Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Final evaluation of the implementation of the multiannual Community action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks
Date: 2006-11-06
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Internet, action programme, child protection, information technology, project evaluation, public awareness campaign

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 6.11.2006 
COM(2006) 663 final 

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

Final evaluation 
of the implementation of the multiannual Community action plan on promoting 
safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks 

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

Final evaluation 
of the implementation of the multiannual Community action plan on promoting 
safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

This Communication concerns the final evaluation of the multiannual Safer Internet 
Action Plan for the period 2003-2004. The evaluation was carried out by a 3 member 
panel of independent experts, supported by a team of professional evaluators from a 
company1 in charge of structuring and supporting the evaluation, collecting evidence 
and drafting the report. The evaluation was carried out during the period February to 
May  2006,  in  close  collaboration  with  the  Commission  services  concerned2.  The 
executive summary of the evaluation report3 is annexed to this Communication. 

2. 

BACKGROUND 

The aim of the Safer Internet Action Plan (SIAP) (henceforth “the programme”), as 
specified  in  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  Decision4,  was  promoting  safer 
use of the Internet and encouraging, at European level, an environment favourable to 
the development of the Internet industry.  

The programme as originally adopted ran for four years from 1 January 1999 to 31 
December  2002  with  a  budget  of  25  million  euro.  The  European  Parliament  and 
Council  decided  to  extend  it  for  a  further  two  years  from  1  January  2003  to  31 
December  2004.  The  total  budget  for  the  period  1999-2004  was  set  at  EUR  38.3 
million.  

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IDATE, contracted on the basis of a restricted call for tenders issued by DG Information Society in the 
autumn of 2005. 
DG INFSO Units C3 and E6 
Final Evaluation of Safer Internet Action Plan (2003-2004): Final Report, May 2006, IDATE, 
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/programme/evaluations/index_en.htm 
Decision no 276/1999/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 January 1999 adopting a 
Multiannual Community Action Plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and 
harmful content on global networks (OJ L 33 of 6/2/1999 p.1) amended by Decision no 1151/2003/EC 
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003 n (OJ L 162 of 1/7/2003). 

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The programme was implemented through three Action Lines: 

(1) 

creating  a  safer  environment  (creating  a  European  network  of  hot-lines, 
where  end  users  can  report  illegal  content  on  the  Internet  and  encouraging 
self-regulation and codes of conduct); 

(2) 

developing filtering and rating systems; 

(3) 

encouraging awareness actions.  

During the period 2003-2004, the programme’s coverage was extended to new online 
technologies,  including  mobile  and  broadband  content,  online  games,  peer-to-peer 
file  transfer  and  all  forms  of  real-time  communications  such  as  chat  rooms  and 
instant messages primarily with the aim of improving the protection of children and 
minors. Enhanced networking was also encouraged through a Safer Internet Forum 
among all those active in the field in Member States and between project participants 
in the various actions lines, particularly in the field of hotlines and awareness raising. 
The programme also aimed at fostering the cooperation and exchange of experiences 
and  best  practices  at  European  and  international  levels,  especially  with  the  new 
Member States, the candidate and accession countries. 

The  main  mechanism  for  implementing  SIAP  was  the  co-financing  of  projects 
selected  on  the  basis  of  public  calls  for  proposals.  During  the  period  2003-2004, 
fifty-two  projects  were  co-funded  involving  105  organisations  and  covering  22 
Member States plus Iceland, Norway and Bulgaria. Twenty-two projects are hotlines 
(co-ordination  node  and  21  hotlines  spanning  20  countries),  twenty-five  are 
awareness  projects  (2  co-ordination  nodes  and  23  awareness  nodes  spanning  21 
countries),  one  is  for  applied  research  for  media  education,  one  is  for  quality 
labelling scheme, one is a self-regulatory plan for tackling spam and one is for rating 
online games. A Eurobarometer survey was carried out under a framework contract. 
In addition, a service contract was concluded for a benchmarking study of filtering 
software and services, following an open call for tenders. The total expenditure under 
the  2003  and  2004  budgets,  including  the  funding  of  all  cost-shared  projects,  the 
service contracts for the benchmarking study and the Eurobarometer and the costs of 
evaluations, reviews and meetings was around 13.7 million euro.  

3. 

