Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2008)106 - Multiannual Community programme on protecting children using the internet and other communication technologies - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2008)106 - Multiannual Community programme on protecting children using the internet and other communication technologies. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2008)106  |
| date | 27-02-2008 |
From its beginnings as a communication tool mainly for experts and researchers, the Internet and other communication technologies (hereafter referred to as “online technologies” ) i are now used in homes, schools, businesses and public administrations in most parts of the world. It has been the defining force of the late 20th century and early 21st century.
In the period since the inception of the Safer Internet Action Plan i, both the technologies and related uses have changed considerably. There has been a strong increase in the accessibility of the technology, development of the tools and services has given rise to a variety of uses that are more extensive and diverse than what was foreseen at the time when the Action Plan was established, and children and young people are often the first to make use of the new opportunities. The emerging technologies and applications offer great opportunities for participation, creativity and expression to all members of society.
Children are active users of online technologies, and increasingly so. The possibilities for interactivity and participation in the online environment can improve the quality of life for many young people. However, this also means that they may have to make choices that they would not normally have to make, in many cases related to their own safety. Protecting children from harmful content and conduct online and curbing the distribution of illegal content is a continuing concern for policy- and law-makers, industry and end-users, particularly parents, carers and educators.
Although children and young people are expert users of online technologies and aware of both risks and ways of dealing with them, they are not all mature in the sense of being able to evaluate the situations that they encounter and the possible consequences their decision might have. At the same time they will seldom share their online-related experiences with their parents or carers and will only turn to them for help as a last resort. These factors are a challenge to the people responsible for keeping children safe.
Among the most serious risks to children related to online technologies are cases where children are harmed directly, as victims of sexual abuse, which is documented through photographs, films or audio files and then transmitted online (child abuse material); when contacted by people who will befriend them in order to commit sexual abuse (grooming); and when victims of bullying in the online environment (cyberbullying).
The European Union has been a forerunner in the protection of children online since 1996, and the successive Safer Internet programmes i have been a major feature of the Commission’s activity in this field. They constitute the only pan-European initiative addressing issues relating to child protection in the online environment and comprise several actions that have proved their effectiveness.
They have achieved the following:
- A European network of hotlines - reporting points where members of the public can report illegal content
- A European awareness-raising network and 'Safer Internet Day' co-ordinated by the network. Each year, an increasing number of countries have taken part in this in Europe and around the world
- Information for parents through independent testing of the effectiveness of filtering software
- Support for industry self-regulatory initiatives in the area of content rating and mobile phones
According to the final evaluation of the Safer Internet Action Plan, the European Union is now seen as a “pioneer which identified at an early stage the issue of illegal and harmful content on the Internet as a serious and important political question of a global dimension”[4].
The Commission also adopted a Communication on the implementation of the Safer Internet plus programme in the period 2005-2006.[5] In preparation for this proposal, an impact assessment process took place between April and July 2007, including an online public consultation and targeted consultations i.
They all confirmed that the actions carried out have been effective, while stressing the need to adapt them to new needs. In particular, child protection in the online environment continues to be a great concern, and the challenges are further aggravated by the emergence of new technologies and services, resulting in new uses and risks, notably for children.
The new programme will facilitate cooperation and exchange of experiences and best practice at all levels on issues relating to child safety online, and could further enhance this role and thus ensure European added value. The proposal takes full account of these ideas.
The new programme will not extend its scope to new subjects, such as health issues, network security and data protection, as they are already covered by other EU policy and funding initiatives. However, many of these ideas are included as part of the awareness message and by making appropriate references to the existing instruments.
Above all, the programme is designed to be able to take into account currently unknown future developments in the online environment and the resulting threats will become increasingly important in the years ahead. Being able to design appropriate actions for protecting children in the online environment will be essential during the period 2009-2013.
