Issue no. 404 - 21 December 2009

• EU - eNACSO launches Digital Manifesto (eNACSO)
  eNACSO launches its digital manifesto at the fourth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Egypt on the 14 November 2009. This manifesto includes recommendations to governments, industry and other stakeholders on how to create a safer online environment for children and young people. The European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online is a network consisting of children's rights NGOs from across the EU working for a safer online environment for children.

Issue no. 403 - 24 November 2009

• EU marks 20 years of Child Rights Protection and Looks Ahead (RADID)
  The world celebrates the 20 th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). To highlight the joint commitment to the principles of the UNCRC, the European Commission, UNICEF and UNRIC will jointly mark the 20 anniversary of the adoption of the Convention.

• IGF - Hearing back from young people (Childnet International)
  Video with messages for the IGF. Shown at the workshop on Internet Governance - Activating and Listening to the Voice of Tweens at Sharm el Sheikh 17 November 2009.

Issue no. 402 - 18 October 2009

• CoE - Recommendation 1882 (2009) on the promotion of Internet and online media services appropriate for minors: (Council of Europe)
  In a recommendation, the Parliamentary Assembly calls on the member states to increase protection for minors who use Internet and online media services, particularly through the use of parental filter systems. PACE also urges the member states to support the creation of secure, restricted-access networks which filter content harmful to minors and comply with codes of conduct. In addition to technological solutions, the Assembly favours measures to raise public awareness, focusing on the risks and opportunities for minors using Internet and online media services. It also recommends that the Committee of Ministers work towards ensuring greater legal responsibility of Internet service providers for illegal content, and that it call on the member states which have not yet signed the Convention on Cybercrime and its Additional Protocol to do so without delay.

• CoE - Recommendation on measures to protect children against harmful content and behaviour (Council of Europe)
  Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to protect children against harmful content and behaviour and to promote their active participation in the new information and communications environment.

Issue no. 399 - 7 June 2009

• Alarm bells ring over "sexting" (BBC)
  It may seem like harmless fun to a 15-year-old wanting to impress their new boyfriend or girlfriend. But the practice of sexting - sending nude or semi-nude images of oneself to others via mobile phones - is having unintended and, in some cases, tragic consequences. The risk of having one's private pictures distributed among schoolmates or uploaded on to social-networking websites is only one part of it. It could also lead to a criminal conviction as a sex offender for any teenager who forwards them on to someone else.

• EU - Cory Doctorow discusses "SEXTING" (INSAFE)
  Science fiction author and prominent blogger Cory Doctorow discusses the relationship between "SEXTING" and information diffusion. He suggests various ways we can demonstrate the viral spread of information to young people so they are aware how quickly photos and video spread once released onto the Internet. This film posted on YouTube is an outtake of a film produced for a training event in Rome, May 2009. Full film will be uploaded soon. Filmed and edited by the Insafe Team.

• EU - Participants in the conference Safer Internet for Children adopted the Prague Declaration (CZ Presidency)
  The Czech Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the European Commission organised a ministerial conference Safer Internet for Children - fighting together against illegal content and conduct on-line in Prague on 20 April 2009. The Czech Republic was represented by Minister of Interior Ivan Langer and the Police President, Oldřich Martinů. The conference was dedicated to the process of improving cooperation between all stakeholders in the field of promoting safer Internet and mobile communications, especially for children. At the end of the conference the participants adopted the Prague Declaration.

• ITU - Guidelines proposed for Child Online Protection (COP) initiative (ITU)
  Guidelines for the protection of children in cyberspace were presented as drafts for discussion on 18 May in connection with the theme for the 2009 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The draft guidelines will be reviewed at the Strategic Dialogue on Safer internet Environment for Children in Tokyo, 2-3 June. The final Guidelines on Child Online Protection will be issued at ITU TELECOM WORLD, 5-9 October 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. Comments will be accepted until 30 June 2009. see Draft Guidelines for Children; Draft Guidelines for Parents, Guardians and Educators; Draft Guidelines for Industry; Draft Guidelines for Policy Makers. See also ITU Press Release.

• US - "Sexting" not just a teen problem (Press Release)
  A new survey from the marketing consultancy and research company, AK Tweens, shows an alarming trend among tween girls - sexting. Believed by most experts and parents to be a "teen" only problem, the survey revealed that 30% of tween girls - many as young as 10 years old - are "sexting" - sending, receiving and/or posting sexy messages/photos (e.g. photos of themselves in their underwear, or without clothes, messages of a sexual or suggestive nature) online and via cell phone/email.

• US - NTIA Online Safety and Technology Working Group (Press Release)
  U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the Online Safety and Technology Working Group - a working group dedicated to keeping children safe on the Internet. More than two dozen private sector and child and family advocacy leaders will help evaluate industry efforts to protect the privacy and safety of children and families online. Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace/Fox Interactive Media, and Ms. Anne Collier, Net Family News/ConnectSafely.org will act as Co-Chairs of the Group.

Issue no. 398 - 13 April 2009

• UK - Generation sexting (Daily Mail)
  What teenage girls really get up to on the internet should chill every parent. Like a real porn star, Becky is heavily made up and lying naked on the bed as the camera flashes. She could be just another glamorous model as she poses provocatively with practised moves. But she isn't. Shockingly, Becky is just 17 and still at school. She's filming herself in a friend's bedroom in a large, detached house in leafy suburbia as her schoolfriends party downstairs. Becky has not been coerced into this degrading behaviour. She is posing on her own, taking photographs of herself not for profit - but for attention. Welcome to the deeply alarming new world of privileged British teenagers who have a growing obsession with pornography. I discovered this trend - one which will horrify parents everywhere - during a BBC Radio 4 investigation into online pornography.

• UK - Protection of children - New Legislation for Websites (Laurence Kaye Solicitors)
  From October this year, if you operate a website which has interactive features used by children, you will be required to vet new staff you employ to act as moderators on the website. This means that their names must be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), a public body which has been set up to prevent unsuitable people from working with children.

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