Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 276/1999/EC adopting a multiannual Community action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks" (COM(2002) 152 final — 2002/0071 (COD))
Date: 2002-09-18
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Internet, action programme, child protection, consumer protection, information system, information technology, technical regulations

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given to applying the safeguard procedure until such time as
the obstacles in question have been removed even though, all
other things being equal, the advisory procedure can usually
be implemented more quickly — a fact that may be of
importance for the matter in hand.

4.3.2. R e c o m m e n d a t i o n

Consideration should be given to whether the committee
proposed in Article 12 to assist the Commission, should apply

Brussels, 18 September 2002.

the safeguard procedure laid down in Article 6 of Decision
No 468/1999/EC instead of the suggested advisory procedure.

5. Conclusion

In principle, the Committee backs the proposal for a

5.1.
regulation.

5.2.
The proposal should make clear how the new pro-
visions are to operate in accordance with the existing bilateral
and internationally binding air transport agreements between
the Member States and third countries.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Decision of the European
Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 276/1999/EC adopting a multiannual
Community action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful
content on global networks’

(COM(2002) 152 final — 2002/0071 (COD))

(2003/C 61/06)

On 12 April 2002 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 153
of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 2 September 2002. The
rapporteur was Mrs Davison.

At its 393rd Plenary Session of 18/19 September 2002 (meeting of 18 September), the Economic and
Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 132 votes in favour and four abstentions.

1.

Introduction

should be reflected by the EU generally. An overall coherent
policy on children’s issues is badly needed in Europe.

1.1.
The European Economic and Social Committee has
given youth policy a special priority (1), one which it believes

( 1) See, for example: Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee
on ‘Exploitation of children and sex tourism’; OJ C 284, 14.9.1998
and Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on ‘European
Cultural Policy for Children’; CES 250/1996.

1.2.
The EESC has produced several opinions which refer
to the need for child protection on the Internet in particular.
They have helped to pave the way for the Internet Action Plan
(IAP), which reflects many EESC proposals. The first such
Opinion was produced in 1997, with Dame Jocelyn Barrow as

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rapporteur (1), and the most recent,
‘A programme of child
protection on the Internet,’ finalised November 2001 (2) was
one of the EESC’s highest profile Opinions, reaching around
20 million consumers through national and regional media.
This shows that the Committee’s concern to see the necessary
child protection put in place on the Internet is strongly
reflected in the public at large.

Assembly of Madrid was presented with a similar 30 % figure
of unpleasant approaches (5). One in five Irish 10-14 year olds
report having been asked for personal details such as phone
number on-line. This increases for teenage girls (6). Third
generation mobile phones will allow even easier access to
children.

In that Opinion, the Committee made suggestions for
1.3.
strengthening the IAP, some of which, such as establishing an
EU Safer Internet Forum and addressing hate and racist content,
have been taken up by the Commission. The Committee also
recommended here, and in its Opinion on the Green Paper on
Consumers Protection, a legal background to the IAP to ensure
that all players use the excellent codes of practice and other
schemes developed under the IAP but currently entirely
voluntary and in some cases lacking the support of a critical
mass.

2. Extent of the challenge

2.1.
Around 38 % of EU homes had internet access at end
of 2001 and schools throughout the EU are gradually coming
fully on-line. Children learn about IT at school and take to the
new medium easily, often ahead of their parents. When they
use the Internet at home, they are generally unsupervised and
unfortunately paedophiles have found that the anonymity of
the net provides an opportunity for approach, sometimes
ending in rape. Parents often understand the Internet less than
their children. In a new Greek survey half the children using
the Internet report that their parents never use it and about
the same percentage say they do not know how to protect
themselves on line (3).

A recent US survey of girl scouts (4) found that 30 %
2.2.
had been sexually harassed in a chat room. Only 7 %, however,
told their mothers or fathers about this, as they were worried
that they would be prevented from going on-line again. The

2.3.
The Internet has also provided an opportunity for the
exchange of child pornography. There are estimates of
1 million pornographic images of children (7) and police report
thousands of children being abused for photos and videos to
be shown on line. Harmful content is also readily available on-
line. Around 30 % of visits to the Internet are estimated to be
to pornographic sites. Most of the girl scouts reported that
they tried to avoid pornographic sites but frequently received
pornographic spam or accidentally ended up on a porn site. In
the Irish survey, eight out of ten parents agreed strongly or
slightly with the statement ‘I am concerned that my child/
children might access harmful material, such as sexually
explicit or violent material on-line’.

