regulatory or self-regulatory bodies to exchange experience.
• Awareness-raising: the Commission will support information exchange on safer internet use, particularly for personalised, interactive and mobile applications.