Issue no. 390 - 20 July 2008

• UK - 'Children at risk' from bank's Visa card (BBC)
  Children as young as 11 are being given debit cards which allow them to buy goods such as cigarettes and Viagra over the internet, without their parents' permission. The high street bank Lloyds TSB, which sends out the Visa cards to youngsters, last night came under fire from politicians and credit charities for placing children at risk. The bank claims guardians can opt out of the service for their children - but admits to sending the cards directly to their customers with a parental guidance leaflet which the youngsters should pass on.

• UK - 'Teen date' website faces criticism (BBC)
  A Newsbeat investigation has uncovered a dating website specifically for teenagers which campaigners fear will become a "playground for paedophiles". Children's Charity, NSPCC, says MyLOL.net, which is marketed for teenagers but has hundreds of adult profiles, should clean up its act or be shut down. The site's owner claims there are security measures in place and they'll be toughened up soon.

Issue no. 389 - 22 June 2008

• Online safety as we know it: Becoming obsolete? (NetFamily News)
  The headline may seem a bit inflammatory, but it's a sincere suggestion coming from 10+ years of observing and participating in the online-safety field. What we all know about online youth now from a substantial and growing body of research suggests it's time to reassess. Young people make little distinction between online and offline and move constantly and fluidly between the two. The Internet has increasingly become a mirror of "real life". It's the young people at risk offline who are most at risk online, so expertise in adolescent at-risk behavior is necessary to the discussion. Where people with experience in online safety can help is by educating the public that online safety and well-being is not separate from "real life" and needs the same accountability; educating the public about how the Internet affects real-world actions or comments; serving as information clearing-houses and connectors to the right kind of expertise for predation, bullying, eating disorders, substance abuse, etc.

Issue no. 388 - 1 June 2008

• AU - Budget provides policing for internet safety (Press Release)
  The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has announced a targeted plan to create a safer online environment for Australian children. The Government's cyber-safety funding will provide $49 million to law enforcement, ensuring that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection Operations Team can expand its capacity to detect and investigate online child abuse, with 91 additional AFP members dedicated to online child protection by 2011. Central to the Government's plan to make the internet a safer place for children is the introduction of Internet Service Provider (ISP) level filtering of material such as child pornography. The ISP filtering policy is being developed through an informed and considered approach, including a laboratory trial, extensive industry consultation, and close examination of overseas models to assess their suitability for Australia. In addition, the Government is developing a range of measures to help empower children to be responsible online participants. It will provide parents, teachers, trainee teachers, librarians and children with up-to-date, comprehensive and age-appropriate online cyber-safety resources and assistance.

• FR - De nouvelles solutions pour protéger les enfants du Net (Le Parisien)
  MSN, la messagerie instantanée utilisée par 70 % des jeunes internautes français, lance officiellement aujourd'hui un nouveau logiciel gratuit de contrôle parental. Ce dernier était très attendu par les associations de lutte pour la protection des mineurs sur Internet. Il va enfin permettre aux parents de contrôler - à distance et en direct -tout nouvel « ami » qui voudrait entrer en contact avec leur enfant.

• FR - Nadine Morano : «Interdire l'accès aux sites pédophiles» (Le Figaro)
  La secrétaire d'État à la Famille s'apprête à prendre une série de mesures pour mieux protéger les en­fants de la cybercriminalité. "Je rencontre aujourd'hui les fournisseurs d'accès à Internet pour qu'ils interdisent l'accès à tous les sites pédopornographiques et illégaux recensés sur une liste noire établie par le ministère de l'Intérieur. Cette pratique existe déjà dans d'autres pays comme la Grande-Bretagne, la Suède, la Norvège". voir aussi FR - Protection des enfants sur internet : trois pistes d'actions proposées aux professionnels (Ministère du travail, des relations sociales et de la solidarité). Nadine MORANO, Secrétaire d'Etat chargée de la Famille, propose trois actions aux professionnels de l'Internet pour protéger les familles et les enfants: interdire l'accès aux sites illégaux pédopornographiques; accroître les performances des logiciels de contrôle parental des FAI; faire en sorte que les parents soient davantage informés des performances des logiciels de filtrage des FAI. voir aussi Une visite à Londres sur la thème de la protection des enfants sur internet.