2.4.
Racist sites are also proliferating. In Germany, which
has an internal security watchdog and some of the world’s
toughest racism laws, the number of extreme right-wing
homepages has nonetheless jumped to 330 in 2000, about
10 times more than four years ago, the watchdog says. The
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia
tracked one racist site in 1995, 600 in 1997, 1 430 in
January 1999 and 2 100 by July. Such sites may receive
20 000 to 30 000 visits per day (8). There is evidence that the
number of racist sites has grown since 11 September with sites
supporting suicide bomber reaching around 100 (9).

( 1) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Green
Paper on the protection of minors and human dignity in
audiovisual and information services’; OJ C 287, 22.9.1997.
( 2) Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on ‘A programme

for child protection on the internet’; OJ C 48, 21.2.2002.
( 3) EKATO, the Hellenic Consumers Association, Spring 2002.
( 4) http://www.girlscouts.org/news/presrel/NetEffect–021302.pdf

(5) European Consumer Day — Madrid 13-15 March 2002. http://

www.Delitosinformaticos.com

(6) Research of Internet Downside Issues, submitted to the Irish
Internet Advisory Board by Amarach Consulting August 2001.

(7) Wellard (2001).
(8) Simon Wiesenthal Centre. See http://www.wiesenthal.com
(9) Simon Wiesenthal Centre. See http://www.wiesenthal.com

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2.5.
An increase in gambling sites and their use has been
reported in most of Europe (1). Online gamblers tend to be
young unmarried and have low income and education levels.
A much higher percentage of online gamblers (74 %) than
offline gamblers were classed as having either problematic or
pathological problems (2).

• Creating a safer environment

— Creating a European network of hot-lines for con-
sumers to report any suspicion of child por-
nography (5).

— Encouraging self-regulation and codes of conduct.

2.6.
The US Federal Trade Commission found that many
child-orientated online game sites carried ads for age-restricted
gambling websites. The Commission also visited over
100 popular gambling websites and found that it was easy for
minors to access the sites because few effective blocking
mechanisms. The study also found that a large number of
gambling sites had inadequate or hard-to-find warnings about
underage gambling prohibitions, while 20 % of sites had no
warnings at all.

• Developing filtering and rating systems

— Demonstrating the benefits of voluntary filtering and

rating such as ICRA (6).

— Facilitating international agreement on rating sys-

tems.

2.7.
Children can easily find violent computer games and
videos, hate and race sites on-line. In a recent survey, almost
two fifths of UK and Austrian children aged 11-14 said they
had found ‘nasty’ sites and a further two out of five in the UK
and nearly a third in Austria said they had found violent
sites (3). A thorough US trawl of research on the subject found
that violence in the media made children more fearful, more
aggressive and less sensitive.

The presence of harmful material is acting as a deterrent
2.8.
to families going on-line. Just over one in five of the parents
surveyed in Ireland gave this as the main reason for not getting
home Internet access, so there is a commercial interest in
better protection of human dignity. The EU Safer Internet
Action Plan is part of the response to these challenges, along
with the Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime (4).

3. Summary of the Commission’s proposals

3.1.
The current Safer Internet Action Plan ends on
31 December 2002. The Safer Internet Action Plan has four
action lines:

( 1) http://www.netvalue.com
( 2) http://www.nua.com/surveys
( 3) www.net-consumers.org/erica/policy/survey.htm.

also
Council resolution of 25 March 2002 on the eEurope Action Plan
2002: accessibility of public websites and their content, OJ C 86,
10.04.2002.

See

•

Encouraging awareness actions

— Preparing the ground for awareness actions.

— Encouraging implementation of full-scale awareness

actions.

•

Support actions

— Assessing legal implications.

— Co-ordination with similar international initiatives.

— Evaluating the impact of Community measures.

3.2.
The Commission proposes to extend the Action Plan
for another two years and to have closer links between the
activities in these different action lines. Coverage would be
extended to new on-line technologies, including mobile and
broadband content, on-line games, peer-to-peer file transfer,
and real-time communication such as chat rooms and instant
messaging. A broader range of illegal and harmful content
would be covered, including racism and violence and aware-
ness of consumer protection issues, data protection/privacy
and network security. Discussion has begun with candidate
countries, with a view to their future involvement.

