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1. ACTION 1: FIGHTING AGAINST ILLEGAL CONTENT Hotlines allow members of the public to report illegal content. They pass the reports on to the appropriate body (an Internet Service Provider (ISP), the police or a correspondent hotline) for action. Civilian hotlines complement police hotlines, where these exist. Their role is distinct from that of the law enforcement authorities, since they do not investigate offences or arrest or prosecute offenders. They may constitute centres of expertise providing guidance to ISPs as to what content might be illegal. The existing hotline network is a unique structure that would not have been set up without Community funding. As pointed out in the 2002 evaluation report for the Safer Internet Action Plan, the network has been very successful in expanding membership and has an international reach. In order for the hotlines to develop their full potential, it is necessary to ensure Europe-wide coverage and cooperation, and to increase effectiveness through exchange of information, best practice and experience. Community funds should also be used to raise public awareness of the hotlines, thereby making them more effective.

Funding will be provided for hotlines, selected following a call for proposals, to act as nodes of the network and to cooperate with the other nodes within the European network of hotlines. If necessary, telephone helplines could be supported, where children could raise concerns about illegal and harmful content on the Internet. For the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of hotlines, several indicators should be taken into account. Qualitative and quantitative data should be collected on the establishment and operation of hotlines, the number of national nodes, the geographical coverage in the Member States, the number of reports received, the number and level of experience of hotline staff, the reports forwarded for action to the public authorities and ISPs, and, to the extent available, action taken as a result, in particular the number and kind of web pages withdrawn by ISPs as a result of information provided by the hotlines. Those data should be made public if possible and should be forwarded to the competent authorities.

To ensure that the programme is effective, hotlines are required in all Member States and candidate countries where none currently exist. These new hotlines must be incorporated quickly and effectively into the existing European network of hotlines. Incentives must be given to speed up the process of setting up hotlines. Links between this network and hotlines in third countries (particularly in other European countries where illegal content is hosted and produced) should be promoted, enabling common approaches to be developed and know-how and best practice to be transferred. In accordance with national legislation, and where appropriate and necessary, mechanisms for cooperation between civilian hotlines and law enforcement authorities must be further improved, including, for example, the development of codes of conduct for such hotlines. Where appropriate, there may be a need for hotline staff to receive legal and technical training. Active participation by hotlines in networking and cross-border activities will be mandatory.

Hotlines should be linked to Member State initiatives, supported at national level and should be financially viable to ensure continued operation beyond the duration of this Programme. Co-funding is intended for civilian hotlines and therefore will not be provided for hotlines run by the police. Hotlines will make clear to users the difference between their activities and those of public authorities, and will inform them of the existence of alternative ways of reporting illegal content. In order to achieve maximum impact and effectiveness with available funding, the hotline network must operate as efficiently as possible. This can best be achieved by assigning a coordinating node to the network, which will facilitate agreement between the hotlines so as to develop European-level guidelines, working methods and practices which respect the limits of the national laws applying to the individual hotlines. The coordinating node will:

— promote the network as a whole, so as to generate European-level visibility and raise public awareness thereof throughout the European Union, providing e.g. a single identity and entry point giving straightforward access to the appropriate national contact,

— make contact with appropriate bodies with a view to completing the network’s coverage in the Member States and candidate countries,

— improve the operational effectiveness of the network,

— draw up best practice guidelines for hotlines and adapt them to new technology,

— organise regular exchanges of information and experience between hotlines,

— provide a pool of expertise for advice and a coaching process for start-up hotlines, particularly in candidate countries,

— ensure liaison with hotlines in third countries,

— maintain a close working relationship with the awareness-raising coordinating node (see point 4 below) so as to ensure the cohesion and effectiveness of overall programme operations and increase public awareness of the hotlines,

— participate in the Safer Internet Forum and other relevant events, coordinating input/feedback from hotlines.

The coordinating node will monitor the effectiveness of hotlines and collect accurate and meaningful statistics on their operation (number and type of reports received, action taken and result, etc.). These statistics should be comparable across Member States. The hotline network should ensure coverage of and the exchange of reports on the major types of illegal content of concern — extending beyond the area of child pornography. Different mechanisms and expertise may be required to deal with other areas such as racist content, which might involve other types of node dealing with the various issues. Since the financial and administrative resources of the programme are limited, not all such nodes would necessarily receive funding, which might have to be concentrated on a reinforced role for the coordinating node in those areas.

2. ACTION 2: TACKLING UNWANTED AND HARMFUL CONTENT In addition to action to fight illegal content at its source, users, responsible adults where the users are minors, may need technical tools. Accessibility to these tools may be promoted in order to enable users to make their own decisions on how to deal with unwanted and harmful content (user empowerment).

Further funding should be provided to increase the information available on the performance and effectiveness of filtering software and services to allow users to make an informed choice. User organisations and scientific research institutes can be valuable partners in this effort. Rating systems and quality labels, in combination with filtering technologies, can help to enable users to select the content they wish to receive and provide European parents and educators with the necessary information to make decisions in accordance with their cultural and linguistic values. Taking account of the results of previous projects, funding could be given to projects which aim to adapt rating systems and quality labels to take account of the convergence of telecommunications, audio-visual media and information technology and to self-regulatory initiatives to back up the reliability of self-labelling and services for assessing the accuracy of self-rating labels. Further work may also be needed to encourage take-up of rating systems and quality labels by content providers.

It would be desirable to try to take account of safe use by children when developing new technologies, instead of trying to deal with any consequences of the new technologies after they have been devised. The safety of the end-user is a criterion to be taken into account along with technical and commercial considerations. One way of doing this would be to foster an exchange of views between child welfare specialists and technical experts. However, account should be taken of the fact that not every product developed for the online world is intended for use by children. The programme will therefore provide funding for technological measures which meet the needs of users and enable them to limit the amount of unwanted and harmful content, and manage the unwanted spam, which they receive, including:

— assessing the effectiveness of available filtering technology and providing this information to the public in a clear, simple way that facilitates comparison,

— facilitating and coordinating exchanges of information and best practices on effective ways of tackling unwanted and harmful content,

— increasing take-up of content rating and quality site labels by content providers and adapting content rating and labels to take account of the availability of the same content through different delivery mechanisms (convergence),

— if necessary, contributing to the accessibility of filter technology notably in languages not adequately covered by the market. Where appropriate, the technologies used should safeguard the right to privacy pursuant to Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC. The use of technological measures which enhance privacy will be encouraged. Activities under this action will take fully into account the provisions of Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA of 24 February 2005 on attacks against information systems . Implementation of this action will be closely coordinated with the actions on promoting a safer environment (self-regulatory action) and awareness-raising (informing the public about how to deal with unwanted and harmful content).

3. ACTION 3: PROMOTING A SAFER ENVIRONMENT

A fully functioning system of self-regulation is an essential element in limiting the flow of unwanted, harmful and illegal content. Self-regulation involves a number of components: consultation and appropriate representation of the parties concerned; codes of conduct; national bodies facilitating cooperation at Community level; and national evaluation of self-regulation frameworks . There is a continuing need for Community work in this area to encourage the European Internet and new online technologies industries to implement codes of conduct. The Safer Internet Forum developed in 2004 under the Safer Internet Action Plan is to become a discussion forum including representatives of industry, law enforcement authorities, policy-makers and user organisations (e.g. parent and teacher organisations, child protection groups, consumer protection bodies and civil and digital rights organisations). It will provide a platform for national co-regulatory or self-regulatory bodies to exchange experience and an opportunity to discuss ways in which industry can contribute to the fight against illegal content.