• Penguins offer safer surfing (FT)
  Club Penguin, the virtual online world for six- to 14-year-olds is rapidly growing into a global phenomenon. Club Penguin has 20m users and analysts estimate up to 10 per cent of them have persuaded parents to pay about £4 a month for souped-up access to the site. Safety features were a big selling point from the outset. Club Penguin employs more than 100 moderators who monitor the site for unsafe behaviour. They are trained to spot bullying, or attempts to share contact details. Pictures cannot be posted on the site. Instead, children are represented by a colourful penguin. Filtering software prevents phone numbers being published.

• UK - McCanns back web child initiative (BBC)
  The parents of Madeleine McCann have backed a scheme to use social networking websites Facebook and Bebo to help trace missing children. The charity Missing People has launched the initiative to coincide with International Missing Children's Day.

Issue no. 387 - 12 May 2008

• Boom times for virtual playgrounds (BBC)
  For many years the average video gamer has been male and aged 24 or more. But casual games and the appearance of the Nintendo Wii have changed that profile and now it looks like it is about to change again. Research suggests that there are about 158 online games and virtual worlds in development or up and running designed specifically for children. See graph.

Issue no. 385 - 21 March 2008

• High Tech or High Risk: Moral Panics about Girls Online (MIT Journals)
  by Justine Cassell, Meg Cramer. We argue that the current moral outrage and national panic over the risks of victimization faced by girls on the Internet has nothing to do with risks faced by girls on the Internet. Based on historical, cross-cultural, and discourse analyses, we draw four conclusions. Each and every time a new communication technology is introduced, it spurs very public fears on the part of parents and educators, putatively about the effects of that technology on girls' (sexual) innocence. The statistics show that predatory behavior on adolescent girls has a certain profile that has either not changed over the decade since the Internet became popular, or has improved over time. The Internet dangerously unfetters girls' spaces and risks changing our image of what girls can do, and where they can go. This challenges the social order. Girls' masterful use of the Internet also challenges the view that technology is dangerous and an inappropriate interest for girls, and in this sense the moral panic around girls online is a way of policing the relationship between girls and technology.

• UK - Concerns raised over online child safety (Guardian)
  Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, has said that some internet service providers were not doing enough to protect children online. "Some people who say they are co-operating aren't," Gamble told the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, but admitted that they were a "minority" of service providers.

Issue no. 383 - 27 January 2008

• EU - European Parliament resolution: Towards an EU strategy on the rights of the child (EP Press Release)
  An EU strategy on the rights of the child won Parliament's backing with 630 votes in favour, 26 against and 62 abstentions. MEPs call for the strategy to include tougher measures to combat paedophilia on the internet as well as steps to counter child sex tourism and enable suppliers of products manufactured with child labour to be prosecuted in Europe. The own-initiative report, drafted for the Civil Liberties Committee by Roberta Angelilli (UEN, IT), is Parliament's response to a Commission communication of 4 July 2006 titled "Towards an EU strategy on the rights of the child". The report restates Parliament's opposition to all forms of violence against children and calls for a specific budget heading for their rights, with which to fund work required by the strategy. Among the European Parliament's many proposals, MEPs call for technical measures to combat the dissemination of paedophile content via the internet. They would also like to involve access suppliers, search engines and even banks, so as to block payment by would-be purchasers of illegal content. In addition, the House wishes to protect children by tightening up rules on the transmission of harmful content via the internet or multimedia messaging services and the sale of violent video games. It would like a uniform classification and labelling system to be created for such games, and for all audiovisual content. Children should be better informed of their rights via a dedicated internet site to be set up for this purpose, argues the European Parliament. The House recommends setting up a European early warning system on child abductions and supports the Commission's plan to introduce a telephone help-line for children. It also urges the creation of a European strategy, and a single EU-wide set of extraterritorial criminal laws, to counter child sex tourism.

• EU - Romania to protest cartoon featuring with "suicidal squirrels" to the European Commission (Associated Press)
  A darkly humorous cartoon showing squirrels hanging themselves and throwing themselves in front of cars has drawn the ire of Romanian broadcasting authorities. But Romanian authorities have no control over the cartoon, because it is broadcast on a channel with a British license. The Romanian regulatory body for television broadcasting said it would make an official protest to the European Commission about the one-minute cartoon shown every afternoon on the British-licensed channel AXN.

• UK - Where online kids' worries lie (Net Family News)
  A quick snapshot from a UK researcher halfway through her cyberbullying study: Well-known psychologist Tanya Byron told the Oxford Media Convention that "children are more worried about being bullied in cyberspace than any threat from paedophiles," the Financial Times reports. On pedophiles, she quoted one girl as telling her, "We kind of know who the creepy people are and what they say, and we kind of ignore them." The research shows that, "although children were adept at exploiting the ignorance of their parents about the internet and gaming, many would prefer to be able to talk to their mother or father about their online lives," the FT added.

