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Companies Unite to Launch the First Industry-Led Europe-Wide Principles to Enhance Online Safety for Children

2012-01-19 18:45 1829

BRUSSELS, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ --

The ICT Coalition for a Safer Internet for Children and Young People today announced its guiding principles for the development of products and services to actively enhance the safety of children and young people online.

25 companies from across the information and communications technology sector are signatories to the principles, which aim to ensure that children and young people obtain the greatest benefit from new technologies, while avoiding the challenges and risks which are of concern to people worldwide.

The Principles focus on the key areas of: content, parental controls, dealing with abuse/misuse, child sexual abuse content or illegal contact, privacy & control and education & awareness. Signatories pledge to:

  • develop innovative ways of enhancing online safety and encouraging responsible use of the internet and internet access devices by children and young people;
  • empower parents and carers to engage with and help protect their children;
  • provide easily accessible, clear and transparent information about online safety and behaviour;
  • raise awareness of how – and to whom – to report abuse and concerns.

More details about the ICT Principles and the actions to be taken by Signatories are available at http://www.gsma-documents.com/safer_mobile/ICT_Principles.pdf

The ICT Principles have been deliberately set at a conceptual level to allow the widest possible range of companies - from network operators through device manufacturers, content providers, search engines and beyond - to become signatories and ensure that child safety is an integral part of their products and services. The Principles differ from other ongoing initiatives because they provide a long term roadmap for safer development and cover all aspects of accessing and using the internet and its services.

Signatories will begin implementation of the principles in 2012 and a multi-stakeholder platform is being setup to ensure that industry signatories can get feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including children's advocates and national representatives. The ICT Coalition fully supports related initiatives from European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes.

The initial signatories to the Principles are listed below. They represent a wide range of technologies, including mobile, telecom, social gaming, manufacturing, content providers, and ISPs. They now call on other relevant stakeholders to demonstrate their support for child safety by joining the ICT Coalition and adopting the Principles.

Companies wanting to join the ICT Coalition and adopt the Principles should contact Andrea Parola, andrea.parola@eustrategy.eu.

Signatories  Press Contact 
  AVG siobhan.macdermott@avg.com, US GSM +1415 299 2945
  British Telecom Michael Jarvis: Michael.2.jarvis@bt.com 
  bwin.party digital entertainment plc John.shepherd@bwinparty.com 
  Deutsche Telekom AG Andreas Middel andreas.middel@telekom.de 
  Facebook press@fb.com 
  France Telecom – Orange Nicole Clarke: nicole.clarke@orange.com
Sylvie Duho: sylvie.duho@orange.com 
  Google Al Verney alv@google.com 
  Hyves Rebecca Rijnders: Rebecca@hyves.nl 
  LG Electronics Doohaeng Lee doohaeng.lee@lge.com 
  Massive Media NV ines@massivemedia.eu 
  Nasza Klasa Sp. z o.o Joanna Gajewska: joanna.gajewska@nasza-klasa.pl 
  Nokia press.services@nokia.com / +358 7180 34900
  Portugal Telecom media@telecom.pt / +351 215 002 000
  RIM blackberry@goodrelations.co.uk 
  Royal KPN N.V. Patrick Mikkelsen Patrick.Mikkelsen@kpn.com 
  skyrock.com Julie Rambaud - jrambaud@skyrock.com 
  Stardoll Joan Lockwood: joan@Stardoll.com 
  TalkTalk press.office@talktalkplc.com +44 20 3417 1383
  TDC Lasse Bastkjær: labas@tdc.dk 
  Telecom Italia www.telecomitalia.com/media +39 06 3688 2610
  Telefónica prensa@telefonica.es +34 91 482 38 00
  Telenor ASA Tor Odland: Tor.Odland@telenor.com 
  TeliaSonera press@teliasonera.com +46 771 77 58 30
  Unibet egba@egba.eu 
  Vodafone Media Relations: Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664444

 

 

 

 

 
Source: GSMA
collection