(5) Reports can be made to any of melding@stopline.at in Austria,
http://www.childfocus-net-alert.be in Belgium, redbarnet@redbar-
net.dk in Denmark, contact@pointdecontact.net in France, hotline-
@jugendschutz.net or hotline@fsm.de in Germany, report@hotli-
ne.ie in Ireland, crimino@unige.it in Italy, meldpunt@meldpunt.
org in the Netherlands, a.acpi@terra.net
in Spain, minor@-
press.rb.se in Sweden and report@iwf.org.uk in Britain. Portugal
has a website on www.pgr.pt/.

( 4) http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Word/185.doc

(6) ICRA: Internet Content Rating Association.

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3.3.
The aim is to involve industry and governments more
closely in the new Plan and to progress towards an integrated
European network, linked to the Safer Internet Forum and an
international Round Table. Improved visibility is a key target.
A web-portal would be created and sociological research into
on-line child protection continued.

remain, since children could not be expected to be limited to
such an area (they would want to visit museums etc. at least)
and since adult views on taste and decency also require a
response.

The self-regulatory model is continued and examined,
3.4.
with the creation of an ‘observatory’ for legal and technology/
market watch. Work on rating will take account of conver-
gence, filtering systems will be benchmarked and the Com-
munity R&D programme will be used.

4.3. Hot-lines

4.3.1.
It is to be hoped that hotlines can be set up in the
remaining countries. Action to trace and help child victims of
on-line abuse is being sponsored by the EU, but must be re-
doubled and especially in those candidate countries where
child protection is still weak. EU guidelines are needed on
NGOs dealing with children and for cross-border adoption
agencies in order to reinforce protection.

4. General comments

4.4.

Self-regulation

4.1.
The Committee agrees with the generally favourable
assessment of the Internet Action Plan itself. It should benefit
from greater governmental and industry support.

The Committee also welcomes the mention in the
4.2.
Commission document of the need for positive space on-line
including for children. The availability of more exciting,
positive content can gradually change the media environment.
Children have much to gain from the information, entertain-
ment, education and communication opportunities on-line.
For example, a list of 20 top recommended kids sites in French
and in German have just been published under the IAP (1). The
EESC welcomes the Commission’s intention to encourage
Internet content for children and the best practice of industry
in signposting children’s areas. We need to transfer the best
traditions of public service broadcasting over to the new
medium. It may be that an enlarged walled garden could be
created and moderated for children under a.kids.eu domain as
envisaged in the US. However, it would have to be protected
from paedophile activity and the need for more filtering and
‘notice and take down’ on the rest of the Internet would

The Committee is sceptical about the sufficiency of
4.4.1.
self-regulation. In particular, self-regulation has not achieved
content protection for children, because rating systems have
not been adopted by a critical mass, although Microsoft and
AOL have recently followed EESC advice to put pressure on
content providers to rate their material.

The Committee sees Internet protection as a con-
4.4.2.
sumer issue (the Internet is a service) and believes that classing
it as such would reinforce protection. The Commission Green
Paper on Consumers Protection provides an opportunity to do
so. It could be used to create a legal backdrop to give force to
voluntary rating/filtering and ‘notice and take down’ systems
on the Internet to protect children from the harmful content
the Committee has shown to be reaching them in large
quantities (2). A general legal duty on ISPs to protect children
on-line would also imply safety messages and systems to
reduce paedophile approaches and child pornography on-line.

In sum, the Committee would recommend a background of
legislation with supporting codes, in other words co-regulation
rather than self-regulation.

( 1) See the site of the European Research into Consumer Affairs at

‘www.net-consumers.org/erica/policy/topsites.htm’.

(2) See ESC opinion on ‘A programme for child protection on the
Internet’; CES 1473/2001 annexe II p 15. EKATO, the Hellenic
Consumers Association has revealed alarming cases of on-line
gambling by children and also found that 36 % said that they
misled their parents to use their credit cards on-line.

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4.4.3.
Racism on the Internet also needs a much firmer
approach, as called for in the EESC Opinion on cybercrime (1).
Ninety per cent of the sites operate through US ISPs, safe in
the knowledge that the EU authorities cannot compel US
providers to reveal the identity of the site provider (2).

especially. However, recent testing by Test Achats, co-financed
by the EU Internet Action Plan, shows good filters are probably
the best way to block at least most ‘adult’ sites and the
Committee considers their further development an important
priority (4).