• UK - MP calls for law to force online shops to verify age (OUT-LAW News)
  A bill has been introduced in Parliament which would force online retailers to check customers' ages before selling goods that cannot be sold to children. The Online Purchasing of Goods and Services (Age Verification) Bill received its first reading in Parliament on Tuesday when it was introduced by Labour MP Margaret Moran as a private member's bill. Moran said in a speech to the House of Commons that e-commerce provided people under 18 with a loophole, enabling them to buy age-restricted goods such as alcohol, cigarettes and pornography.

Issue no. 382 - 6 January 2008

• Social networking sites must do more to protect child users (E-consultancy.com)
  Three of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet are not doing enough to protect their child users, an independent expert audit has concluded. The investigation by web usability consultants at User Vision, one of Europe's leading independent user experience companies, found that Facebook, Bebo and MySpace all lacked targeted, clear information about online security for under 18s.

Issue no. 381 - 8 December 2007

• CoE - 23 States sign Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CoE)
  Twenty-three Council of Europe member states signed the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS n° 201), which represents a major step in the prevention of sexual offences against children, the prosecution of perpetrators and the protection of victims. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey signed the convention at the beginning of the 28th Conference of the European Ministers of Justice in Lanzarote. The convention will enter into force once it has been ratified by five states. The convention also criminalises the use of the new technologies ? the internet in particular ? to sexually harm or abuse children, for example by "grooming", an increasingly worrying phenomenon of children being sexually harmed after meeting adults they have previously encountered in internet chat rooms or game sites.

• DE - Merkel startet "Netz für Kinder" (Heise)
  Mit dem Portal fragFINN.de ist der erste geschützte Internet-Bereich für Kinder in Deutschland gestartet. Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) schaltete am Donnerstag in Berlin die Webseite frei, die Zugang zu ausschließlich kindergerechten Angeboten bieten soll. In das "Netz für Kinder" stellt eine Redaktion nur geprüfte Inhalte ein. fragFINN.de soll als Startseite im Webbrowser dienen. Mit einem Browser-Plugin kann zusätzlich der Zugang zu nicht von fragFINN.de genehmigten Seiten verhindert werden; das Plugin steht bislang nur für den Internet-Explorer zur Verfügung, eine Firefox-Version soll in Kürze folgen.

• UK - Games violence study is launched (BBC)
  The government is asking for evidence for a new study of the effect of violent computer games on children. Psychologist Tanya Byron will head the study, which will also examine how to protect children from online material.

Issue no. 380 - 30 September 2007

• EU - Children and Media: Growing up in a digitalised world. (EPP-ED)
  The Intergroup on Family and Protection of Childhood in the EP in Strasbourg, under the presidency of MEPs Ruth Hieronymi and Maria Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, met with the Audiovisual Policy Intergroup in order to exchange views on the influence of media on the lives and development of children. The meeting, which focused on the topic 'Children and Media: growing up in a digitalised world', gathered representatives of the European Commission, Parliamentarians, industry, and NGOs.

• UK - Brown widens review of impact media violence has on children (Guardian)
  The impact of media violence on children will be the focus of a wider than expected government review. It may lead to new voluntary controls over excessive violence and sex on children's television and the internet and in video games. Gordon Brown stressed that he did not see the review leading to state censorship, but hoped it would lead to a common agreement between parents, programme makers and internet providers that new controls are necessary. Speaking at his monthly press conference in Downing Street, Mr Brown said parents were right to expect the government to do everything in its power to protect children from harmful material in a multimedia age. The review is to be conducted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

• UK - 'Happy slapping' vids prompt Brown to push net filters (Register)
  The availability of gore and violence on the internet has prompted the UK Government to consider backing a campaign to encourage wider awareness and use of net-filtering software. Gordon Brown has ordered ministers to work with ISPs and media watchdog Ofcom to devise a strategy to regulate access to smut and violence online. Early ideas include plans to educate parents about the use of net-filtering software (aka censorware). Ofcom has been asked to develop a kite-mark scheme to certify net-filtering products. There will also be a review on whether new rules are needed about the marketing of some products to youngsters.

• US - Facebook targeted over child safety (Times)
  Facebook, the social networking site, has been accused of not keeping young users safe from sexual predators after an investigation revealed apparent defects in its safety controls. The New York State attorney general has subpoenaed Facebook asking it to explain its security policy following an an undercover investigation in which authorities posing as teenagers received sexual advances within days of setting up profiles on the site. When contacted about the message, Facebook said it would remove any post that violated its rules but a month later had still not taken any action.

