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

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BRUSSELS, Jan. 19, 2012  /PRNewswire/ -- 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, [email protected].

SOURCE GSMA