UK Council for Child Internet Safety launched
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) has been launched today wth the aim to help protect children from "harmful" web content, such as cyber-bullying and violent video games.
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety wants to work with industry (such as Social Networking sites) to teach children about onlien risks, target harmful content and establish a code of conduct for sites featuring material uploaded by users.
Gordon Brown has said the move is a "landmark" in child protection. He stated
"The challenge for us is to make sure young people can use the internet safely and do so with the minimum of restrictions but the maximum of opportunities...but just as we would not allow them to go out unsupervised in playgrounds or in youth clubs or in swimming pools, so we must put in place the measures we need to keep our children safe online"
The council will report to the prime minister, and will have a membership of more than 100 public and private organisations, including technology and industy, such as Microsoft and Google, Facebook and mobile phone companies. The Council will be the largest ever coalition of internet safety experts, bringing together some of the biggest names in industry, childrenâs charities, law enforcement, Government as well as children, young people and parents. A full list of current members can be found here.
They will be working together to create a child internet safety strategy to be published next year.
The strategy will:
- Establish a public awareness safety campaign
- Establish measures to protect children and young people, such as taking down illegal internet sites and provide specific measures to support vulnerable children and young people, such as taking down illegal internet sites that promote harmful behaviour
- Promote responsible advertising to children online
- Create a "one-stop" shop for parents, providing information for them to keep themselves and their children safe online
- Establish voluntary codes of practice, with an an examination of how websites handle videos or messages posted by users.
The UKCCIS follows recommendations as made in the Byron Review