Issue no. 379 - 2 September 2007

• AU - Howard on internet porn crusade (Australin IT)
  John Howard is going to spend $189 million on "cleaning up the internet" for Australian families, blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chat-room sex predators and cutting off terror sites. Every Australian family will be provided with a free internet filter and the federal Government will enter an unprecedented partnership with service providers to filter pornography at the source. Communications and Australian Federal Police resources will be boosted immediately to expand checks on internet chat rooms to detect child predators, and privacy laws masking sex offenders on the net will be altered. AU - Student cracks Government's $84m porn filter

• AU - Protecting Australian Families Online (DCITA)
  Senator the Hon Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Address to Australian Personal Computer Awards Night, Sydney, Wednesday 21 March 2007

• EU - MEPs 'want EU sex offender list' (BBC)
  Members of the European Parliament overwhelmingly want to see an EU-wide register of sex offenders established, a survey suggests. A poll commissioned by the campaign to find missing Madeleine McCann found that 97% of MEPs backed the measure. Pollsters contacted 105 MEPs they judged to be representative of all the major EU member states and political groups in the European Parliament. As well as nearly all MEPs contacted agreeing with the creation of an EU-wide sex offenders register, the survey found that 95% wanted police to treat serious crimes involving children identically across Europe. Almost nine out of 10 MEPs who were canvassed supported introducing a common EU child abduction policy.

• US - Call For Better Age-Verification Methods (BetaNews)
  Attorneys General across the country banded together, calling on social networking sites to strengthen parental controls to keep minors from accessing questionable material on their sites. The efforts are being headed by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who worked previously to get MySpace to disclose the identities of sex offenders on its Web site, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. While both are working to have the companies voluntarily change their policies, they are also pushing for actual laws.

Issue no. 378 - 5 August 2007

• AU - Predator protection 'in weeks' (Australian IT)
  Australians will have access to a national online child protection hotline and free internet filtering software "within weeks", when the long-delayed $116 million scheme to protect families from predators and porn finally gets off the ground. A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan confirmed that the Government was working to a tight deadline to launch the scheme in time for national child protection week, which begins September 7.

• UK - Fast food brands hit kids online (BBC)
  Fast food brands are getting around laws banning the promotion of unhealthy snacks online, research suggests. New Advertising Standards Association rules prevent the online and offline advertising of fast food to children. But, according to trade magazine New Media Age, fast food brands are targeting kids via games, videos and cartoons on their websites. It accuses brands such as McDonalds, Kinder and Haribo of exploiting a legal loophole in the rules.

• US - Social Sites Aim at Users Too Young for MySpace (Washington Post)
  Disney has announced the acquisition of Club Penguin, a virtual world for children that's been around less than two years but has grown to 12 million registered users, largely without marketing. Disney executives said the deal, valued at as much as $700 million depending on the company's performance, won't result in changes to the Club Penguin site, which requires parental permission for membership and doesn't have advertising. But the deal has prompted child advocates to ask whether kids are helped or harmed by exposure to the Web. There are a growing number of sites that claim to offer entertainment and education for children. Disney said it wants to invest in sites where parents can be assured of their children's safety against adult content and contact from strangers.

Issue no. 377 - 5 July 2007

• CoE -Protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse (Council of Europe)
  The sixth meeting of the Committee of Experts on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse (PC-ES) took place at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, from 26 to 30 March 2007. The Committee adopted the draft Convention and its Explanatory Report. See Draft Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse and Draft explanatory report. See European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) 56th Plenary Session of 18-22 June 2007. See also Council of Europe programme for the promotion of children's rights and the protection of children from violence.

• The MySpace Dilemma: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online (InformationWeek)
  The anonymity and anything-goes nature of the Internet is a lure for sexual predators. We need to reconcile this with our children's growing passion for online social networking. see also Building a Safer MySpace (Business Week) January 24, 2007.

• UK - New rules on paedophiles (Economist)
  When John Reid took over the job of home secretary in May 2006, it was in the wake of two damaging scandals involving sex offenders. Just a few weeks into his new job, he announced a review of the systems that are meant to protect children from unknown sex offenders.

