QuickLinks - Protection of minors

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Issue no. 128 - 28 September 1999

• Internet habitues picked up by cops (Inquirer)
  Law enforcers in the Philippines picked up 28 high school students from a local Internet center to implement a city ordinance imposing a 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. ban on the entry of minors in Internet cafés in Tagbilaran City.

• Germany - Interview mit der Leiterin der BPjS (Heise Online)
  [drop in number of games submitted for rating by official body] Kaum noch Anträge bei der Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften

Issue no. 127 - 20 September 1999

• Internet fördert Kinderprostitution (Heise Online)
  [ECPAT meeting in Bangkok: globalisation affects child prostitution] "Die Globalisierung hat auch vor der sexuellen Ausbeutung von Kindern nicht haltgemacht", sagte der Neuseeländer Ron O'Grady, Gründer und Vorsitzender der gegen Kinderprostitution gerichteten Organisation ECPAT ("End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes"), auf der ersten weltweiten Mitgliederversammlung in Bangkok. Kinderpornographie im Internet sei weltweit binnen Sekunden abrufbar. Der kommerzielle Handel mit Kindern habe durch offenere Grenzen zugenommen.

• USA - Web technology helps trace kids (CNN)
  The FBI, the Customs Service and the U.S. Postal Service are linked through new World Wide Web-based technologies to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has opened a new headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive officer of Computer Associates International and the center's top benefactor contributed $5 million in funding and technology.

Issue no. 125 - 3 August 1999

• Comprehensive parents' guide unveiled (ZDNet)
  GetNetWise.org, a new comprehensive one-stop parents' guide to keeping kids safe on the Internet "one click away from virtually every Internet starting point". The three dozen Internet firms and industry trade groups sponsoring the site unveiled a logo that they plan to display on their Web pages. see also Industry Coalition Unveils Web Safety Effort (New York Times).

Issue no. 124 - 28 July 1999

• AOL Drops Teen-Age Volunteers (New York Times)
  America Online, which relies on a network of 14,000 volunteers to moderate chat rooms, monitor message boards and answer e-mail, will no longer allow minors to participate in the program.

• Dänemarks Regierung will TV-Werbung für Kinder verbieten (dpa)
  [Denmark will ban TV advertising for children] Ministerin Elsebeth Gerner-Nielsen will Kindern unter zwölf Jahren per Gesetz "reklamefreie Zonen" im Fernsehen sichern. In Norwegen und Schweden gibt es schon ähnliche Regelungen.

• Germany - Bundesjustizministerin ruft Eltern zum Widerstand gegen TV-Gewalt auf (dpa)
  [Minister tells parents to switch off TV to protect children form violence] Bundesjustizministerin Herta Däubler-Gmelin (SPD) hat Eltern zum Widerstand gegen Gewaltszenen im Fernsehen aufgerufen. Eltern sollten den Fernseher ausmachen, sich mit den Kindern beschäftigen und sich bei den Aufsichtsgremien beschweren

• Germany - Erstmals Photos von mißbrauchtem Kind im Fernsehen gezeigt (Süddeutsche Zeitung 30-Tage-Archiv registrat)
  [Police show photo on TV to identify victim of child pornography] Zum ersten Mal haben Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft in Deutschland den Schritt gewagt, Bilder eines sexuell mißbrauchten Kindes aus dem Internet im Fernsehen zu veröffentlichen und das Opfer damit der Anonymität zu entreissen. Die Aktion hatte Erfolg: durch Hinweise von Fernsehzuschauern wurde das Kind identifiziert.

Issue no. 123 - 21 July 1999

• Parents Lack Skills to Supervise Children Online (CyberAtlas)
  Parents are anxious about the Internet content their children are viewing, but many lack the time, understanding, and tools to help their children develop discerning Web skills, according to a new study.

Issue no. 122 - 7 July 1999

• Medienwächter gehen gegen TV-Sendungen vor (dpa)
  Die TV-Sendungen «Peep» und «Birte Karalus» haben nach Ansicht der Landesmedienanstalten gegen die Jugendschutzbestimmungen verstoßen. Die gemeinsame Stelle Jugendschutz und Programm empfahl den für die Sender RTL 2 und RTL zuständigen Landesmedienanstalten, rechtliche Schritte einzuleiten.