EVALUATION OBJECTIVES 

The evaluation assessed the following specific issues: relevance of the programme's 
objectives,  priorities  and  means  of  implementation,  the  effectiveness  and  impact  of 
the  programme,  its  efficiency  and  cost  effectiveness,  its  utility  and  sustainability, 
causal  links  from  resources  used  through  to  activities  and  presumed  impacts  (the 
intervention  logic)  and  lessons  to  be  learnt  for  possible  future  interventions  of  a 
similar type. 

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4. 

EVALUATION FINDINGS 

The  evaluators  found  that  the  Safer  Internet  Action  Plan  has  been  successfully 
implemented and the attribution of the grants and the management of the programme 
were in general transparent, efficient and satisfactory.  

SIAP  was  seen  by  all  stakeholders  as  a  relevant  and  effective  programme  which 
should continue. The European Union was seen as a pioneer which identified at an 
early stage the issue of illegal and harmful content on the Internet as a serious and 
important political question of a global dimension.  

The launching of national hotlines was seen as one of the main achievements of the 
programme.  The  evaluation  of  the  existing  network  of  hotlines,  co-ordinated  by 
INHOPE, produced evidence that the majority of them are offering a useful, relevant, 
and  effective  service  and  will  not  be  sustainable  without  public  funding.  One  key 
problem is that the majority of Internet end-users have little or no knowledge about 
of  the  existence  of  hotlines.  The  level  of  cooperation  between  hotlines  and  other 
stakeholders,  in  particular  with  national  governments,  awareness  nodes,  but  also 
police and law enforcement, offers room for improvement.  

The  development  of  awareness  nodes  in  nearly  all  EU  member  states  was  seen  as 
another  achievement  of  SIAP.  Awareness  raising  was  considered  by  all  those 
consulted as a crucial need. However the Internet safety awareness network, which is 
coordinated  by  INSAFE,  is  still  at  an  early  stage  of  development.  In  many  cases, 
awareness  raising  activities  reach  only  a  limited  number  of  target  groups,  in 
particular with regard to other stakeholders such as local and national media, parents’ 
organisations, schools and other groups. They very often are not given a high enough 
priority on the public policy agenda of national governments.  

Filtering technologies are seen by all stakeholders as an essential element of growing 
importance.  However  there  is  still  too  little  knowledge  among  parents  on  how  to 
handle  filtering  software  at  the  end-user  level.  All  stakeholders  agree  that  content 
labelling  and  rating  systems  continue  to  be  an  important  element  in  making  the 
Internet a safer place, in particular for minors. However the progress reached in this 
field  is  unsatisfactory.  A  number  of  encouraging  developments  in  industry  self-
regulation, codes of conduct and best practices, inter alia in the field of video games 
and mobile content, was noted.  

Harmonisation of national legislation, in particular with regard to illegal and harmful 
content and youth protection, was identified as an important issue.  

New  problems  arise  with  the  further  diffusion  of  new  Internet  enabled  end-user 
devices  like  next  generation  mobile  phones  and  new  practices  such  as  social 
networking (including chat linked to the use of webcams), Internet Blogging and File 
Sharing. 

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5. 

RECOMMENDATIONS  

The  evaluation  report  contains  seven  recommendations,  including  a  set  of  sub-
recommendations5: 

Hotlines 

(1) 

Increase the visibility of hotlines: 

(a) 

Promote greater awareness of hotlines among end users and the media 

(2) 

Improve the cooperation between hotlines and other stakeholders in particular 
the police and ISPs: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

Encourage the harmonisation of procedures between hotlines and the 
police across Europe. 

Produce  a  manual  explaining  procedures  for  information  exchange 
and guidelines on best practices, which clearly define policies, ethics 
and procedures for people involved in this work.  

Coordinate the development of a European black list of illegal content 
and promote its wide implementation by ISPs. 

Awareness raising 

(3) 

Awareness-raising  should  focus  on  specific  target  groups  and  improve 
outreach: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

Require  awareness  nodes  to  pursue  tailored  strategies  to  address 
children, parents or teachers.  

Facilitate  discussion  among  national  administrations  (e.g.  education 
ministries)  to  examine  how  safer  use  of  the  Internet  can  be  brought 
into the schools (training teachers, curricula, setting up youth councils 
as self-regulatory bodies at schools).  

Promote  more  active  involvement  by  the  media  in  awareness 
campaigns.  

Devote  a  higher  proportion  of  the  programme  budget  to  awareness-
raising. 

