Decision 2008/1351 - Decision 1351/2008/EC establishing a multiannual Community programme on protecting children using the Internet and other communication technologies - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 348/118

The use of the Internet and other communication technologies such as mobile phones continues to grow considerably in the European Union and offers all citizens great opportunities for, inter alia, participation, interactivity and creativity. However, risks to children and abuse of these technologies continue to exist and, as a result of changing technologies and societal behaviours, new risks and abuses continue to emerge. Measures should be adopted at EU level in order to protect the physical, mental and moral integrity of children, which might be impaired by their accessing inappropriate content. Moreover, in order to encourage citizens to exploit the opportunities and enjoy the positive benefits offered by the Internet and other communication technologies, measures promoting their safer use are also needed.

The Commission Communication ‘i2010 — A European Information Society for growth and employment’ (COM(2005)0229), developing the Lisbon strategy, seeks to ensure coherence across the Commission's information society and media policies in order to reinforce the significant contribution of information and communication technologies to the performance of the economies of Member States. One of its objectives is the creation of a Single European Information Space offering affordable and secure high bandwidth communications, rich and diverse content, and digital services.

The Community legislative framework addressing the challenges of digital content in the Information Society includes provisions on the protection of minors (3), the protection of privacy (4) and the liability of intermediary service providers (5). Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA of 22 December 2003 on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (6) sets out minimum requirements for Member States in the definition of offences and appropriate penalties. Recommendation 2006/952/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and on-line information services industry (7) builds on Council Recommendation 98/560/EC of 24 September 1998 on the development of the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and information services industry by promoting national frameworks aimed at achieving a comparable and effective level of protection of minors and human dignity (8), by setting out guidelines for the development of national self-regulation, and extending its scope to include media literacy, cooperation and the sharing of experience and best practices between regulatory, self-regulatory, and co-regulatory bodies and measures to combat discrimination in all media.

There will be a continued need for action in the areas of content potentially harmful to children, particularly pornographic material, and of illegal content, particularly child abuse material. Likewise, action continues to be necessary to prevent children becoming victims of harmful and illegal conduct leading to physical and psychological...