Europe funds safer surfing initiative

The European Commission is backing new hotlines that allow the public to report spam and other illegal or harmful internet content.

The aim of the four-year Safer Internet Programme is to make surfing less dangerous for children.

The €50m initiative will run from 2005 to 2008 and will provide funding to develop technologies which filter out harmful material at source.

In line with its self-regulatory approach, the Commission plans to get the message across by persuading the public, private and voluntary sectors to prepare hard-hitting safety campaigns.

Its four action lines are:

• Fighting illegal content
• Tackling unwanted and harmful content, including spam
• Promoting a safer environment
• Making parents and teachers more aware of the technology available to protect children when online.

"Children should have the right to use the internet freely to chat, to learn or to play games," said Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen in a statement.

"But to move freely online, children must be protected from the risk of being exploited by adults."

See also:

Spim is the new spam

Spammers turn to instant messaging to peddle porn and get-rich-quick scams  31 Mar 2004

Identity crisis hits UK companies

Security breaches due to identity theft causing widespread damage  22 Mar 2004

Try avoiding, not eliminating, spam

Bill Gates is on a mission to rid the world of spam, but the effectiveness of his methods is in doubt.  18 Mar 2004

Filtering out the net nasties

The internet has enabled us to access information, images and people the world over, which for parents can be an alarming scenario. We test a range of internet filtering packages.  02 Jan 2004

Parents ignore online safety for kids

Mum and Dad don't have a clue or don't care as children surf into potential danger  25 Jul 2003

Government issues safety guidelines for net

Guidelines and campaign launched to protect children from online paedophiles  06 Jan 2003

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