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Recommendation 1882 (2009)
The promotion of Internet and online media services appropriate for minors
1. Twenty years
after the idea of setting up the World Wide Web was conceived at
the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva,
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recalls the
decision of the heads of state and government, taken at their 3rd
Summit in Warsaw in 2005, that the Council of Europe should pursue
work on children in the information society, in particular as regards developing
their media literacy skills and ensuring their protection against
harmful content.
2. The Internet has enhanced opportunities for information and
communication in an unprecedented way. The new technological dimension
in information and data exchanges does not alter the established
standards of freedom of expression and information, which also include
proportional legal restrictions necessary in a democratic society
for the protection of minors.
3. The Internet constitutes an increasingly important part of
our culture. It conveys almost all kinds of cultural items in a
faster and more efficient way than any other medium and has an impact
on society and its culture by reshaping relations and by introducing
new forms of communication, especially among minors. If we want
a strong cultural base, we should implement appropriate measures
for the use of the Internet by younger generations.
4. Children and adolescents are increasingly able to broaden
their social and cultural horizons beyond traditional geographic
boundaries, which may lead to greater international understanding
and co-operation among people. New communication technologies and
services provide new opportunities for informal and formal education,
creativity, social interaction and civic participation. These opportunities
should be used for the benefit of children and adolescents. Social
interaction online should not, however, substitute real life with so-called
virtual reality, the psychological and social impact of which is
yet unknown.
5. Certain content on the Internet can have negative effects
on children and adolescents. For example, content depicting women
and girls as objects, or limiting their depiction to nefarious gender
stereotypes, can lead in certain cases to gender-based violence
both in the virtual and the real world, including (cyber-)bullying, harassment,
rape, and can even lead to committing massacres in schools.
6. Minors often have access to Internet and mobile telephone
services without supervision by parents or teachers. Pictures and
sound can be transmitted and accessed easily. The availability of
child pornographic material is of utmost concern in this respect
and requires further action by states, as well as Internet service providers
and telecommunications industries.
7. A rapidly growing number of minors share parts of their private
life publicly on the Internet, while many firms offer information
on, and profiling of, individuals based on such private information.
Private life and intimate details thus enter the public domain for
an unforeseeable time. Individuals, commercial enterprises, universities,
employers and others are increasingly using the information available
on the Internet about individuals in order to predetermine their
contacts with them. States have the obligation, however, to protect privacy
under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
8. The continuing increase in advertising and business on the
Internet and online media leads to more aggressive commercial practices
which also target minors. With the global dimension of the Internet,
ethics and legal norms may differ drastically. It would be most
useful, therefore, to elaborate standards which are recognised Europe-wide
and possibly beyond.
9. Traditional media regulation prohibits or restricts media
content which is likely to impair the physical, mental or moral
development of children and adolescents. The Assembly emphasises
that parents can and should define for their children what they
consider harmful or not. School directors and librarians, for example, have
the obligation to restrict access to harmful content and services
at school or in libraries.
10. In order to handle the challenges of the Internet at home,
parents need the support of social institutions for families and
schools. The state has the responsibility to raise awareness, provide
guidance, including against gender stereotypes, and set up minimum
standards. These minimum standards should include access restrictions
to violent content, pornography, advertising for tobacco and alcoholic
products and gambling. Such access restrictions could be achieved
by filters employed by parents, teachers, librarians or others at
their access devices, as well as by providers of content or services
for minors.
11. Technical security is constantly increased with regard to
computer networks. Firewalls and individual security settings of
personal computers are refined in order to keep pace with the technical
progress of those seeking to bypass security systems. The Assembly
therefore believes that it will be helpful, especially with regard
to minors, to develop secure and restricted computer networks –
often referred to as Intranets, walled gardens or gated communities
– which are accessible to an identifiable group of users only, typically
require adherence to a code of conduct, fall under a clear set of
legal rules and the jurisdiction of a given country and filter content
harmful to minors. Technical security systems, however, cannot replace
widely accessible and adequate education.
12. The Assembly emphasises that anyone who produces or makes
available illegal content or services should be held liable by law.
Illegal content and behaviour online have unfortunately grown over
the past years and thus increased the risks for minors. This development
is aggravated by the steady growth in Internet use, the growing
amount of content produced by individual users instead of institutional
content providers, the rapid expansion of online social networks
– often referred to as Web 2.0 – and the technological progress
in transmitting and accessing audiovisual content. In contrast,
traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television have
a declining audience among children and adolescents, hence reducing
the effectiveness of traditional media policies for the protection
of minors.