(4) 

Involve  children  and  young  people  in  identifying  problems  and  designing 
solutions: 

(a) 

Obtain children’s feedback and engage them in designing appropriate 
awareness raising messages and solutions.  

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See the attached executive summary and pp.42 et seq. of the evaluation report. 

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(5) 

Increase  end  user  awareness  of  the  options  available  for  filtering  harmful 
content:  

(a) 

Encourage awareness nodes to promote awareness of filtering tools in 
particular among parents and schools. 

(b) 

Assess the effectiveness of different filtering solutions.  

(6) 

Encourage industry self-regulatory solutions at European level: 

(a) 

(b) 

Promote the adoption of age verification systems.  

Foster the exchange of best practices, inter alia, of codes of conduct, 
content labelling and rating systems.  

(7)  Map possibilities for future technological developments and user options: 

(a) 

Analyse  the  implication  of  convergent  services  and  new  modes  of 
communication  on  the  safety  of  children  and  on  user  behaviour  and 
disseminate results. 

6. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  takes  full  note  of  the  findings  of  the  final  evaluation  of  the  Safer 
Internet Action Plan and will take account of the recommendations in implementing 
Safer Internet plus and in planning a future follow-up programme. Progress already 
made in area mentioned by the recommendations will be reinforced. 

Support  will  be  given  by  the  Safer  Internet  plus  programme  for  activities by 
hotlines which lead to joint lists of illegal content within the scope of the programme 
(particularly  child  sexual  abuse  images).  Communication  of  such  lists to  Internet 
Service Providers will respect the relevant legal provisions concerning their role, in 
particular those contained in the Directive on electronic commerce6. 

In  the  light  of  the  Commission's  responses  to  the  evaluators'  report,  it  invites  the 
European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  Economic  and  Social  Committee  and  the 
Committee of the Regions to: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

take  note  that  the  Safer  Internet  Action  Plan  has  been  successfully 
implemented; 

assist  the  Commission  in  its  work  of  increasing  the  visibility  of  the  Safer 
Internet programme and stimulate public debate on safer Internet issues; 

support the Commission in its activities to consult all interested parties and to 
examine  possible  follow-on  activities,  in  particular  to  deal  with  new 
technologies and new categories  of digital content affecting safer use of the 
Internet. 

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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  OJ 
L178 17/07/2000 p. 1 

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Annex 

Executive Summary 

The conclusions presented herein, as part of the Final Evaluation of the Safer Internet Action 
Plan (2003-2004), have been formulated by an independent, three-member Expert Panel. The 
Expert  Panel  overseeing  and  conducting  the  evaluation  process  and  methodology  received 
support from the IDATE evaluation specialist responsible for establishing and analysing the 
evidence base used for the evaluation. The text reflect the results of an online questionnaire, 
phone  interviews,  desk  research  and  a  Focus  Group  meeting,  as  well  as  the  views  of  the 
Expert Panel.  

Conclusions 

1. Launched in 1999, The Safer Internet Action Plan (SIAP), is seen by all stakeholders as a 
relevant and effective programme which should continue. The European Union is seen as 
a  pioneer  which  identified  at  an  early  stage  the  issue  of  illegal  and  harmful  content  on  the 
Internet as a serious and important political question of a global dimension. Today, the design 
and concept of the SIAP is used by many other countries – both in the Asia-Pacific region and 
in Northern and Latin America – as a model of how to deal with the challenge of harmful and 
illegal content on the Internet, while respecting the human right to freedom of expression.  

2. The original programme included four main directions for action:  

A. hotlines (EU funding 4.6 Million €),  

B. awareness-raising (EU funding 7.4 Million €), 

C. filtering, labelling and rating (EU funding 0.875 Million €),  

D. industry self-regulation and codes of conduct (EU funding 0.493 Million €).  

In  the  period  2003/2004  EU  funding  concentrated  on  hotlines  and  awareness  building. 
Filtering,  labelling,  rating,  self-regulation  and  codes  of  conduct  were  seen  mainly  as  a 
responsibility of the industry. Under the SIAP (2003-2004) the EU spent overall 13.7 Million 
€. Around 13.4 Million € were distributed to more than 50 projects, mainly concerned with 
hotlines  and  awareness-raising.  Funding  went  to  22  EU  Member  States  plus  to  Norway, 
Iceland  and  Bulgaria.  Around  0.3  Million  €  was  spent  to  cover  the  costs  of  evaluations, 
reviews,  meetings  and  the  Eurobarometer  survey.  The  attribution  of  the  grants  and  the 
management of the Action Plan were in general transparent, efficient and satisfactory.  

