CEOs and senior board members from the world's digital, media and tech companies (IP/11/1485)
have met in Brussels to report directly to Commission Vice President
Neelie Kroes on how they are making the internet a better, and safer,
place for kids, through the work of the CEO Coalition set up by the
Vice-President at the end of 2011.
Children now go online at very
young ages, and the CEO Coalition has been working on: strong, simple
reporting tools for users who experience problems; a choice of
age-appropriate privacy setting; wider use of content classification so
users and their parents know what to expect while surfing online; wider
availability and use of parental controls; and more effective takedown
systems for child sexual abuse material.
Neelie Kroes said: "The Coalition
has delivered great concrete results on five items, but we cannot stop
here. Children start using the internet from the age of seven, on
average, and the age is getting lower each year. They need quality
content online, and skills and tools for using the Internet safely.
Parents need support. And we are all better off if companies play a
leading role in this effort."
Speaking in the meeting yesterday,
CEOs repeated the message that when children's issues are concerned, it
is co-operation and not competition that counts. They set out a number
of areas for further collaboration:
- Sharing all their educational material via an online platform so that material produced by one company can be reused, free-of-charge, by any other organisation throughout the EU
- Developing a common branding or logo for initiatives across Europe, to scale up efforts and maximise awareness
- Involving the hundreds of thousands of people who work for Coalition companies in education and outreach to children. This includes through encouraging staff to talk about how to be safe online in their children's schools.
- Working together to raise awareness amongst parents
- Broadening best practices beyond the Coalition, to join forces across the whole Internet
See annex and dedicated YouTube channel for examples and video statements from CEOs and senior executives from the Coalition member companies.
This builds on the concrete
results delivered by the Coalition during their work in 2012, and being
implemented through 2013 and beyond. For example,
- All 31 Coalition members now provide parental control tools and/or age appropriate settings
- A Europe-wide database of age-appropriate privacy settings has been established, acting as a one-stop shop for parents, educators and young people themselves.
- The coalition process has sped up development of measures and significantly increased levels of awareness of online safety for children
- Pilot on UGC-rating (user generated content), in cooperation with ratings bodies
- Faster development and implementation of reporting tools.
- Greater cooperation between companies to learn from each other
- Creation of a technical task force on interoperability, to make online classification labels available across national borders in Europe and beyond and to develop more innovative f user information tools and filter software in generalThe full impact of their activities will be seen in Coalition members' products and services by the end of the year
Background
31 members of the CEO coalition
including Apple, BSkyB, BT, Dailymotion, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook,
France Telecom - Orange, Google, Hyves, KPN, Liberty Global, LG
Electronics, Mediaset, Microsoft, Netlog, Nintendo, Nokia, Opera
Software, Research In Motion, RTL Group, Samsung, Skyrock, Stardoll,
Sulake, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Telecom Italia, Telenor Group, Tuenti,
Vivendi and Vodafone.
The commitment was formalised in a statement of purpose and work programme. Here is an earlier report on progress in implementing these actions.
Commission-industry
self-regulatory initiatives such as these are part of the European
Commission's wider work to deliver a better internet for children. May
2012 the Commission unveiled a strategy to give children the digital
skills and tools they need to fully and safely benefit from being
online. It also aims to unlock the potential of the market for
interactive, creative and educational online content. (See IP/12/445)
Today, children in Europe start
using the Internet on average when they are 7 years old. One in three
goes online via mobile phones, game consoles or other mobile devices. 4
in 10 children report having encountered risks online such as
cyber-bullying, being exposed to user-generated content promoting
anorexia or self-harm or misuse of their personal data. At
the same time, many young children say there are not enough good things
for them to do online. They need the skills and tools for using the
Internet safely and responsibly.
Annex CEO statements
CEO statements here: http://www.youtube.com/user/BetterInternet4Kids
Apple:
"For many years, Apple has
implemented industry-leading, innovative settings and controls that
enable parents to protect their children while using Apple products and
we will continue to innovate in this area."
Fedele Confalonieri, Mediaset Chairman:
"The internet is a fantastic new
platform for audiovisual content delivery which, at present, can
sometimes be perceived as a dimly lit place. As a professional media
outlet, Mediaset intends to be a bit of a beacon in order to guide its
users, and above all parents and children, in a safe online environment
that both families and advertising clients can trust."
Manuel Kohnstamm, SVP and Chief Policy Officer of international cable company Liberty Global:
"We wholeheartedly support
Vice-President Kroes’ initiative to create a safer internet for
children. We believe that the best way to protect younger users online
is to educate and empower them. For this purpose we’ve helped develop
information and tools they need to safeguard themselves and manage their
online reputation in the future. We continue to be committed to
creating a safer environment for children in the online world.”
Christine Albanel Senior Executive Vice President, Orange
"The protection of children online
is of great importance to Orange. As a committed contributor to both
European Commission and industry initiatives, we look forward to
launching new concrete tools for children, parents and carers that help
protect children online, says."
Elliot Schrage, Vice President Communications and Public Policy at Facebook.
At Facebook,
we want to give everyone the chance to share and connect wit2h the
people and things they care about. When all of us can connect with our
friends, families and communities, that’s when amazing things happen.
And to keep on achieving all the benefits of being connected, we
need to make the Internet a safe, secure environment for everyone –
especially young people. That’s why Facebook is proud to be a founding
member of Vice-President Kroes’ CEO Coalition to “Make the Internet a
Better Place for Children.”
BskyB
Sky has long recognised the trust
our customers place in us to make it as easy as possible for them to
protect children onscreen and online. That’s why we enable parents to
restrict access to content and channels on the Sky set-top box using
secure PIN controls, and why we offer all of our broadband customers
free parental control software to install on their PCs and laptops.
Since joining the CEO Coalition, I am pleased to report that we have
been able go much further by improving awareness of our online parental
controls and now all new Sky Broadband customers have an automatic
choice to install parental controls when they sign up, and we make it
easy for them by making ‘yes’ the default option. Later this year we
will launch a new parental control product which will offer protection
across all the devices in our customers’ homes that connect to the
internet. We have also introduced default filtering of content
inappropriate for children in Sky’s out of home WiFi service, which is
used by millions of people to connect to the internet at thousands of
hotspots across Britain’s High Streets.
KPN
To make the Internet a better
place for children we have, in a Coalition organized and chaired by
Vice-President Kroes, demonstrated the importance and strength of
sharing information and experiences, focused on the points of action set
by the Coalition. The creative and active use of Internet by Children
is a vital one. KPN has promoted positive use of the Internet by its
MyBee browser specially designed for children. The active role and
stimulus of the Commission is important as constant reminder that this
topic needs attention from public and private organisations in
coordinated actions.
Marion Schick, Member of the Board of Management, Deutsche Telekom
"With Deutsche Telekom’s tangible
and comprehensive approach for child online safety we are taking over
leadership and establish a benchmark in the sector." Tuenti
TUENTI ddefinitely
believe that privacy, security and trust of minors are the key elements
that should guide every social network, and we believe that together we
can make it happen.
TUENTI
has been always at the vanguard of privacy maintaining its commitment
and responsibility to respect and protect minors' privacy by making very
big efforts through implementing innovative measures and social
reporting tools.
Useful links
The Clikkkers and keeping safe online
