Debate: Better internet for children
Date: WEDNESDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2020
Speaker: Helena Dalli
Language: EN

Let me also recall that one of this Commission’s top six political priorities is to build a Europe fit for the digital age, allowing everyone in Europe, including children, to benefit from technology within safe and ethical boundaries. The Commission has been very active on this issue over the years, with actions ranging from funding and coordination with Member States to hard law. The European strategy for a better internet for children – the big strategy – is our framework for making the internet a trusted place for children and young people. It has been in place since 2012 and has successfully brought together the European Commission, Member States, the ICT industry and civil society to deliver solutions for a better internet for children through coordination, self-regulation and funding. Our policy is rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which all EU Member States are party. A strong concern with child safety online cuts across EU legislation. The e-Commerce Directive, the directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and the general Data Protection Regulation all contain provisions to protect minors online. As to future plans, the Commission will first of all be working on a comprehensive new strategy on the rights of the child, including their rights online. The strategy should include actions to protect vulnerable children, protect their rights online, foster child-friendly justice and prevent and fight violence. We will also strengthen and modernise rules applicable to digital services in the whole EU through the Digital Services Act. We will start with a broad consultation to make sure we get the balance right and propose measures. We will also work with Member States for the full transposition of the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which includes a new obligation on Member States to ensure that video-sharing platforms put in place specific measures to protect minors from harmful content online. These include mechanisms allowing users to report, flag or rate harmful content, age verification or parental control systems and transparent easy-to-use and effective complaint-handling procedures. The revised Directive also ensures that children’s data collected by audiovisual media providers are not process for commercial use, including for profiling and behaviourally-targeted advertising. Furthermore, we will present a revised digital education action plan to equip children with the skills and competences needed to thrive in this digital age. Through the current Digital Education Action Plan, the Commission is supporting outreach to schools in order to improve online safety, media literacy and digital skills. For example, the Safer Internet for EU campaign reached 30 million Europeans in 2018, and in 2019 the EU Code Week involved 4.2 million people, with 92% of the 72 000 activities taking place in schools. The Commission plans to update the plan, focusing on digital literacy and aiming at equipping young people and adults with the skills they need for life and work in the digital age. As regards the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children, the Commission has informally consulted the main stakeholders to assess its relevance and role. These stakeholders include the Safer Internet centres, industry and civil society and Member States. The preliminary feedback is positive. The strategy’s four pillars and its holistic approach are still relevant, despite emerging risks such as disinformation, cyberbullying, online hate speech, live streaming of illegal content, and new ways for children to use technology. Any possible update of the strategy will have to be flexible enough to be future-proof as the digital ecosystem continues to evolve, with children and young people among the most ardent and avant-garde users of technology. Any Commission decision on next steps will take into account the results of the latest big policy map, a study on how the strategy is implemented in Member States, the results of a new European Parliament pilot project supporting cooperation between industry hotlines and Member States’ authorities for the swift removal of child sexual abuse material online, and, of course, the work on the new strategy on the rights of the child. What we can already anticipate is that work in this area will continue to keep a fair balance between protection and empowerment measures for children and young people in formal and informal education. I thank you and I look forward to your comments on this.