Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-20-Speech-1-192"
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"en.20081020.17.1-192"2
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".
Mr President, I fully agree with everything that has been said in the House and I thank the parliamentarians not only for having this debate but also for taking this debate to their voters and to the people in the areas where they are active, because I believe that the basic problem is that adults do not know enough.
Children often know how to handle the new technologies very well, and it is the first time in the history of mankind that children know more than parents, educators and adults. So here we really have to empower parents, educators and adults and I believe that this is a shared responsibility of all parts of society, not only of politicians but also of the NGOs, and the ISPs most of all. I am also grateful that, for instance, the mobile phone industry has signed a memorandum of understanding in order themselves to inform parents and to prevent harmful content from being on the 3G phones.
The network of hotlines, which we have established by our Safer Internet programme, is very important and it is working perfectly well in most Member States. In reply to the question from a Hungarian parliamentarian, the Hungarian hotline will restart in 2009. There are only two Member States that do not yet have a hotline and one Member State that leaves these problems to the police forces. Therefore, we can already say that today the Safer Internet programme has had a very positive effect. Personally, I would wish that the hotlines were better known: they are well known in some countries but not in all. So, as Members of Parliament, you could help to make those hotlines more known through all kinds of activities. I would really thank you for this and I think that both parents and children would also thank you for this.
There were some questions on the EU criminal procedures. Here I have to tell you that it would be very good if the Convention on Cybercrime were ratified by all Member States. I can also tell you that the interior and justice ministers under the leadership of my friend, Commissioner Barrot, are working on all these questions, including the issue of grooming, on which Mr Barrot will present a proposal shortly. I can also assure you that the international cooperation of police and law enforcement is well under way. So things are moving in the right direction here.
Concerning the question about filters for unwanted content, here again it is a question of informing parents. Most parents do not know that filters exist and that they have the possibility to use these filters. That is why I have asked the ISPs when making contracts with parents to really inform them about the possibilities they have for preventing this content from reaching their children.
That concerns very young children. In the case of adolescents, of course we have to empower the children themselves, and that is why I believe that informing them that they can stop themselves falling into the trap is the best way, because we cannot put a policeman behind each child – that is really not possible. But children are very capable of understanding what is positive content and what is non-positive content. So I believe that with the Safer Internet programme we have to empower the children themselves, beyond empowering the parents and the educators. That will be our duty during the next months and years and, if everybody participates in that, it would be the solution to the problem.
I thank the rapporteur and all the parliamentarians who are helping to make the internet a safe place for our children."@en1
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