• Germany - Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Fernsehen kritisiert Talkshows (dpa)
  Einzelne Talkshow-Ausgaben der privaten Fernsehsender geraten immer mehr in die Kritik. Die von den privaten TV-Anbietern geschaffene Stelle Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Fernsehen (FSF) hat in ihrem Prüfausschuß Sendungen von RTL und ProSieben gerügt.

Issue no. 121 - 25 June 1999

• International Effort to Fight Online Child Pornography (New York Times)
  A new group, Innocence in Danger, working under the aegis of the United Nations (UNESCO) hopes to combat online sexual exploitation of children through such projects as an online tip site and a study of discrepancies in national child protection laws.

• U.S. Supreme Court to decide adult cable TV law (Reuters)
  The Supreme Court agreed to decide the constitutionality of a 1996 law that requires sexually explicit cable television channels to block their signals to non-subscribing households.

• Australia - Sex industry's crossed line on phone sex (Press Release)
  'Legislation has now passed the Senate to establish safeguards to prevent children being able to access 1 900 sex lines,' the Minister for Communications said.

• USA - ACLU Sues Michigan Over Ban Of Sexual Content To Kids (Newsbytes)
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit to stop the implementation of a Michigan law that would criminalize communications considered harmful to minors. The law criminalizes the "dissemination or display of sexually explicit material to minors".

• USA - NY Internet Pornography Law Upheld (New York Law Journal)
  A New York law enacted to protect children from receiving pornography over the Internet has withstood its first appellate challenge. The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the conviction of a man who was found guilty of attempting to send explicit pornography to a state trooper posing as a 15-year-old girl.

• USA - Top entertainment executives reject Littleton blame (Reuters)
  Executives from some of the leading entertainment producers defended their right to produce violent and sexually explicit programming, despite calls from Washington for the entertainment industry to exercise greater self-restraint.

• USA - Schools Careful About Posting Photos Online (New York Times)
  Before any student photograph is posted on the Web site for Mulberry Elementary School in Muscatine, Iowa, parents must sign a permission slip authorizing the publication of the material online. And in no case is a picture accompanied by a caption with the child's name.

Issue no. 120 - 14 June 1999

• NetDestinations: Sites for Kids (Reuters)
  Co-existing with sites that make parents cringe are Web venues that educate and entertain. See also Proprietary Net Services Seek to Protect Kids (TechWeb) Net Puts Parents In Control, Companies Say ( TechWeb) Kids and ads: Do they mix? (ZDNN) Experts: Marketers Should Listen To Kids, Teens (Reuters).

Issue no. 119 - 7 June 1999

• EU - Communication on the implementation of measures to combat child sex tourism (RAPID)
  The European Commission adopted a Communication on measures being implemented to combat child sex tourism. The Communication reports on progress achieved with regard to: improving knowledge of the phenomenon; strengthening the effectiveness of legislation and its application including extra-territorial criminal law; intensifying efforts aimed at stemming flows of sex tourists from European Union (EU) Member States; and developing initiatives contributing to the fight against child sex tourism in third countries. It also gives an overview of measures planned for 1999.

• USA - Broadcast Television, Cable Television, Telephone & the Internet (FCC)
  This web page provides information on ways parents can ensure that their children benefit from positive communications tools while providing protection from harmful or inappropriate material. As a public service, the FCC is providing parents some helpful tools and ideas for each of the four most popular communications technologies: broadcast television, cable television, the telephone and the Internet.

• USA - Clinton closes in on games - concern over violence (Reuters)
  President Bill Clinton stepped up his anti-violence campaign against Hollywood and the video game industry, ordering a study on advertising of violent entertainment to children and urging stricter enforcement of rating codes. The study, to be conducted by the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, will look at advertising of movies, music and video-games. see also remarks by the President and Mrs. Clinton on children, violence and marketing (White House) and Video-game ads at issue in probe of selling violent material to kids (San Jose Mercury).

