# EUR-Lex - 52012DC0033 - EN

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# 52012DC0033

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Interim evaluation of the multi-annual Union programme on protecting children using the Internet and other communication technologies. /* COM/2012/033 final */**

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Interim evaluation of the multi-annual
Union programme on protecting children using the Internet and other
communication technologies.

1.
introduction

This communication concerns the interim
evaluation of the Safer Internet Programme 2009-2013, in this communication
referred to as "the programme". The Technopolis Group was given the
assignment to carry out the evaluation. The main objective of the evaluation
has been to assess the programme concerning relevance, effectiveness and
efficiency in addition to broader impacts and sustainability based on evidence
from questionnaires, consultations with stakeholders and annual reports.

The main objectives of the programme are
to:

–
Increase public awareness

–
Provide the public with a network of contact
points for reporting illegal and harmful content and conduct, in particular on
child abuse material, grooming and cyber bullying.

–
Foster self-regulatory initiatives in this field
and involve children in creating a safer online environment.

–
Establish a knowledge base on new trends in the
use of online technologies and their consequences for children's lives.

Compared to the earlier programmes the
general scope of the current programme has been extended to include emerging
online technologies, the covering of harmful contact and conduct (like grooming
and cyber-bullying) and it aims at establishing a knowledge base within this
field.

The main mechanism for implementing the
programme is the co-financing of projects selected on the basis of public calls
for proposals. This has resulted in a wide range of projects being funded under
the various action lines, complemented by non-funded activities as appropriate.
The projects aim at creating a safer online environment for young people and
the non-funded initiatives range from supporting Safer Internet Day, organizing
Safer Internet Forum, promotion and support of industry self-regulation and
co-operating at the international level with other relevant organizations.

As part of its actions the programme
co-funds Safer Internet Centres, which are central in the work to raise
awareness.[1]
The centres are present in all EU Member States as well as in Iceland, Norway
and Russia. All Centres, apart from Portugal, operate helplines from which
parents and children can get advice on issues related to children's use of
online technologies. The Centres and helplines belong to the INSAFE network.[2] In most countries Safer
Internet Centres also include hotlines; their main task is to receive reports
from the public about illegal content online. When illegal content is
identified the hotline will refer this on to competent law enforcement agencies
in the country and/or the Internet Service Provider and ask for content to be
removed, or to a member of the International
Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE) network if
the content is hosted in another country. The hotlines are coordinated by the
INHOPE Association.[3]
Knowledge enhancement on young people's use of technology is a central
aim for the work in the programme. The programme supports several research
projects covering a range of topics and disciplines. In addition to raising the
research profile of safer Internet related issues, developing knowledge through
many relevant projects feeds into the knowledge base for all activities in the
programme. The current knowledge enhancement projects include:

–
The project EU Kids Online II (selected
under the previous programme) aims to strengthen the knowledge base regarding
children's and parent's experiences and practices of risk and safety in their
use of the internet and new technologies in Europe. The project is the first to
investigate the attitudes and actions towards online safety of both children
and parents across most of the European Member States. The project builds on
the previous EU Kids Online I, but has increased the number of participating
countries from 21 to 25 countries.

–
European Online Grooming Project (POG)
(selected under the previous programme) aims to investigate victim targeting
practices of offenders convicted of online grooming. POG is the first European
research project that studies the characteristics and behaviour of offenders who
have used the internet to target young victims. The project is a cooperation
carried out by 6 partners representing four countries: United Kingdom, Italy,
Belgium and Norway. The work includes a scoping study reviewing online
groomer's case files. The project will provide reports of the research and
policy literature from the partner countries in the project. In addition the
project includes interviews with strategic stakeholders concerning the
management and prevention of online grooming.

–
Risk taking Online Behaviour - Empowerment
through Research and Training (ROBERT) intends to
make online interaction safe for children and young people by learning from
experiences of online abuse processes and factors that make young people
vulnerable as well as those that offer protection. [4] Perpetrator's strategies in
relation to grooming of children online are also explored along with developing
an understanding of how abuse may develop in the online environment. Children
and young people will be empowered in order for them to better protect
themselves online. Groups of children perceived to be more at risk will
specifically benefit from chances of improved self-protection.

Under the action for fighting against illegal content the programme co-funds
initiatives to support law enforcement bodies in the fight against child
sexual abuse material.

–
The FIVES project - Forensic Image and Video
Examination Support was selected under the
previous programme and ran from 01/02/2009 until 31/01/2011. The aim of the
project has been to develop new ICT tools tailored to investigating images and
videos of child sexual abuse to enhance the possibilities the police have to
handle large amount of seized equipment.