Contents
- 2. PROMOTING SAFER USE OF THE INTERNET AND OTHER COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
- 2.1. The legislative context
- 2.2. Links with other Community initiatives
- 2.3. Future developments
- 2.3.1. Evolving technological landscape
- 2.3.2. Increase in amount and seriousness of illegal content
- 2.4. Conclusion
- 3. A NEW PROGRAMME
- 3.1. Objectives and approach
- 3.2. Actions
- 3.2.1. Action 1: Reducing illegal content and tackling harmful conduct online
- 3.2.2. Action 2: Promoting a safer online environment
- 3.2.3. Action 3: Ensuring public awareness
- 3.2.4. Action 4: Establishing a knowledge base
- 3.2.5. International cooperation
- 4. LEGAL BASIS
The issues relating to child protection online are global and complex: everybody can generate content for everybody else to see and content can be accessed from all over the world; the production of child abuse material may take place in one country, the distribution may be hosted in a second, and the material may be downloaded from all over the world; and abusers have been known to travel over country borders to meet up with children for abuse after having met them online.
From a legal point of view an essential distinction has to be made between what is illegal on the one hand and harmful on the other, since they require different methods, strategies and tools.
What is considered to be illegal varies from country to country, is defined by the applicable national law and is dealt with by law enforcement and other government bodies. Despite many common features, there are significant differences of detail between the laws of Member States and of third countries where content may be produced or hosted.
Harmful content means content that parents, teachers and other adults consider to be harmful for children. Definitions of such content vary across countries and cultures, and can range from pornography and violence to racism, xenophobia, hate speech and music, self-mutilation, anorexia and suicide sites. Exposure to harmful content can cause psychological trauma to children and lead to physical harm if a child is motivated to inflict harm on other children or on him/herself. Member States differ in sensitivity (exposure of nudity, sexual activity, violence, etc.) and in how seriously the exposure of children to potentially harmful content is viewed. In some countries legal provisions exist restricting distribution of harmful content to adults only, but there are also noticeable differences in detail between the laws of Member States and of third countries.
A variety of means exist to deal with harmful content , all of which need to be used in combination in order to increase their effectiveness: enforcement of legal provisions, self-regulation, parental control tools, awareness-raising and education, to name but a few.
In both areas, the primary liability of content and service providers is still largely a matter of national law. However, certain Europe-wide standards have been established, clarifying legal issues through various recommendations and directives. The most relevant for the proposed programme are:
The Recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity in audiovisual and information services i (1998) makes recommendations and gives guidelines on protection of minors. This was followed by the Recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply i in 2006, which takes into account recent technological developments and the changing media landscape.
The Audiovisual Media Services Directive , adopted in December 2007. The Directive modernises the 'Television without Frontiers' Directive, and extends beyond television broadcasting to cover all 'audiovisual media services', and includes rules for the protection of minors.
The Council of Europe Convention on cyber crime i (2001) refers to “offences related to child pornography”. It aims to facilitate international cooperation in the detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crime and calls for a common basis for substantive and procedural law and for jurisdiction. It was followed by the Council of Europe Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (July 2007), which establishes forms of sexual abuse of children as criminal offences: sexual abuse, child prostitution, child abuse material, “grooming” of children for sexual purposes and “sex tourism”[10].
The EU Framework Decision on child pornography i (2004) sets out minimum requirements for Member States in the definition of offences and appropriate sanctions concerning the production, distribution, dissemination, transmission, making available as well as acquisition and possession of child abuse material.
The Commission’s Communication Towards a general policy on the fight against cyber crime i (2007) is aimed at strengthening operational law enforcement cooperation in the field of online child sexual abuse material, improving international cooperation.
The Commission’s Communication Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child i (2006) addresses internal and external policies on children’s rights in a coherent way, fully consistent with the already existing Community action plans and programmes. The EU 'Guidelines for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child' i (2007) serve as a framework for protecting the rights and integrity of children in third countries.
The implementation of the proposed programme will take into account actions launched under other programmes and initiatives, and build on and complement them so as to avoid duplication and maximise impact. These include:
- Prevention of and Fight against Crime
- Daphne III Programme
- Media Literacy
- Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (2007 to 2013).