3.  The  launching  of  national  hotlines  is  seen  as  one  of  the  main  achievements  of  the 
programme.  Under  the  SIAP  a  wide  spread  system  of  hotlines  all  over  Europe  in  nearly  all 
Member  States  and  Candidate  Countries  has  been  developed,  coordinated  by  INHOPE,  the 
International Association of Internet Hotlines. Hotlines are contact points where end users can 
report  illegal  content  on  the  Internet.  Hotlines  are  working  together,  inter  alia,  with  police, 
law enforcement and awareness nodes as well as with ISPs, industry organisations and other 
institutions.  The  evaluation  of  the  existing  hotlines  produced  evidence  that  the  majority  of 
them are offering a useful, relevant, and effective service. However, the majority of them will 
not be sustainable without public funding. One key problem is that while the hotlines deliver a 
valuable  service,  the  majority  of  Internet  end-users  have  little  or  no  knowledge  about  the 

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existence  of  hotlines.  In  most  of  the  countries,  the  awareness  of  the  existence  of  hotlines  is 
below  10  %  of  the  totality  of  Internet  end  users.  The  level  of  cooperation  between  hotlines 
and  other  stakeholders,  in  particular  with  national  governments,  awareness  nodes,  but  also 
police and law enforcement, offers room for improvement.  

4. The development of  awareness  nodes in nearly all EU member states is seen as another 
achievement of SIAP. Awareness-raising was considered by all those consulted as a crucial 
need.  Numerous  techniques,  tools  and  materials,  according  to  local  needs,  have  been 
developed. The “Safer Internet Day”, which is run by the network, is increasingly recognized 
as  a  valuable  opportunity  to  improve  communication  among  involved  stakeholders  and  to 
reach  out  to  the  broader  public.  The  Internet  safety  awareness  network  is  coordinated  by 
INSAFE.  It  is  still  at  an  early  stage  of  development.  In  many  cases,  activities  reach  only  a 
limited number of target groups, in particular with regard to other stakeholders such as local 
and national media, parents’ organisations, schools and other groups. They very often do not 
get the appropriate support from national authorities and the media and are not given a high 
enough  priority  on  the  public  policy  agenda  of  national  governments.  Awareness-raising 
actions  are  very  often  not  specific  enough  to  individual  target  groups  like  teachers,  parents 
and  children.  The  level  and  quality  of  the  relevant  training  of  teachers  is  different  from 
country  to  country  and  in  general  is  not  seen  as  a  high  priority  task.  Children  and  young 
people  need  to  be  reached  at  a  very  early  stage,  but  “Internet  Education”  is  insufficiently 
integrated  into  the  regular  curricula  of  schools.  Children’s  own  experiences  are  often  not 
sufficiently taken in account.  

5.  Filtering  technologies  are  seen  by  all  stakeholders  as  an  essential  element  of  growing 
importance. Significant technological progress with regard to filtering technologies has been 
achieved  by  the  industry  and  different  options  for  end-users  are  available.  Filtering 
technology  is  available  which  enables  end  users,  in  particular  parents,  to  prevent  their 
children to access websites with harmful content. In addition, some ISPs offer services to end-
users which block access to certain categories of harmful content. However, there is still too 
little knowledge among parents on how to handle filtering software at the end-user level. All 
stakeholders  agree  that  content  labelling  and  rating  systems  continue  to  be  an  important 
element in making the Internet a safer place, in particular for minors. However the progress 
reached in this field is unsatisfactory. Systems which rely heavily on self-rating are unlikely 
to make a significant contribution to achieving the relevant goals. A number of encouraging 
developments in industry self-regulation, codes of conduct and best practices, inter alia in the 
field of video games and mobile content, was noted.  

6.  Harmonisation  of  national  legislation,  in  particular  with  regard  to  illegal  and  harmful 
content  and  youth  protection,  was  identified  as  an  important  issue.  While  rules  are  needed, 
individual  and  isolated  legal  actions  by  member  states  risk  low  efficiency  and  counter 
productive consequences. This goes far beyond the European Union and is a global challenge.  

7. New problems arise with the further diffusion of new Internet enabled end-user devices 
like  next  generation  mobile  phones  and  new  practices  such  as  social  networking  (including 
chat linked to the use of webcams), Internet Blogging and File Sharing.  

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