–
The INTERPOL – International Child Sexual
Exploitation Image Database (ICSEDB) is a project
aimed at increasing the number of children identified and rescued from abuse. A
central tool is sophisticated image comparison software that can make
connections between victims and places. It also allows authorized users in the
INTERPOL member countries to access the database directly and in real time. The
aim is eventually to provide 30 additional countries with access to this
system.

To ensure involvement of civil society
the Safer Internet Centres set up national youth panels which they consult
regularly. In October 2010 the INSAFE European Youth Panel gathered for the
second time young people from 30 European countries. Their discussions about
opinions and suggestions about online safety were fed into a wider debate
during the Safer Internet Forum in 2010. Another way of involving civil society
is the European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online II (eNACSO) network. It is
financed until 31/08/2012 and consists of European children's rights
organisations engaged in online safety for children. The network promotes its
joint strategies and recommendations for change to national, European and
international decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders.

The programme also aims to make it easier
to use filtering software, content labelling and services. A
benchmarking study – SIP-Bench study – running from 2010 to 2012 provides a
ranking list to assist European parents to choose the parental control tool
that fits their needs. The first results were available in December 2010. The
first SIP-Bench study (2006-2008) showed overall that tools improved and became
easier to install over this three year period.

The Internet and mobile technologies
develop at a fast pace and to be able to react quickly concerning new
developments of children's use and risks industry self-regulation is
important. The programme supports two self-regulation initiatives taken by the
industry at the European level. A European Framework for safer Mobile Use by
Younger Teenagers and Children was signed by leading mobile operators and
content providers in 2007. In 2009 major social networks active in Europe
signed the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU.

The programme supports events and
campaigns such as the Safer Internet day and the Safer Internet Forum.

2.
EVALUATION OBJECTIVES

The evaluation covers the first part of the
2009-2013 Safer Internet Programme and the main focus is therefore to evaluate
how the programme is evolving but the evaluation will also feed into
recommendations for any follow-up initiative.

An evaluation of the programme at this
stage, as an interim evaluation, gives an analysis of the relevance of the
programme concerning its design, efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, it
indicates the sustainability and impact the programme has had with a special
emphasis on the coherence of the programme. To consider the relevance of
the programme the evaluation addressed the following questions:

–
Have the problems addressed by the Safer
Internet Programme evolved?

–
Have circumstances, technology, social or
economic factors changed since the initiation of the programme?

–
Are the focal activities and the target areas
the most relevant and still relevant to achieve the programme's overall aim?
Are the current objectives still relevant for the future?

–
To what extent are the objectives relevant to
Internet users, parents, teachers, children and the industry? Has there been an
added value for the target groups?

The efficiency of the programme was
evaluated according to the following questions:

–
Has the implementation of the programme been
satisfactory? Are procedures simple enough?

–
Were the activities of the programme carried out
efficiently and were they cost effective?

–
Were the levels of funding and other available
resources adequate?

To look at the effectiveness of the
programme the following questions were addressed:

–
How have the results of the programme
contributed to a better protection of children on the Internet and in the
broader digital environment?

–
Has the programme made a difference? did it
induce participants to undertake activities that would not have been carried
out without the programme?

–
Are there other activities that could achieve
results more effectively? What are the main obstacles to and opportunities for
enhanced programme effectiveness?

The impact and sustainability of the
programme was addressed according to the following questions:

–
Can any lessons be drawn from this assessment
that can be used in the design and implementation of any follow-up programme?

–
To what extent did the programme complement
other EU programmes and initiatives so as to avoid duplication and maximise
impact?

–
Did the activities show likelihood of generating
sustainable impacts?

–
To what extent would positive changes induced by
the programme have happened without any EU intervention?

Methodology for the evaluation

The evaluation work has been divided into
three overlapping phases; inception phase, the collection/analysis phase and
the interim evaluation/final report phase. The main data collection method
comprised two online surveys; one project participant survey and one wider
stakeholder survey. The questions in these surveys reflected the main
evaluation questions. The surveys were complemented with consultations on a
broader range of issues with 25 stakeholders representing project participants,
industry, policy makers,other DGs and NGOs.

3.
EVALUATION FINDINGS

The evaluation results are positive. They show that the programme has evolved to keep up with
the technological and sociological considerations surrounding the safer use
of the Internet by minors. It responds well to changing demands in the external
environment as evidenced by the current emphasis on social media and
cyber-bullying. However, to ensure the inclusion of new issues the programme
needs to continue to explore new issues and have a long-term strategic vision.

