European Safer Internet Day 2006
Representatives from the Internet Watch Foundation took part in European Safer Internet Day 2006, on 7 February. The conference, in association with the European Union, the Home Office and Ofcom, examined issues around children and user generated content and the implications for the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders.The key aims of the event were:
- To examine emerging and anticipated alterations in patterns of behaviour as technologies converge and to consider the implications for different sections of society, in particular, children, young people, parents, carers and teachers.
- To explore how industry, civil society and governments are adapting to the changes wrought by the evolving capabilities in communication technologies and growth in user generated content.
- To consider the media’s role in providing balanced and sensitive reporting which relates to user generated content, particularly, when dealing with challenging issues, for example, pro-anorexia, suicide and self harm online forums.
- To examine the value of a holistic approach to well being online with a particular emphasis on both human rights and the development, design and delivery of embedded programmes of education for life-long learners, drawing on existing lessons learned in promoting internet safety initiatives.
An interesting and varied line-up of speakers gave an insight into many areas of the debate. These included Dr Rachel O’Connell, Director of Cyberspace Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire, who organised and introduced the conference, calling for a more strategic approach to ‘cyberwellness’. John Carr of NCH, the children’s charity, discussed recent figures for numbers of attempts to access illegal content on the internet, warning that new legislation may have to fill the gaps left by the self-regulatory approach to responsible internet service provision. Tony Fagelman presented the IWF’s successful partnership approach to combating illegal content online and some of the challenges ahead for the organisation and Jim Gamble, Head of the new Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, shared his vision for the new Centre, bringing a holistic approach to protecting children and prosecuting offenders.
Workshops in the afternoon focussed on issues around sharing the responsibility for internet moderation; promoting online wellbeing through education; and media guidelines and citizen journalism.
The IWF helped to publicise, attended and spoke at the conference, disseminated leaflets and set up stands on the day to help spread their message, as well as taking part in the conference ‘Blogathon’ by contributing an interactive blog to the online discussion about the issues of the day.
For more information and to see the new Cyberspace Research Unit internet safety website, visit: http://www.internetsafetyzone.co.uk.
Page Created: Mon, March 13th, 2006
Page Modified: Mon, March 13th, 2006