Issue no. 118 - 21 May 1999

• Bloody games don't breed violence (ZDNet)
  A trade show full of game and entertainment executives were told they are not responsible for teen violence. Instead of blaming the Internet and computer games for violent behavior, society should be doing more research. "Kids can tell the difference between what's in a game and what is real"

• E3: Blood and Guts as Usual (Industry Standard)
  If the game industry is ducking for cover in the aftermath of the Littleton shooting, it's not apparent at E3, the gigantic annual digital entertainment convention that opened Thursday in Los Angeles.

• USA - Congressional Internet Debate Turns to Issue of Violence (New York Times)
  Lawmakers trying to protect children from the dark side of the Internet have turned their focus from pornography and child predators to violence and hate in the wake of growing school violence.

Issue no. 117 - 8 May 1999

• Parental Control of Television Broadcasting (Commission DG X))
  Study carried out by Oxford University Centre for Socio-legal Studies. It concludes that the adoption of "V-chip" technology as used in the United States and Canada is not technically feasible in Europe. Regulatory approaches in Europe should be based on the opportunities and capacities opened up by digital technology, which offers the chance to develop far more reliable, sophisticated and secure filtering systems.

• Parents' Net dreams and nightmares (ZDNet)
  A national survey of parents in computer households suggests that parents are deeply fearful about the Web's influence on their children -- and, paradoxically, positive about its educational potential. see also Parents Need to Chaperone Kids Online, Says FCC Chair (PC World).

• USA - Internet firms tackling online safety (Reuters)
  In a Parents' Protection program, fifteen major Internet firms will offer parents tools to limit children's access to Web sites that may contribute to violence like the Colorado school shooting, Vice President Al Gore announced.

• Parents Fear That Children Are One Click Ahead (New York Times)
  The profound ambivalence about the Internet that many parents have voiced in recent days is more deeply rooted than a reaction to the events at Columbine High School.

Issue no. 116 - 1 May 1999

• Violent Entertainment Has an Impact (New York Times)
  Hundreds of studies in recent decades have revealed a direct correlation between exposure to media violence -- now including video games --and increased aggression. This is not because people cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy, but because ultra-violent media systematically employ the psychological techniques of desensitization, conditioning and vicarious learning. See also Senator moves against violent games.

Issue no. 111 - 8 March 1999

• For Teen-Agers, a New Forum for Frank Talk About Sex (New York Times)
  Planned Parenthood, which offers counsel about birth control and sexual health, has launched a website aimed at teen-agers, Teenwire.com. But the chatty, familiar tone of the site was off-putting to one representative of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

• Internet can be a jungle, but guides show safe paths (Reuters)
  For some parents, the Internet can seem like a jungle with dangers for their children, including stalkers, X-rated pictures, hate group propaganda -- and advertisers. But jungles contain wonders as well as hazards and, with good guides, some education and a few precautions, the wilds can be safely navigated. It's the same with the Internet, experts say.

Issue no. 110 - 3 March 1999

• Germany - Protection of minors on television to be reinforced (AFP)
  Im deutschen Fernsehen wird es einen verstärkten Jugendschutz geben. Darauf verständigten sich die Ministerpräsidenten der 16 Bundesländer bei einem Medien-Sondertreffen. Im Rundfunkstaatsvertrag solle verankert werden, grundsätzlich die Ausstrahlung jugendgefährdender indizierter Filme zu verbieten, deren Sendung bislang ab 23 Uhr möglich ist. Für das digitale Fernsehen soll eine technische Regelung für eine Vollsperrung nicht jugendfreier Filme rund um die Uhr geprüft werden.

• UK - ITC imposes financial penalty on Telewest (Press Release)
  The ITC has imposed a financial penalty of £10,000 on Telewest for continued breaches of the ITC Rules on the Amount and Scheduling of Advertising, which details products which must not be advertised in or adjacent to children’s programmes.

• USA - Safe Children's Sites Honored By Cyber-Watch Group (Reuters)
  Cyberangels, an internet neighborhood watch group, honored four Web sites for children Monday for making both parents and kids happy by being safe as well as fun.

Issue no. 109 - 25 February 1999

• Excite pulls adult ads from kid-safe site (ZDNet)
  Excite Inc. has fixed what it called an "oversight" that allowed ads for pornographic Web sites to be displayed alongside "kid-safe" search results. see also Excite serving porn ads on "kid-safe" searches

• USA - Calvin Klein backs off ad campaign (MSNBC)
  A Calvin Klein ad campaign set to begin Thursday and showing boys and girls in underwear was abruptly canceled after critics said the ads might attract pedophiles.