4.4.4.
The E-Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC requires ISPs
to take action to remove or block access if they are put on
notice of illegal material. This means that a company hosting
Websites on its computers is not liable for distributing illegal
material if it is not aware of its existence. But if an ISP, or any
web host, becomes aware that information is illegal, it must
immediately remove it or bar access. The implementation of
the EU E-Commerce directive should have taken place on
17 January 2002 (3), but only five member states have enacted
it so far.

4.4.4.1.
The Committee is very concerned that this is being
undermined by the US courts. In France two cases have been
brought under Section R 645-1 of the French Criminal Code,
which prohibits the exhibition of racist propaganda and
artefacts for sale. They required ISPs to block racist sites.
However a US court, in San José ruled on 7 November, 2001
that the ISP does not have to comply with the French court
ruling. An international agreement is urgently needed that the
law of the user applies.

Content providers should always register real world
4.4.5.
addresses so that police access to potentially suspicious on-
line material can be improved. Whilst freedom of expression
is to be valued, it should not be an excuse for allowing crime
to flourish.

4.5.2.

F i l t e r i n g s y s t e m s w o r k i n a n u m b e r o f
w a y s

4.5.2.1.
‘No’ lists: A ‘No’ list of sites that should be avoided
is drawn up (containing rude, violent or racist material for
example) and if a child clicks on one of these sites, his or her
access is blocked. Some programmes also work on lists of
banned words. Once these words have been found in an
address or in the site itself, access to the site is blocked. The
problem with ‘No’ lists is that they need to be updated very
often.

4.5.2.2.
Real-time filtering: the filter checks words and/or
pictures as they are called up and stops a page with an
unwanted text or picture from being shown. The problem is
that a page can be partially seen before the filter finds the
offending word or picture. Also, the system can slow down
access to websites.

4.5.2.3.
Site labelling/rating: Owners of sites voluntarily
give their web pages a label which shows whether their site
contains certain material
(e.g. violence, nudity, gambling,
‘adult’ , etc). The label and categories have been created by
ICRA. The filter reads these labels and decides whether to
allow access, depending on what parents have chosen to allow
their children to see. The problem with this system is that it
depends on owners of web sites voluntarily rating their own
sites and so far not many sites are rated.

4.5.

Filtering and rating systems

4.5.1.
No filtering software can replace the need for parents
to keep an eye on what their children see on-line, and it is
to find protection against violent sites
currently difficult

4.5.2.4. Walled gardens: Lists of websites that are suitable
for young children are drawn up and then access is only
allowed to a site which is on the list. This is the safest way to
protect younger children.

( 1) ESC opinion on ‘Information society/Computer-related crime’; OJ

C 311, 7.11.2001, p. 12.

( 2) Simon Wiesenthal Centre. See http://www.wiesenthal.com
( 3) Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information
society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal
Market (Directive on electronic commerce) OJ L 178, 17.7.2000.

4.5.3. Many of the filtering products are American. This
means that the criteria for filtering can be very much influenced
by American values, for example very strict about nudity, but

(4) For results see www.net-consumers.org/erica/policy/tafilter.htm

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not so strict about weapons or violence. Many of the filtering
products work mainly in English. There can be a big difference
in price between filtering products and the more expensive
ones are not necessarily better.

addition, the Committee will use its network of Joint Consulta-
tive Committees with many of the candidate countries to
inform them about this initiative. Policing cannot on its own
solve the challenges of the Internet.

4.5.4.
Recently consumer organisations in Belgium, Spain,
Italy and Portugal carried out tests into 18 filtering software
packages currently on the market and their best-buy was a free
download. In general, pornographic sites were found to be
filtered out rather well. At the same time, the programmes did
not generally filter out inoffensive sites, including those where
the name could have caused confusion. On the other hand,
weapons sites, violence, hate, racism, drugs or sects passed
fairly easily through the filters. Another problem was that
filters tested were in general not able to withstand attempts
by cyber-savvy children to switch them off. Many of the
programmes were also not very user-friendly.

4.6.2.
The Committee has often found that comparative
pan-European statistics are lacking to provide the needed back-
up to action plans and legislation. This area is no exception.
The new awareness raising projects should be used to help
generate statistics on the level of risk to children on-line. For
example, the EU should have readily available comparative
data on the number of internet related crimes against children.
Data from hotlines only indicate the number of reports of on-
line child pornography.

