Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-11-19-Speech-1-153-000"
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"en.20121119.23.1-153-000"2
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". −
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, 23 years after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the internet is becoming the new frontier at which the rights of minors have to be protected and promoted, given the growing penetration of the internet among children and adolescents in Europe – a kind of symbiotic relationship which helps to form their personalities and the way in which they relate to the outside world.
A few years ago, the average age at which children had their first access to the internet was around 9 years old, but today, the first steps on the web, for those born in the digital age, are being taken even before they learn to read or write. Young people under 16 use computers for study, play, watching video clips, downloading videos and music, file sharing, and for visiting chat rooms, blogs and virtual worlds. However, the majority of children between the ages of 9 and 16 have their profile registered on a social network, many using a fictitious identity, and a quarter of adolescents declare an older age than their real one. Twelve per cent of those in the 9 to 16 age group report that they have been harassed, in particular by being bullied (40 %) and by content and approaches of a sexual nature (25 %).
Therefore, opportunities and threats coexist on the internet; nowadays the internet is indispensable for the integration of children from a social, educational and work point of view, but the European institutions and the Member States must do their utmost to ensure that minors are guaranteed the conditions they need for their education and to keep themselves informed, the rules required for safe navigation, and that providers, business and educators are made aware of their responsibilities. The report proposes a holistic approach in respect of the promotion and protection of the rights of children online.
Exchanges with the various political groups in the Committee on Culture and Education and the shadow rapporteurs – whom I would like to thank – allowed us to arrive at a compromise text which was highly satisfactory even though it deals with a topic about which there are different sensibilities and trends. The work carried out with the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and its rapporteur, Ms Hedh, made a significant contribution. The report welcomes and incorporates – with precise recommendations – the recent communication from the Commission for a better internet for children.
It was our aim to strike a balance between the fundamental rights of the child in the digital world, the right to access to education, the right to protection and the right to digital citizenship, in a new system of governance which puts at its heart, as paramount, the interests of the child, as a person undergoing education and as a European citizen, on the basis of Article 24 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Treaty.
Where governance is concerned, we call on the Commission to mainstream children’s rights across all the policies of the European Union that refer to the internet, to continue to finance specific programmes such as the Safer Internet Programme on the basis of a report and monitoring, and to take appropriate measures, through the internet among other things, which make it possible to coordinate the implementation of codes of conduct and the CEO coalition initiative. In addition, we support the Commission’s proposal to take legislative action if the adoption of the current codes of self-regulation should fail.
As regards safe and untroubled access to internet use, we propose taking measures for an educational alliance among families, schools, associations and those involved in media and audiovisual services, to integrate these skills in school curricula and to train trainers and adults; vigilance in respect of the online marketing and publicising of harmful substances; an exchange of good practice in the role of informal education by the dissemination among adolescents of positive and good practices on the internet; the access of minors to safe and high-quality pluralistic digital content in educational programmes and services and, in particular, in the public service media.
As regards the right to protection, the report makes a clear distinction between illegal content and unsuitable and dangerous content. For the dangerous and unsuitable material, we call for action to protect identity and privacy; to prevent excessively early contact with sexuality, grooming and improper behaviour – including that towards other minors, such as online bullying and sexting. Furthermore, we call on the Commission to maintain the initiative for classifying unsuitable content and, in general, for all the technical innovations that guide parents and children; we support the proposal from Ms Reding on the protection of personal data, privacy, the right to be forgotten, with specific measures for minors, and with mandatory parental consent for the processing of their data.
As regards illegal content, however, there must be tools which are effective in dealing with online crimes such as grooming, and we would repeat that such crimes are of a cross-border nature and so stronger international cooperation is required in dealing with computer crime and in supporting hotlines. Finally, we would encourage – and we call on the Commission to encourage – the Member States to give whatever support they can to digital citizenship, which is crucial for the development of an intelligent and inclusive Union and civic participation, including that on the internet, by minors."@en1
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