EESC - European Economic and Social Committee - Section TEN - Information Society

Section TEN - Information Society - Events

Public Presentation on "Protecting children using the internet"

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
EESC / CoR building, Rue Belliard 99-101, Brussels

EESC wholeheartedly supports more active international co-operation to make the internet a safer place for children

Increased international co-operation and co-ordinated partnerships to make the internet a safer place for young people and especially children were vigorously and unanimously requested by a panel of 14 distinguished speakers, including two adolescents from Romania, at the public presentation on "Protecting children using the internet". This event was organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 5 May 2009 and brought together about 100 participants from across Europe.

Substantial progress has been achieved in protecting children from harmful content and conduct online, as well as in curbing the distribution of illegal content over the internet. This was one of the major points highlighted at this conference. Nevertheless, several challenges still need to be addressed at the political, regulatory and law enforcement level, as well as from the technological, business and social perspectives. A good example of international policy-making co-ordination is the on-going "Safer Internet" Programme, presented by Christine KORMANN (European Commission, DG Information Society & Media) which has entered its 2009-2013 period of implementation. Good examples at the international regulatory level are the Conventions on Cybercrime and on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation, presented by Christina SCHULMAN (Council of Europe, Economic Crime Division, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs). However, several member states have yet to ratify them and as pointed out by Madi SHARMA (EESC, Group I "Employers", UK), rapporteur of the opinion on "Protecting children using the Internet", "political will is now most urgent as is the ratification of the Convention by those countries who have not yet endorsed it. Europe needs to put its own house in order so that we can work as a true EU block".

From a technological perspective, tools to analyse online content and identify illegal material, as well as to track child exploitation and report abuse online are already available, such as those presented by Microsoft's Safer Internet Director EMEA, Jean-Christophe LE TOQUIN. From their side, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), represented at the Conference by Paul DURRANT (General Manager ISPA Ireland and Council Member of EuroISPA) are arguing that "blocking transmission of illegal material should be an action of last resort" and instead call for "strengthening international 'Notice & Taken Down' communication for the definitive removal of illegal material at its source". From a commercial point of view, it is also obvious that –a lot of- money is being made by circulating child abuse material online. As highlighted by Peter ROBBINS (CEO, Internet Watch Foundation), however, "the task of closing down such commercial websites is manageable, since the ones we have identified are about 1.500" and this is demonstrated also by the drop from 18% in 1997 to just 1% from 2003 onwards in the percentage of potentially illegal child sexual abuse content reportedly hosted in the UK. Moreover, payment organisations are increasingly becoming "part of the solution, calling for a clear 'zero tolerance' policy on child exploitation", underlined Mikael Conny SVENSSON (MasterCard representative on the European Financial Coalition (EFC) Steering Committee).

Important social dimensions were brought forward by Julia von WEILER (Director, Innocence in Danger e.V.) who highlighted "the victims' perspective, where more should be done in both knowledge development and training" and Janice RICHARDSON (Senior Advisor, European Schoolnet) whose recent research data show that "children spend about 1500 hours per year in front of a PC screen and just about 50 discussing serious topics with their parents". More dialogue, notably with young people themselves who are the ones most affected by the problem, is certainly needed. This was vividly demonstrated by the interactive discussion with Cosmin-Bogdan COMAN and Razvan-Alexandru ILINCA, the 18-year old Romanian Winners of this year's Data Protection Day Video Awards, who commented on the issues identified by young Austrian, Dutch, Slovak and Swedish people as the most burning ones in internet safety. Moreover, Soscha EULENBURG (EESC, Group III, Germany) proposed to "set up a European Best Practice Resource Centre focussing on Prevention Programmes against online sexual aggression, Counselling / therapy for online victims, Online Counselling and Hotlines".

In conclusion, in the words of Georges DASSIS (President of Group II "Employees" of the EESC) "children's abuse must be decisively fought in both the information society and the real one. The EESC confirms its commitment in making the internet a safer place for our children by promoting international co-operation in this field".

Programme

Presentations (pdf format)

Videos

Clip from the European Commission, DG Information Society & Media (format wmv - 2,9 MB)
Cosmin-Bogdan COMAN and Razvan-Alexandru ILINCA, the 18-year old Romanian Winners of this year's Data Protection Day Video Awards (format flv - 5,6 MB)

Audio

Listen to the presentations and debates in the original languages (English, French and German) (wma format - 28,4 MB)
Listen to the presentations and debates in English (wma format - 28,4 MB)
Listen to the presentations and debates in French (wma format - 28,4 MB)

Pictures gallery

For any additional information you may contact the TEN Section Secretariat (e-mail to: TEN or Georgios.Karageorgos).