The developments over the last few years have been difficult to anticipate, and it is equally difficult to predict future developments. However, some main trends emerge:
Technologies, communication networks, media, content, services and devices will increasingly undergo digital convergence . Devices and platforms are already “talking to one another”, content is becoming available in new, diverse formats and can increasingly be delivered independent of location or time, and personalised to individual citizens’ preferences or requirements. Improvements in networks, faster broadband, combined with new compression techniques, are creating new and faster distribution channels and triggering new content formats and services as well as new forms of communication.
Emerging new technologies encompass ever-increasing processing power and storage capacity of computers, broadband networks allow distribution of rich content requiring high bandwidth, such as video transmission, and the increased capacity of the latest “3G” generation of mobile phones allows distribution of video content and access to the Internet, as do certain game consoles.
Children are often the first to take up and use new technologies. The changes in the online environment will also mean new uses of the technologies, and as a consequence the risks to children and young people will change. The challenge is to understand these changes in time and to develop counterstrategies as new risks emerge.
At the same time, risks in the online and offline environment are converging , and although most children and young people are aware of potential risks and of precautions, they do not necessarily take the necessary precautions or act in the safest way when they communicate in the online environment. For example, the possible harm to children playing games (for instance concerning games of a violent or sexual nature) will be the same whether they are played online or on game consoles at home.
The amount of illegal material circulated online is increasing and the characteristics of the illegal material online are becoming more serious. In the UK, during the period 1997-2005, the number of sites with child abuse material increased by 1 500 percent i and there was a four-fold rise in material depicting the most severe abuse i. Domestically produced material is also replacing material for commercial use. In addition, the children being abused for the production of this material are getting younger, and the number of new children seen in this material is increasing.
The consequences for the children abused and depicted in the material are severe. Interpol’s Child Abuse Image Database contains 550 000 images of 20 000 individual children. Of these, only around 500 of these children have been identified and rescued in the time since the database was established in 2001 i.
2.3.3. Remaining “generation gap”
Children and young people are in the forefront of taking up new technological developments and opportunities. They are often expert users — they can be far more advanced than their parents and teachers — and will not ask them for advice or turn to them for help other than in the most serious of cases i. The gap is thus widening between children and young people’s use of online technologies and perception of risks, on the one hand, and adults’ understanding of their use, on the other. This poses a challenge for law-makers, authorities and industry in contributing to creating a safe online environment for children, as well as for raising awareness, in empowering children and young people to use the technologies in a safe way, and for empowering parents, teachers and carers to give appropriate guidance based on their own experiences.
There is a continued need for actions dealing with illegal content online, promoting a safer online environment and ensuring public awareness of the risks and precautions to be taken in the online environment – all of which are part of the existing Safer Internet plus programme. There is also a need for the scope of the programme to be extended a) so as to focus particularly on protecting vulnerable children in the online environment, in particular against 'grooming' (where a person befriends a child for sexual abuse) and cyberbullying, b) to provide all concerned with more knowledge of the ways children use new technologies.
The objective of the programme will be to promote safer use of the Internet and other communication technologies, particularly for children, and to fight against illegal content and harmful conduct online.
Compared to Safer Internet plus , the scope of the programme no longer includes action against unsolicited commercial electronic mail (spam), which raises issues for users irrespective of their age and is dealt with by other Commission actions.
To achieve this objective, the programme will focus on practical help for the end-user, particularly children, parents, carers and educators.
The programme will seek to involve and bring together the different stakeholders whose cooperation is essential, but who do not necessarily always come together unless the appropriate structures are put in place.
This includes content providers; Internet service providers; mobile network operators; regulators; standards bodies; industry self-regulatory bodies; national, regional and local authorities responsible for industry, education, consumer protection, families, law enforcement, children’s rights and child welfare; and non-governmental organisations active in consumer protection, families, children’s rights and child welfare.
This Decision respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles reflected in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in particular Articles 7, 8 and 24. It is specifically aimed at safeguarding the physical and mental integrity of children and young persons in agreement with Article 3 of the Charter.
