The proposed eSafe Programme, discussed on Wednesday and
Thursday in Luxembourg, is an extension of the "Safer Internet
Action Plan" which ends on 31st December 2002, allowing its
activities to continue for two more years.
ESafe provides for more extensive interaction with similar
national programmes and aims to improve exchange of information
between Member States in the area of internet security.
If adopted, the eSafe proposals will extent to all on-line
technologies, such as mobile and broadband content, on-line games,
P2P file transfers, chat rooms and instant messages.
It will also cover all forms of illegal and harmful content,
including racism and violence.
The main proposal in the programme is to offer EU consumers and
industry associations, ISPs and content providers the sum of €13.3
million to help them create a network of "hotlines" to help clear
the internet of illegal content.
Other proposals include encouraging self-regulation, improvement
of the existing standard that facilitates the exchange of
filter-lists between systems and encouraging user-friendly content
ratings.
The eSafe Programme discussion paper can be found at:
www.saferinternet.org/downloads/eSafe-Directions-2003-2004.pdf