Issue no. 107 - 8 February 1999

• USA - Judge rejects Net porn law (Reuters)
  A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to continue blocking a federal law aimed at shielding children from online pornography. The judge expressed sympathy with the law’s intent to protect children under 17 from contact with material that could harm them psychologically or physically. But the judge said the law threatened constitutional free-speech rights, adding that "perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection".

Issue no. 104 - 17 January 1999

• USA - City Seeks Dismissal of Library Filtering Case (New York Times)
  In a case watched closely by libraries across the country, attorneys for the suburb of Livermore sought dismissal of a lawsuit that seeks to suspend Internet access at the local public library so long as it provides public access to material deemed "harmful to minors."

Issue no. 102 - 4 January 1999

• UK - Violence replaces sex as the big turn-off (BBC)
  Violence on the small screen has overtaken sex as the main cause for concern among viewers, according to a survey by the Independent Television Commission.

Issue no. 101 - 17 December 1998

• USA - Alcohol Web Sites Luring Young, Report Says (New York Times)
  Web sites promoting alcoholic beverages too often contain cartoons and other elements that could appeal to those too young to drink legally, according to a report by the Center for Media Education, a Washington-based organization that monitors electronic media.

Issue no. 100 - 11 December 1998

• USA - Report on Game Ratings Finds Mixed Messages (New York Times)
  While supporters and critics of the electronic game industry agree that the voluntary rating system used for video and computer games generally works well, a new report suggests that some publishers may be undermining the ratings, by marketing games featuring gore and violence to younger children. see also.

Issue no. 98 - 30 November 1998

• Germany - Ratlose Porno-Jäger (FOCUS Magazin)
  Unklare Kompetenzen, alte Konzepte für ein neues Medium: Wie Jugendschützer versuchen, das Internet in den Griff zu bekommen

Issue no. 97 - 20 November 1998

• Charity Highlights Child Porn Perils Of The Internet (Press Association)
  The Internet industry has been accused of failing to protect children from cyber-porn. NCH Action for Children said far more could be done to safeguard children from coming into contact with pornography or the activities of paedophiles over the Net. In a report presented to the Government, the charity particularly condemned the decision of some Internet providers to set customers up on the Net without requiring any proof of their age, name or address.

Issue no. 93 - 29 October 1998

• Making Tomorrow's Internet a Good Place for Children (New York Times)
  Last week, an eclectic assortment of advocates for children, professors, software producers and others gathered in Washington to ask how to insure that the Internet and other technologies become something edifying rather than stultifying for children?

Issue no. 91 - 16 October 1998

• Microsoft veut promouvoir la protection des enfants sur l'internet (AFP)
  Microsoft a annoncé la création d'un nouveau site internet pour aider parents et éducateurs à encourager les enfants à explorer le Web tout en les protégeant, dans un communiqué publié jeudi. Ce site offre des informations sur la protection de la vie privée ainsi que des liens directs avec des sites d'intérêt général ou destinés particulièrement aux enfants.

Issue no. 89 - 8 October 1998

• Europa will Kinderpornographie gemeinsam bekämpfen (dpa)
  Die Länder Europas wollen im Kampf gegen Kindesmißbrauch und Kinderpornographie eng und grenzüberschreitend zusammenarbeiten. Das vereinbarten 27 Außenminister am Dienstag in Luxemburg auf ihrer Europakonferenz.

• New sites promote safer Net surfing (Cox News Service)
  A number of ways to make Web surfing safe for kids are outlined on a new Web site, called SafeKids.com, which premiered last month. A site for teens, SafeTeens.com, was also launched in September.

Issue no. 59 - 30 March 1998

• Europe fights violence towards women and children (European Commission)
  The European Union is acting to protect human rights through both its internal and its external policies. Among its actions, the DAPHNE Initiative is a programme designed to combat violence against women and children. The Initiative, which was launched in 1997, has been renewed for 1998 and offers financial support to non-governmental and voluntary organisations (NGOs) active in the fight against violence towards children, young persons and women. The DAPHNE Initiative has 3 million ECU for 1998 available to help these NGOs and voluntary organisations

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