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The Family Online Institute has been at the heart of European efforts the make the Internet a safer place for families for over a decade. Many of our most influential members are amongst the largest online players in the region and as well as offices in the United Kingdom we have points-of-presence in Austria, Germany and Spain.
Our active involvement with the European Commission and the efforts of many individual countries to make the Internet safer is reflected in our participation in a wide range of initiatives.
Policy Initiatives
European Union Safer Internet Plus Programme
The Internet and other online technologies should be as safe as possible, particularly for children. The Safer Internet plus Programme aims to protect online environments from illegal and harmful online content, which ranges from racism and bullying to child pornography and child grooming. From 2005 to 2008, the European Union will have already spent more than €45 million to make the Internet a safer place, and in October of this year the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, extended the programme for a further five years to 2013, as well approving a new and increased budget of €55 million.
The Family Online Safety Institute has actively participated in the Safer Internet plus Programme for many years. It’s most recent public submission and presentations at the Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg on 26/26 September 2008 are below:
Encompassing recent communications services from the web 2.0, such as social networking, the new programme will fight not only illegal content but also harmful conduct such as grooming and bullying. A new action will aim to build up the knowledge base. For more information go to http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/programme/index_en.htm
FOSI Representative: David Miles
UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS)
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) unites over 100 organisations from the public and private sector working with the Government to deliver recommendations from Dr Tanya Byron’s report Safer Children in a Digital World.
The UK Government and the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have accepted all Dr Byron’s recommendations, one of which was to set up a forum where stakeholders from across the internet safety spectrum would work together for the good of children and families. This has led to the establishment of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety.
Reporting directly to the Prime Minister, the Council will help to improve the regulation and education on internet use, tackling problems of online bullying, safer search features and violent video gamesAs one of the key recommendations of the Byron Review Action Plan, published by Children's Minister, Kevin Brennan, the Council is responsible for delivering on the key milestones of the Byron Report Safer Children in a Digital World. For more information go to http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/ukccis/
FOSI UKCCIS Representatives: Stephen Balkam & David Miles
Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG)
The BSG is the UK government's leading advisory group on broadband. It provides a neutral forum for organisations across the converging broadband value-chain to discuss and resolve key policy, regulatory and commercial issues, with the ultimate aim of helping to create a strong and competitive UK knowledge economy.
The BSG’s diverse network includes telecoms operators, manufacturers, investors, ISPs, broadcasters, new media companies, mobile operators, content producers and rights holders, as well as government departments (BERR, DCMS), Ofcom, Regional Development Agencies, devolved administrations and others.The Family Online Safety Institute actively supports and paricipates in its work. Learn more
FOSI Representative: David Miles
Youth Protection Roundtable
After over two years of work the European Youth Protection Roundtable presented the outcome of its work in Berlin on 3rd April 2009. The Youth Protection Conference attracted over 230 attendees as well as fifteen exhibitors. The Family Online Safety Institute was one of 32 International partners and over 126 experts that contributed to the final result. Eight principles to improve youth protection on the Internet were developed by the Youth Protection Roundtable, an European thematic network bringing together companies and welfare organisations from 13 European countries. The implementation of these principles is supported by the YPRT Toolkit, a catalogue of non-binding references for the improvement of technical and educational measures.
Addressing technical experts, the YPRT Toolkit provides references and concrete suggestions on how to assess the impact of newly developed Internet appliances and services on their safe use by children and young people. For parents and pedagogues the YPRT Toolkit keeps ready information about the risks and threats that might come along for children surfing the Internet.
Today's younger generation is at home in the virtual world, they are handling new technologies like smart phones, gaming consoles or the computers very proficiently. But coping with what they often enough have to face online and taking account of the possible consequences their own conduct presents significant challenges. Surveyed by the Stiftung Digitale Chancen this gave highest priority to safety measures like parental control and empowerment by teaching media literacy. However young people themselves often seek advice from their peers rather than from their parents, who are reckoned usually at being less acquainted with the Internet than their children. Therefore young people from 7 European countries have collaborated at the Young Roundtable to develop the YPRT Toolkit for appropriate technical and educational measures with regard to the protection of children and young people on the Internet.
The Youth Protection Roundtable is a network funded by the Safer Internet Programme of the European Commission since November 2006 and ended in April 2009. The Family Online Safety Institute has been an active participant in the Roundtable since its inception. For more information go to http://www.yprt.eu/
FOSI Representative: David Miles
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