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Insafe Newsletter
Issue 37: July / August 2008, Filtering |
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Welcome to the Insafe Newsletter!
To filter or not to filter…
Parents often worry about the possible risk of exposure to harmful content their children face while surfing the internet: violence, racism, pornography… We all want to protect our children from these dangers. Parents sometimes assume that filters are the perfect solution. But are they really?
As part of the SaferInternetPlus programme, Deloitte is conducting a 3-year benchmarking study on 30 filtering solutions that protect children between the ages of 6 and 16 on the internet. More than 100 parents and teachers from all over Europe have tested the effectiveness of these tools.
The results of the 2007 study have been compared to those obtained in 2006. Half of the 23 filters tested both in 2006 and 2007 have improved their filtering capabilities relative to non-sexual content.
Eight vendors achieved a lower score in 2007 with regards to sexual content partially because the 2007 test cases included user generated content (Web 2.0) which is more difficult to filter. Seven vendors had resolved previous security issues and three vendors improved their support of EU languages. Furthermore, the scores on the ease-of-use were lower in 2007 than in 2006 due to users nowadays expecting simpler filtering solutions.
But filters can never replace the education of children and communication with their parents. We cannot isolate our children from all harmful content, especially as they have access to several computers other than the one at home. Moreover, since it is difficult to filter Web 2.0 applications, our children probably will be confronted with inappropriate content, similarly to when they watch television. It is therefore essential to supervise our children, to teach them how to react when they are confronted with something that shocks them and to help them deal with it.
Protecting our children from harmful content on the internet is a noble goal towards which we all should work. Installing filters can be a useful element in this process, but education and communication remain essential to help our children become responsible internet users.
The detailed results of the benchmarking study are available on www.sip-bench.eu.
More information from the Belgian node on education and communication about internet safety can be found on www.saferinternet.be.
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 Filtering: AOL's parental controlsAs a parent you may ask yourself “why do they allow that on the net?”
Heard across blogs and in conversation with other parents, many people feel that the web is not policed enough and that the ISPs are not doing enough to protect and shield our children from what is dangerous or unacceptable. Read more A new life for old labelsThe resurrection of the ICRA rating and filtering system
The international non-profit organisation ICRA ("Internet Content Rating Association") began promoting its self-rating & filtering tool during the second half of the 1990s. It was supported in this revolutionary concept for the protection of minors by Microsoft, Netscape/AOL, and British Telecom among others as well as by the European Union.
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Using mobile phones responsiblyIn Spain, the mobile phone is by far the most widespread technology, but not everyone engages with wireless communication in the same way. As is the case with almost all new technology, it is young people who use mobiles the most, with the level of usage decreasing across older age groups. Read more Belgium: racism rages through e-mail, text messages and forums
Reported incidents of cyber-hatred have gone up by 136% according to the Belgian centre for equality CECLR. The centre's activity report for 2007, which describes the state of affairs on discrimination and diversity in the country, was published on Thursday 26 June and points to wide-spread use of the internet and mobile telephony in the spread of racist messages. Read more
Responsible Police Day in Slovakia
Police Day - an annual national event in Slovakia - in 2008 took place on the 28th of June. This event was conducted concurrently in 3 cities: Bratislava, Banská Bystrica and Košice. This year the Slovak INSAFE node, Zodpovedne.sk, was present in order to promote its project. Read more
 Council of Europe joins PEGI Online with Wild Web Woods
The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) announced the PEGI Online registration for “Wild Web Woods”, a videogame published by the Council of Europe (CoE). Wild Web Woods, as reported in the February 2008 INSAFE newsletter, is designed to help children – primarily within the 7 to 10 age range – learn the basic rules of internet safety in an engaging and fun format. The Council of Europe launched the game in English on Safer Internet Day 2008 and by now it has reached over 1.7 million unique hits. Read more
Not everything that’s possible is allowed!
Copyright: Seemingly infinite possibilities on the internet clash with very real legal restrictions – klicksafe produces a brochure about copyright and the rights of individuals.
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To wii or not to wii: that is the question
Another Insafe training meeting took off in Copenhagen on the morning of Monday 23 June and landed softly in the evening of the 24th when meeting participants from 25 European countries watched a bonfire, in true Midsummer Eve spirit.
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Toon Festival under the Eiffel Tower!
From 2 to 25 June, “la Cartoonerie” (creation and exchange site for kids’ toons) and the CIDJ (information and documentation centre for youth) were featuring the first festival of animations created by and for young people. For this festival, young internet users were invited to create their own cartoon on the Cartoonerie web site either as an individual entry or as a group from one of the workshops organised in the Cyb access points, supported by the French ministry for youth and sport. There were three categories for the entries: humour, environment and workshop films.
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 “Sieciaki on Holiday” tour
Seven holiday resorts, around 3500 young participants, an open air cinema, hip hop concerts, games and quizzes on internet safety and many more attractions…The third summer educational tour “Sieciaki on Holiday” has just kicked off in Poland.
Read more
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 Save the Children Finland Conference28 August 2008, HelsinkiSave the Children Finland is organising the international conference: "There is no Child Pornography – It’s Child Sexual Abuse"The Finnish node will also arrange an informal meeting on the afternoon of August 27 to talk more about their internet awareness projects (i.e. moderator training and social networking activities), exchange ideas and good practice.Read more
 Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online
The 2nd International Conference “Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online” has been organised by the Polish and German Internet safety nodes and will be held on 18-19 September 2008 in Warsaw.
Read more  Safer Internet Forum 2008
September 25-26 2008, LuxembourgThe European Commission is organising the Safer Internet Forum 2008 in Luxembourg on September 25-26.The purpose of the Safer Internet Forum is to bring together stakeholders such as NGOs, governments, researchers, industry representatives, including Internet Service Providers, mobile network operators, social networking sites and software developers, to discuss issues relating to the safety of children using the Internet and new communication technologies and to contribute to improving common understanding of these issues at a European level. Read more
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 Mobiles: opting in or opting out of internet access
Last month the Czech mobile operator Vodafone started a small revolution. All the potentially harmful content became inaccessible to their mobile subscribers. They introduced an opt-In scheme, where a user has to find and subscribe to given services to be able to access sensitive content (porn, etc.) on the internet.
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The Internet and the Law – what about content rating?
Recently published EC documents turned the attention of media and internet professionals back to content rating issues and this is reflected by recent activity in the Czech Republic. Important steps were taken towards creating a direct dialogue between media professionals and politicians in June during the Internet & Law conference organised by the Czech Safer Internet awareness node. Read more
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Insafe is a European network of 25 nodes in 25 countries that are dedicated to raising awareness of internet safety. It is coordinated by the European Schoolnet and supported by the European Commission through the Safer Internet Programme.
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