Web 2.0 - A risky adventure playground for youths?

On November 23rd the members of the Youth Protection Roundtable came together for their 2nd meeting in Rome. They warmly welcomed Annie Mullins from Vodafone who joined the group in the role of an observer and reporter from the viewpoint of the mobile industry.

As 126 experts from 26 European countries, which responded to the survey carried out by the Germany based Stiftung Digitale Chancen within the Youth Protection Roundtable, came to the conclusion that Web 2.0 provides a lot of risks and threats to young people, this topic was put on the agenda for the meeting. The purpose was to describe the requirements of technicians and pedagogues as regards youth protection and the development of a common view taking into account the needs of both groups. Furthermore, the involvement of young people in the project's work was discussed.

Camille de Stempel from AOL UK introduced to the question 'What does Web 2.0 mean for youth protection?' While in the year 1996 about 45 million users worldwide accessed the 250,000 websites of the Internet primarily to read information online, ten years later in 2006 more than 1 billion users took part in the 80 million read-and-write platforms of the web. Not only illegal content raises concerns about youth protection, but also questions of copyright and harmful but legal content as well as offensive user-generated content. Strong co-operation with all stakeholders, education initiatives and effective reporting mechanisms are considered as measures to deal with the threats.

In the following the requirements for the development of technical solutions with focus on the youth protection features of Windows Vista and Web 2.0 applications were described by Thomas Myrup Kristensen from Microsoft. The industry can provide technical measures like parental control appliances, web content filtering, time usage control etc. to create a safe family environment. To ensure effective use of the technical measures, consumer education is necessary as well. Kristensen therefore also emphasised the relevance of co-operation between the different stakeholders in the centre of all efforts for youth protection.

Riitta Kaupinnen from the Mannerheim League Finland provided insight in the work of a children's welfare organisation and explained the requirements of pedagogues for the task of youth protection with the focus on adequate use and appropriate configuration of security solutions and Web 2.0 appliances. She stressed that as social media cause new forms of online behaviour of young people, the measures now need to go beyond awareness raising and parental control. Youths in the era of Web 2.0 need a special kind of digital literacy and they need guidance from their 'virtual raisers' as well as from peers.

Veronica Samara, Extreme Media Solutions Greece, drew the attention of the YPRT members to the currently published ENISA position paper. Nowadays social community platforms can be sold for huge amounts of money. Users should know that their profiles are sold to advertisers as well as to other stakeholders with commercial interests, Samara stressed, and they should learn how to protect their privacy.