INTERNET : PAEDOPHILES BACK IN THE FIRING LINE.

Combating illegal content is no longer enough to protect children using the internet or other technologies. The problem must be tackled at the source: contact made by paedophiles (grooming) and cyber bullying' which children are subject to before becoming victims of sexual abuse which is photographed, filmed or recorded and put online.

This is what the European Commission proposed, on 27 February, in the framework of the new Community programme Safer Internet Plus' for the 2009-2013 period. The planned budget is 55 million. The member states and the European Parliament will then have to decide.

"Grooming takes place when paedophiles use chat rooms to prepare' children for abuse by claiming to be adolescents themselves," explains the website of the European network Insafe, which coordinates awareness action on online safety, co-funded by the EU. "Cyber bullying occurs when children or teens bully each other using the internet, mobile phones or other cyber technology," it states.

Created in 2005, after a first initiative in 1999-2004, the Safer Internet Plus' programme focuses on the protection of children and the fight against illegal content (mistreatment of children, racism) as well as unsolicited messages (spam). The International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE), created in 1999 (24 European countries, the USA, Japan, and South Korea), under the impetus of the Commission...

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