Issue no. 376 - 10 June 2007

• 25 May 2007 - International Missing Children's Day- Commission steps up efforts to better protect children in EU (RAPID)
  For the third consecutive year, the European Commission is supporting the International Missing Children's Day on 25 May, organised by the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children of which the main purpose is to spread a message of hope and solidarity at the international level. To strengthen its actions in favour of children and young people, the Commission adopted a Communication "Towards an EU strategy on the rights of the child" on 4 July 2006 which advocated the setting up of a 'European Forum for the Rights of the Child' as an instrument for promoting the effective exchange of information and good practices and establishing a network of stakeholders in this field. The first meeting of the Forum will be held on 4 June in Berlin. see also Context of Commission's work in area of protection of children rights.

• DE - "Ein Netz für Kinder" (Heise)
  Eine bis 1,5 Millionen Euro wollen der Bundesbeauftragte für Kultur und Medien, das Familienministerium und möglicherweise verschiedene Landesbehörden in die Förderung kindgerechter Angebote im Internet investieren. Zum Abschluss der EU-Konferenz "Mehr Vertrauen in Inhalte" verkündete Hans-Ernst Hanten, Gruppenleiter Medien, Film, Internationales im Hause des Kulturbeauftragten, für die Deutsche Ratspräsidentschaft auch, dass man eine Reihe von Unternehmen für die Umsetzung einer Positivliste mit kindgerechten Inhalten gewonnen habe.

• UK - Missing-girl Web site gets 55 million hits (Reuters)
  A Web site set up to help find a missing British 4-year-old girl who disappeared from a holiday villa in Portugal 15 days ago has received more than 50 million hits. More than 7,500 people have left messages of support on the www.findmadeleine.com site and 55 million hits have been counted since its launch. Thousands have downloaded appeal posters and forwarded an e-mail chain letter started by Madeleine McCann's family. The little girl disappeared from her bedroom at a hotel resort in Portugal on May 3 as her parents dined nearby.

• Web safety warning for children (BBC)
  More than half of children in the UK using the internet have had an "unwanted experience", a poll suggests. The NSPCC found 50.4% of 2,053 children had experienced problems such as bullying, being threatened or sexually harassed while online. It is concerned about the popularity of social networking sites such as Bebo or MySpace, which it says 52% of children aged 11-16 use once a day. The NSPCC says these could heighten children's exposure to abusive people.

Issue no. 375 - 9 May 2007

• CN - China seeks to 'limit game hours' (BBC)
  The Chinese government has clamped down on the amount of time youngsters can spend playing online games. Under-18s who play for more than three consecutive hours a day will have limits imposed on the amount of points they can score. Online game companies based in China have been given three months to install the so-called anti-addiction software.

• Paedophiles use Skype 'loophole' to woo children (Sunday Times)
  Internet chatrooms run by Skype, the online telephone giant, have become a magnet for paedophiles and sexual predators who want to groom children as young as 10 for sex, an investigation has found. The software, which enables users to make free phone calls and also "chat" by typing messages while online, has become the preferred method for many paedophiles to find their victims. Other internet chat facilities have strengthened their child protection measures or closed down entirely because of concerns over internet "grooming".

• The Marshal Of MySpace (Business Week)
  Just like the Real world, MySpace.com needs an enforcer. The man trying to bring order to the planet's biggest social networking site is a former federal prosecutor named Hemanshu 'Hemu' Nigam. He was hired a year ago to keep MySpace's largely youthful denizens safe from predatory grown-ups--and from one another. For MySpace owner, News Corp., patrolling the virtual streets is not simply a matter of keeping kids safe, it's also crucial if the company is to attract sufficient advertising to help boost profits.

Issue no. 373 - 11 March 2007

• ITU - Child Helpline Discussions Continue (ITU)
  ITU-T Study Group 2?s February meeting saw work continue on harmonizing numbering resources for child helplines. Study Group 2 is looking at the issue following a request from Child Helpline International (CHI). CHI is a global network of telephone helplines and outreach services for children and young people. Specifically Study Group 2 is looking at the logistics of providing a global number.

• US - Connecticut considers limits on MySpace (Reuters)
  Connecticut lawmakers debated a bill that would require social-networking Web sites such as MySpace to verify users' ages and force minors to obtain parental consent before posting profiles. Intended to protect children from sexual predators, the bill proposed by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal would be the first of its kind in the United States to impose strict regulations on the fast-growing sites, which are a virtual hangout for millions of American teenagers.

more items

QuickLinks consists of

• a free newsletter appearing approximately every two to three weeks. The newsletter is distributed by electronic mail through an "announcement only" mailing list.
• a Web site with frequent updates, an events page, news items organised by category as well as chronologically by issue and full text search.