The results of the workshops showed that it is not only necessary but also essential to involve young people themselves in the development of a safer Internet environment. The initiation of the debate and the challenge to deal with online security issues can lead to more awareness and eventually to suitable and efficient guidelines for a safe use of the Internet by children and young people.
Therefore the Youth Protection Roundtable will set up a Young Roundtable and invite young people from different European countries to discuss safety issues and online behaviour within the next Roundtable Meeting in May this year. The results will be published on the website and in further issues of this newsletter.
European experts' survey on matters of safer Internet
To identify the different viewpoints of technical experts and children's welfare specialists - pedagogues, scientists and practitioners - in European countries as regards youth protection on the Internet, an international survey was conducted between January and June 2007.
The purpose was to ask representatives from children's welfare organisations as well as from companies in the field of protective hardware and software how they judge the current situation of youth protection in their country.
Results of the SIP Benchmark Study 2007
Deloitte announced the results of a second European study on filtering solutions for illegal and possibly harmful online information aimed at children. Thirty of the most widespread filtering tools were tested by more than one hundred parents and teachers in ten European countries, and by Expert Testers.
In addition to these "real life" testers, an Internet laboratory was set up to conduct thorough testing on 30 software packages under identical conditions. This benchmark analyses how effectively technical solutions protect children between 6 and 16 years old against harmful content on the Internet.
The results of the 2007 Benchmarking study have been compared with those of 2006 to reveal the evolution of these tools. 50% of the 23 filters, which have been tested in 2006 and 2007, have improved their filtering capabilities regarding non-sexual content. Eight of the vendors decreased in scoring than last year relative to sexual content, partly because the test cases now included 'user generated content', Web 2.0, which is more difficult to filter.
