EU Action Plan on promoting safer use
of the Internet - the CISA project |
Consumers for Internet Safety Awareness (CISA)
The project ended 30 June 2002.
The Internet offers the opportunity to communicate with individuals and businesses
all over the world. This is exciting, educative and perilous for children. Both
they, and their parents, need to be educated that, besides seeing the advantages
of the Internet, they do need to take action for example to avoid paedophile
stalking.
Parents are often less net-aware
than their children. They need to be made aware of technical help in form of
software etc. to screen access to chat rooms, pornography, violence and other
material they deem unsuitable from their children. Consumer and family organisations
are the ideal multipliers to pass such information to families.
People are cautious about what governments and businesses say to them. But
they trust consumer organisations. The CISA project, Consumers for Internet
Safety Awareness, led by European Research into Consumer Affairs (ERICA), brought
the Internet safety message to consumers through the organisations they listen
to. It was part of the EU’s Internet Action Plan, co-financed by DG Information
Society, CISA involved ERICA’s already established network of 90 interested
consumer and family organisations.
In a National Opinion Polls (NOP)
family survey in July 1999 1 in 5 children said they came across upsetting information
and told nobody because they did not want to lose access to the net. Another
recent British survey found that on average half the time British children spend
online is without parental supervision. But 38% of parents believed the Internet
to be a more dangerous influence on their children’s well being than television
or film, with 70% horrified at the prospect of children viewing "undesirable
content".
We need to help parents get effective filtering and rating systems to protect
children from violence, pornography and other harmful material. Led by Test
Aankoop (Test Achats), the well known consumer magazines in Belgium, Italy,
Portugal and Spain conducted independent tests on the most easily available
systems. Research also assessed the work done in other countries.
Important decisions on rating, labelling
and filtering schemes and on domain names are being made at international and
EU level. Countries are trying to agree for example on whose legal jurisdiction
applies to websites with harmful content, whether Internet Service Providers
and search engines can be made to withdraw offensive material and what balance
should be struck between privacy and ease of police access to criminal activity
on-line.
CISA got involved in this debate to inform and represent the EU consumer movement
and family organisations and give consumers a strong voice in EU (and in US)
decision-making.
Getting the child safety message across is vital. But we must not under-estimate
the great benefits for kids in Internet use. We want to encourage children to
visit good quality and educational sites. The Institut de la Consommation, publisher
of 60 Millions de Consommateurs, and the Landesakademie in Austria consulted
with teachers and surveyed children’s sites to select the best 20 French
and the best 20 German sites.
Too often projects to protect children
take place without consulting them.
Developing the Hellenic Consumer Association (E.KAT.O’s) methodology,
a joint survey in Greece, Austria and the UK found out how informed children
are about the benefits and hidden dangers on the net.
In the Greek survey:
-
100%
of the children admitted to lying about their age and visiting a pornographic
or gambling site at least once.
-
75% of
the children have communicated with strangers via chat lines. The majority
of these children were girls.
-
Almost 80%
of the children interviewed admitted to being affected by Internet advertising
Research showed that teachers and parents are keen for more information on
safe use of the Internet. LAK and E.KAT.O developed educational materials and
courses and ran workshops in Austria and right across Greece.
This provided valuable information on the best ways of disseminating the message
to adults and was copied in Britain, in work with the Broadcasting Standards
Commission and Parent Teacher Associations.
CISA developed a model set of EU guidelines for
children when they use the Internet. These have been translated into all the
main languages of the EU, and EU candidate countries.
Some people may regard children as miniature adults, who deserve unfettered
access to the adult world. But most recognise that children need time and space
to develop safely and to have their inexperience and vulnerability respected
on-line as well as off.
For more information, visit www.net-consumers.org,
or to join ERICA’s network, write to
Email:
Links to CISA partners:
European Research
into Consumer Affairs
Test
Achats/Test Aankoop
E.KAT.O
Landesakademie
Institut National de la Consommation
