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DN: IP/03/774 Date: 28/05/2003
TXT: FR EN DE
PDF: FR EN DE
DOC: FR EN DE
IP/03/774
Brussels, 28 May 2003
EU moves against illegal and harmful content online
As part of Europe's determined effort to tackle illegal and harmful
content on the Internet and new delivery platforms such as mobile
phones, a two year extension to the Safer Internet Action Plan has
been adopted by the European Parliament and Council upon the proposal
of the European Commission.
To better equip parents and children with the tools and awareness
they need for daily life in an Information Society, the EU Council
has agreed with the European Parliament to accept the Commission's
proposal for a two-year extension to the Safer Internet Action Plan.
This is the EU's response to tackling the controversial issue of
illegal and harmful content on the Internet. The Action plan supports
a network of hotlines in Europe where illegal content can be
reported. It encourages self-regulation; benchmarks content filtering
and rating systems and supports a European network of safer internet
awareness centres.
Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and the
Information Society, said: "It is important that everyone, including
parents understand the Internet, and in particular the way their
children can use it. The extension of our Internet Action Plan is an
important step in this direction."
The extended Safer Internet Action Plan includes measures to
encourage exchange of information and co-ordination with the relevant
actors at national level, and has special provisions for accession
countries. Actors in the field of self-regulation are brought
together through a forum - the Safer Internet Forum - modelled on the
EU cyber-crime forum. The extended action plan covers many different
types of illegal content or conduct including racist material, and
takes account of new online technologies such as mobile and broadband
content, online games, peer-to-peer file transfer and all forms of
real-time communications such as chat rooms and instant messages. The
networks of hotlines and awareness nodes continue to be key
instruments of the programme, alongside the benchmarking of filtering
software.
First calls for proposals under the Safer Internet Action Plan (€13.3
million.) will be launched in July 2003.
Further information
http://europa.eu.int/iap
http://www.saferinternet.org
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