The programme will have four actions: reducing illegal content and tackling harmful conduct online; promoting a safer online environment; ensuring public awareness; and establishing a knowledge base.
This action was already the first action of Safer Internet plus . Its scope is extended to include grooming and cyber-bullying.
The activities are aimed at reducing the amount of illegal content circulated online and dealing adequately with harmful conduct online, with particular focus on online distribution of child sexual abuse material, grooming and bullying. It is proposed that funding be provided for contact points which facilitate the reporting of online illegal content and harmful conduct. These contact points should liaise closely with other actions at national level, such as self-regulation or awareness-raising and cooperate at European level to address cross-border issues and exchange best practice.
Further activities will be aimed at stimulating the development and application of technical solutions for dealing with illegal content and harmful content online, and at promoting cooperation and exchange of best practice among a wide range of stakeholders at European and international level.
Different mechanisms and different expertise may be required to deal with harmful online conduct such as bullying and grooming. The programme will aim to tackle psychological, sociological and technical issues related to these issues, and will aim to stimulate cooperation between stakeholders. Actions relating to these issues might also be integrated into the other actions.
This action combines two of the actions of Safer Internet plus, one aimed at providing parents with tools (user empowerment) and the other at encouraging self-regulation.
The activities will aim to bring together stakeholders to find ways to promote a safer online environment and to protect children from content and conduct that may be harmful for them. It will encompass stimulation of stakeholders to take responsibility, and cooperation and exchange of experience and best practice between stakeholders at European and international level; it will encourage the development and implementation of systems of self-regulation and will aim to equip users with instruments and applications adequately supporting them in dealing with harmful content.
A new element is that a specific focus will be given to stimulating the involvement of children and young people, with the aim of better understanding their views on and experiences with using online technologies and benefiting from their contributions when designing awareness actions, tools, materials and policies.
The activities will be aimed at increasing the awareness of the public, in particular children, parents, carers and educators, about opportunities and risks related to the use of online technologies and means of staying safe online.
Actions will be taken to promote public awareness by providing adequate information about possibilities, risks and ways to deal with them in a coordinated way across Europe and by providing contact points where parents and children can receive answers to questions about how to stay safe online. Activities will encourage cost-effective means of distributing awareness information to a large number of users.
This action was already a major element of Safer Internet plus . On the basis of lessons learned, additional efforts will be made to encourage delivery of the awareness message to children through the channel of schools.
Specific attention will be given to the development and/or identification of effective awareness-raising instruments, methods and tools which, in cost-efficient way, can be replicated throughout the network. Actions will also aim to ensure exchange of best practices and cross-border cooperation at European level.
This action is new, although some activities which were carried out under Safer Internet plus (Eurobarometer survey, EU Kids Online thematic network) already contributed to the knowledge base.
Changes in the online environment and new trends in the use of the technologies happen fast. There is a need to create and build up a knowledge base for adequately addressing both existing and emerging uses, risks and consequences, and mapping both quantitative and qualitative aspects in this context. The acquired knowledge will feed into the implementation of the programme as well as into designing adequate actions for ensuring online safety for all users.
Actions will be aimed at coordinating investigation activities in relevant fields within and outside the EU and developing knowledge concerning the (evolving) ways children use online technologies, associated risks and the possible harmful effects the use of online technologies can have on them, including technical, psychological and sociological issues. The studies under this action can also concern awareness-raising methods and tools, assessment of co- and self-regulatory schemes, different technical and non-technical solutions, as well as other relevant emerging fields.
The above actions will not include research activities, which can be carried out under the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (2007 to 2013). The latter provides an area on youth related changes in lifestyles and consumption; this would allow research to be carried out in the field of internet safety for children i.
International cooperation will be encouraged as an integral part of each of the actions, according to the priorities to be laid down.
The legal basis will be Article 153 of the EC Treaty, on consumer protection, which was the legal basis agreed by the European Parliament and the Council for the original Safer Internet Action Plan in 1999 i, for the two-year extension of the Action Plan in 2003 i and for the Safer Internet plus programme i.