13. The Assembly recalls the Council of Europe’s Convention on
Cybercrime (ETS No. 185) of 2001, which sets up the legal framework
for international co-operation against illegal behaviour and content
on the Internet and other computer networks. It regrets that this
convention has not been signed by Andorra, Monaco, Russia, San Marino
and Turkey, and not yet been ratified by Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium,
the Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
and the United Kingdom as well as Canada, Japan and the Republic
of South Africa, although these states have signed it.
14. The Assembly welcomes the European Union Safer Internet Programme
2009-2013, as well as voluntary initiatives for child safety by
the Internet and online media industry and civil society. Internet
hotlines, for example provided by members of the International Association
of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE), are a helpful tool for children and
parents to signal potentially harmful or illegal content and behaviour.
Internet content which may be harmful to minors can be rated voluntarily
by content providers in accordance with the standards set by the
Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), which subsequently allow
for parental filtering of adult websites, for instance.
15. The Assembly calls on member and observer states’ parliaments
to:
15.1. assess the technological
possibilities of increasing the safety of minors using the Internet
and online media services, including mobile audiovisual telecommunications,
in particular filtering devices and access restriction technologies;
15.2. initiate, together with the Internet industry and child
protection organisations, public awareness campaigns targeted at
the risks and opportunities for minors using Internet and online
media services as well as the technical opportunities to restrict
harmful content;
15.3. support the creation and marketing of services adequate
for children and adolescents, including restricted networks described
in paragraph 11 above, as well as free software for parental filtering
of content that parents deem to be potentially harmful to their
children;
15.4. promote, in co-operation with the Internet industry and
child protection, equal opportunities and other civil society organisations,
public quality standards and ratings of Internet and online media services
adequate for minors, and ensure that access to adult content is
effectively restricted by age-verification systems installed by
the providers of such content;
15.5. 5 encourage public or private educational institutions,
museums, orchestras and other cultural institutions, as well as
public service broadcasters, to provide Internet and online content
for children and adolescents, thus making European cultural heritage
more competitive and attractive for minors via the Internet and
online media;
15.6. ratify without delay the Convention on Cybercrime and
the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, concerning
the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through
computer systems (ETS No. 189), as well as the Council of Europe Convention
on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual
Abuse (CETS No. 201), if their governments have signed them.
16. The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers, in
accordance with the decision taken at the Warsaw Summit in 2005:
16.1. assist member states in the
implementation of this recommendation as well as the relevant Committee
of Ministers recommendations aiming at a safer use of the Internet
and online media, in particular by minors;
16.2. promote policies to make the Internet safer for children
at the level of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG)
and the United Nations Internet Governance Forum and provide general support
to EuroDIG, including secretariat support;
16.3. establish co-operation with the European Union Safer Internet
Programme and seek additional funding for Council of Europe action
through voluntary contributions by member states, as well as the private
sector;
16.4. instruct its competent steering committee to analyse the
potential psychological risks for children and adolescents using
the Internet and online media excessively, in particular social
online networks suggesting virtual reality such as Second Life,
sites containing nefarious gender stereotypes, as well as violent
online games and networks such as World of Warcraft, and to propose
appropriate action by the Council of Europe and member states;
16.5. call on those states that have not yet signed the Convention
on Cybercrime and its Additional Protocol to do so without delay,
and initiate an international campaign aimed at accession to the Convention
on Cybercrime also by states outside Europe, in order to cover better
the worldwide map of cyberspace and avoid geographical loopholes;
16.6. initiate work towards ensuring greater legal responsibility
of Internet service providers for illegal content, whether or not
this originates from third parties or users; this work may require
the drafting of a new additional protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime;
16.7. analyse the feasibility of drawing up legal standards
for the regulation of online gambling and other commercial online
activities, which may be harmful to minors and are typically restricted
by national legislation when provided offline.
17. The Assembly calls on member states to create a national institution
for the co-operation between the Internet and media industries,
civil society organisations and government in order to develop and
implement the regulation of Internet and online media services.
18. The Assembly invites the Standing Conference of European Ministers
of Education to define policy guidelines for teaching media literacy
to children, adolescents, parents and teachers with a focus on Internet and
online media services, in order to detect opportunities and risks
linked to such services.
19. The Assembly appeals to the online media industry to develop
and apply codes of conduct with regard to privacy protection, equal
opportunities, commercial activities targeted at minors and content
potentially harmful to them. Internet hotlines and other complaint
mechanisms against potentially illegal and harmful content or conduct
should be maintained by Internet service and content providers.
Commercial services provided in conformity with high ethical standards
and high safety protection for minors will be in growing demand
in an ever expanding Internet and online media market.