EU programme leads the way in tackling illegal and harmful web content

An EU programme has been so successful in tackling illegal and harmful content on the internet that it is being used as a model by other regions of the world.

The Safer Internet programme, which has been commended for its effectiveness by an independent evaluation, is now being used as a model in how to tackle harmful online content whilst respecting freedom of expression in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region and in Northern and Latin America.

"We have come a long way and very quickly," said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "For many years the Safer Internet programme has been successfully promoting safer use of internet and other online technologies, particularly by children, and fighting illegal and harmful content ranging from child pornography to racism. The Commission has also encouraged industry to be more proactive in dealing with child safety."

The main achievements of the programme include a European network of 21 national hotlines for end users to anonymously report illegal internet content and the creation of 23 national awareness nodes to promote safer internet use to children, parents and teachers.

According to INHOPE, the International Association of Internet Hotlines, about 65,000 reports were referred to national and international law enforcement agencies during 2005 for further action and investigation.

To consolidate these results, the EU's 'Safer Internet plus' programme (2005-2008) will be promoting 'combined hotlines and awareness nodes'. Pilot projects to encourage cooperation between hotlines and law enforcement agencies will also be funded from 2007 onwards.

The Commission has also called for stronger support from Member States to promote awareness of hotlines among end users and to promote better cooperation between hotlines and other stakeholders, in particular the police and Internet Service Providers.

Children's feedback is essential to identify problems and design appropriate solutions. The new EU-funded project EUkids online aims to improve knowledge of children's behaviour on the internet and their current perception of the risks involved. To strengthen awareness of filtering tools, in particular among parents and schools, the Commission is also funding an assessment of the filtering software and services currently available (SipBench). The first results are expected in December this year.

For further information, please visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/
activities/sip/index_en.htm

Copyright ©European Communities, 2006
Neither the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, nor any person acting on its behalf, is responsible for the use, which might be made of the attached information. The attached information is drawn from the Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS). The CORDIS services are carried on the CORDIS Host in Luxembourg – http://cordis.europa.eu.int. Access to CORDIS is currently available free-of-charge.

Most Popular Now

Unlocking the 10 Year Health Plan

The government's plan for the NHS is a huge document. Jane Stephenson, chief executive of SPARK TSL, argues the key to unlocking its digital ambitions is to consider what it...

Alcidion Grows Top Talent in the UK, wit…

Alcidion has today announced the addition of three new appointments to their UK-based team, with one internal promotion and two external recruits. Dr Paul Deffley has been announced as the...

AI can Find Cancer Pathologists Miss

Men assessed as healthy after a pathologist analyses their tissue sample may still have an early form of prostate cancer. Using AI, researchers at Uppsala University have been able to...

AI, Full Automation could Expand Artific…

Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems such as the UVA Health-developed artificial pancreas could help more type 1 diabetes patients if the devices become fully automated, according to a new review...

How AI could Speed the Development of RN…

Using artificial intelligence (AI), MIT researchers have come up with a new way to design nanoparticles that can more efficiently deliver RNA vaccines and other types of RNA therapies. After training...

MIT Researchers Use Generative AI to Des…

With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have designed novel antibiotics that can combat two hard-to-treat infections: drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Using generative AI algorithms, the research...

AI Hybrid Strategy Improves Mammogram In…

A hybrid reading strategy for screening mammography, developed by Dutch researchers and deployed retrospectively to more than 40,000 exams, reduced radiologist workload by 38% without changing recall or cancer detection...

Penn Developed AI Tools and Datasets Hel…

Doctors treating kidney disease have long depended on trial-and-error to find the best therapies for individual patients. Now, new artificial intelligence (AI) tools developed by researchers in the Perelman School...

New Training Year Starts at Siemens Heal…

In September, 197 school graduates will start their vocational training or dual studies in Germany at Siemens Healthineers. 117 apprentices and 80 dual students will begin their careers at Siemens...

Are You Eligible for a Clinical Trial? C…

A new study in the academic journal Machine Learning: Health discovers that ChatGPT can accelerate patient screening for clinical trials, showing promise in reducing delays and improving trial success rates. Researchers...

New AI Tool Addresses Accuracy and Fairn…

A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a new method to identify and reduce biases in datasets used to train machine-learning algorithms...

Global Study Reveals How Patients View M…

How physicians feel about artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has been studied many times. But what do patients think? A team led by researchers at the Technical University of Munich...