Started in November 2005, the study will be carried out through an annual benchmarking exercise of 30 parental control and spam filtering products or services, which will be repeated over 3 years.

It aims at providing guidance to parents and educators, in particular at improving awareness of solutions and promoting best practices. The first results and recommendations will be disseminated in November 2006.

The study will be conducted by Deloitte Business Advisory and supervised by an independent steering board which will ensure strict independence with regard to filtering vendors and suppliers.

The steering board held its first meeting on 31 January 2006 and elected as chairman, David Royston from Action Innocence, Geneva. Further members are: J. Deprest (FEDICT, Brussels), H. Leitold (A-SIT, Vienna), A. Meersman (OIVO-CRIOC, Brussels), F. Robben (Belgian eGovernment initiative), Mr. Tom Van Renterghem (Child Focus, Brussels), W. Roggeman (ISPA), F Schindler and M. Bootz (Jugendschutznet, Mainz).

The steering board agreed to focus the benchmarking on effectiveness, performance, usability, configurability and suitability within the European cultural context. Moreover, they decided to segment the benchmarking for three age brackets of children (6-10 years, 11-14 years, 15-16 years) in order to cope with the different risks and requirements specific to each age group. All push and pull internet-based protocols will be considered, including web browsing, e-mail, chat and peer-to-peer.