“Internet must be made safer for children”

Date: 29/11/01

By Martin Banks

THE European Commission has been urged to introduce laws forcing internet businesses to make their sites safer for children.

The call follows a report yesterday (28 November) to the Economic and Social Committee on use of the internet by 11- to 14-year-olds.

It found that UK children are more likely to surf the internet without parental supervision than those in southern European countries.

In Greece, virtually none of the children who took part in the survey used the internet without supervision while in Austria, many youngsters said they had met friends online.

In France, racist sites were identified as being a problem.

Report author Ann Davison, of European Research into Consumer Affairs, called for the Commission to make it legally binding for internet service providers to protect children using the internet. "Voluntary rating has not done the job, " she said. "It is not a problem to get pornographic sites to declare themselves as such, but it is currently difficult to persuade a critical mass of "clean sites' to tag themselves."

She added: "The Commission has already tackled a number of internet issues but children's safety must not be left out."

The European Commission has been urged to introduce laws forcing internet businesses to make their sites safer for children. The call follows a report presented on 28 November 2001 to the Economic and Social Committee on use of the internet by 11 to 14 year-olds.