4.5.5.
Efforts in the new plan should therefore focus on
telling consumers what is available (for example, simple advice
on filtering should be available with computers at point of
sale) and on making systems easier to use (in a range of
languages) as well as more effective against violent content.
The Committee also repeats its call for all content providers to
label their sites e.g. with ICRA (the Internet Content Rating
Association). As stated in its Opinion on cyber crime, the
Committee believes that the definition of illegal content should
be expanded to include hate and racist material and dangerous
sites such as bomb-making/suicide.

4.6.3.
Industry should take an active part, for example
posting safety messages especially at entrances to chat rooms,
providing information on and downloads of effective filtering
systems (1), promoting rating of sites and providing ‘notice and
take down’ systems including for children. The example of the
Irish code of conduct which provides that ‘customers may not
use the ISP’s services to create, host or transmit any unlawful,
libellous, abusive, offensive, vulgar or obscene material’ should
be followed (2).

4.5.6.
The Committee believes that the ICRA system, which
relies on sites to rate and label themselves will only reach the
critical mass needed if governments and industry support it
much more strongly. It is vital that this should happen.

4.6.4.
The Commission can maximise the impact of aware-
ness raising messages by incorporating them in existing
programmes such as E-Europe and E-learning and through
decentralisation. IT training for parents and children should
incorporate safety training. The schools have a key role to
play.

4.6. Awareness raising

The Committee has actively supported the IAP’s
4.6.1.
efforts in this area,
including through its Opinion on a
programme of child protection on the Internet and its related
hearing of industry and other interested parties. We offer to
host one of the sessions of the new Safer Internet Forum. In

(1) Sample safety tips to print off and stick to the computer:

‘It’s a really bad idea to meet someone from the Internet — unless
your parents go with you, in a public place.’
‘Remember, people can pretend on-line, no-one can see them.’
‘So do not give them personal stuff like your address, school
name, photo or password either. They might be a freak!’
‘If you spot something really rude, or get someone bothering you
on-line, it’s not your fault. Tell your parents.’
Source www.net-consumers.org.

(2) Internet Service Providers of Ireland Code of Practice and Ethics,
point 5.1.1, p. 11; available on www.iab.ie/Publications/Reports/
d33.PDF.

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4.7.

International co-operation

The Committee supports the proposed programme
4.7.1.
of international co-operation. It recognises however that the
US feels constrained to some extent by the first amendment in

favour of ‘free speech’ whereas the EU is seeking to balance
this with safety needs and human dignity. In the end, the EU is
a big enough market to take action on its own and this is an
important example where citizens are looking to the EU to
protect them.

Brussels, 18 September 2002.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Decision of the European
Parliament and of the Council adopting a multiannual programme for action in the field of
energy: “Intelligent Energy for Europe” Programme (2003-2006)’

(COM(2002) 162 final/2 — 2002/0082 (COD))

(2003/C 61/07)

On 6 May 2002, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 175
of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for
preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 2 September 2002. The
rapporteur was Mr Morgan.

At its 393rd Plenary Session held on 18 and 19 September 2002 (meeting of 18 September) the
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 127 votes for, three against and one
abstention.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The Commission has made a proposal for a Decision
of the European Parliament and the Council on a multiannual
programme for action in the field on energy — the ‘Intelligent
Energy for Europe’ programme — for the period 2003 to
2006. With a budget of EUR 215 million, the programme
implements the strategy outlined in the Green Paper on
security of energy supply, founded on renewable energy
sources and energy saving.

This proposal does not relate to the whole of EU
1.2.
energy policy but specifically to actions in the fields of energy
efficiency and renewable energy. It deals only with the EC
treaty and not with Euratom and it excludes consideration of
research and development which will be covered by the
6th Framework Programme. Intelligent energy is about the
improved use of energy (energy efficiency) and encouraging
the use of renewable sources of energy.

The programme aims

to complement and help
1.3.
implement the various legislative measures agreed by the
Community in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy
sources and transport. These include the Directive for the
promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy
sourcesin the internal market (Directive 2001/77/EC); proposal
for a Directive on the promotion of the use of biofuels
for transport (1); proposal
for a Directive on the energy
performance of buildings (2); proposal for a Directive on the
promotion of co-generation based on a useful heat demand in
the internal energy (3).

The programme is designed as the main Community
1.4.
in the field of
instrument
energy. This is a new programme but it also provides
continuity for the actions under the Altener, SAVE and Synergy

for non-technological support

(1) COM(2001) 547 final.
(2) COM(2001) 226 final.
(3) COM(2002) 415 final.