Safer Internet gets increased attention
Moves by the European Commission, national governments and individual projects aiming to ensure safer use of the Internet among young users have been announced, as further evidence is released showing the importance of the Internet to young people. The Commission has announced an awareness day which will take place in Luxembourg on 25 October. This will not only provide information about progress in ongoing projects connected with the activity, but will also provide an opportunity to enhance coordination. It will also act as a source of information for the new calls for proposals, with officials from the Commission's DG Information society on hand to discuss issues with attendees. In the UK, home secretary David Blunkett has been in talks with a UK taskforce, which has been looking into protecting children from approaches from paedophiles on the Internet. Proposals include creating a special approval process for chatrooms, which are known not to pose a danger and education programmes fro children on 'safe surfing'. 'The task force has spent three months working intensively to examine legislation, online protection measures, police training and the Internet industry...we expect some radical and effective proposals to improve child protection online,' said and official spokesman. In the USA, a new initiative called 'Teenangels' will teach children the fundamentals of online safety. Established by a New York lawyer, the project aims to teach young Internet users how to avoid criminals operating in chat rooms, by e-mail and through instant messaging. While the teams are operating generally out of the USA at present, there are plans to get teams up and running in India, Australia and Mexico by the end of the year. The teams will largely be run by teenagers, as a means of getting the message through to fellow teenagers who will be more likely to listen to advice from people of the same age. There has been evidence of increased use of the Internet by both young people and Europeans recently. In the UK, the Hansard society found that, during the country's recent general election, young people were twice as likely as older voters to use the Internet to find out information about the developments in the election. In addition, this information influenced what they thought, with 17 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds reporting that Internet information had an effect on their vote. This was more than three times higher the equivalent figure for over 24 year olds. Finally, figures were released on 18 July showing that both Denmark and Norway have higher use of the Internet than the USA. The survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres and Norsk Gallup found that around two thirds of Danes and Norwegians spent time on line in June. But it also found that the USA remains the world leader in terms of Internet shopping, with one third of Americans buying goods on the Internet.