The evaluation results further show that the
programme is influential in relation to other national and international
activities; literature, research and results from the programme are widely used
and quoted. In addition, recommendations from the last programme evaluations
have been broadly incorporated into the programme.

The programme was run efficiently. There are good levels of communication between the related EU
programmes at policy level. The programme is also effective according to the
evaluation. The achievements of the programme concerning the existence of
hotlines, helplines and awareness centres in the majority of Member States are
highlighted in the evaluation. The evaluation also concludes that the current
focus and structure of the programme is appropriate and does not call for
significant change in the next period. The support and funding from the
programme is crucial for the projects to exist, especially considering the
current economic constraints.

The overall picture of the programme is
very positive; there is however room for improvements concerning some matters
according to the evaluation findings. According to some stakeholders there
still needs to be done further work to ensure that there is direct involvement
of children.. The projects call for longer funding periods to ensure better
continuity and periods of reflection. There is a need for the programme to keep
up to date with technological advances – through market intelligence, knowledge
enhancement projects and general knowledge exchange. The programme must also be
able to follow the developments in national contexts concerning issues related
to legislation. The risk with national budget cuts and subsequent change of
priorities implies that there is a need to ensure that national and regional
priorities are coherent with European priorities to maximise the effect in the
time to come.

4.
EVALUATION RECOMMENDATIONS

A number of recommendations have been
identified through the interim evaluation in order to further the impact of
future initiatives.

According to the recommendations concerning
relevance the Safer Internet Programme should continue its efforts to
ensure that it researches and funds the most pertinent activities for the protection
of minors on the Internet. The programme should not broaden its objectives but
maintain its current objectives. It is recommended to maintain a long-term
strategic vision on the programme and its issues. The knowledge base can
improve through creating links with key industry actors, international
organisations, content providers and technology producers. Many links from
existing stakeholders can be better exploited. Enhancement of children's
participation and involvement in the programme should be considered; including
methods, activities, arenas etc.

The efficiency of the programme
could be improved through longer funding periods for the projects and fewer
restrictions on the internal allocation of funds. It should further be
considered to implement the programme jointly with other projects carried out
by the Commission. The networks of hotlines, helplines and awareness centres
should be further coordinated through joint events and working groups. The
collaboration of INHOPE and INSAFE should be further encouraged. INTERPOL is
positive towards further cooperation with Safer Internet projects.

Concerning effectiveness it will be
advisable to increase awareness of the work of the Safer Internet Programme to
address a potential reduction in national/regional political support. The
programme should also look at measures to increase more consistent commitment
from the industry and increase debate about legal issues surrounding the
protection of minors. In relation to international networking, it is recommended
that enlargement countries and Russia / South East Europe are involved both in
contributing to the evidence base and as receivers of knowledge /best practices
from experienced stakeholders. The programme should ensure that the knowledge
base is improved through research contributions shaped and informed by the
growing level of information already published. The annual reports of the
projects should be improved concerning outcomes and impacts. The programme
should also ensure that the knowledge reaches further into schools and
curricula.

The evaluation report suggests some
initiatives for improving the impact and sustainability of the
programme. Firstly,it can be advisable to consider setting up two types of
forum; one to discuss technology issues arising in relation to the programme
and its objectives; and another to discuss relevant legislative issues arising
in the individual countries. Secondly, it is suggested to develop further
indicators for measuring the impact of awareness-raising activities. The
programme should also enhance the opportunities for projects funded by
different programmes of the Commission to exchange knowledge and discuss common
issues.

5.
COMMISSION COMMENTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The interim evaluation confirms that the
activities and initiatives of the Safer Internet Programme are a success
according to the indicators of the evaluation. That the programme succeeded to
evolve according to the fast changing nature of the domain including both
technological and sociological considerations is especially positive.

The Commission takes full note of the
findings and will take the recommendations into account in ongoing and future
activities and strategies of the programme.

The Commission invites the European
Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
Regions to:

(1)
Take note that the programme has been
successfully implemented at mid term.;

(2)
Assist the Commission in its work to increase
visibility, stimulate continued dialogue and support the joining of actors and stakeholders
in the field of Safer Internet.

[1]               Safer
Internet Centres:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/projects/centres/index_en.htm

[2]               European
Network of Awareness Centres http://www.saferinternet.org/web/guest/home;jsessionid=CFCEC3A1AE9934CF71917E6C207ABB2C

[3]               International Association of Internet Hotlines INHOPE
http://www.inhope.org/gns/home.aspx

[4]               Risktaking
Online Behaviour - Empowerment through Research and Training http://www.childcentre.info/robert/about-the-project/