CyberEurope

Abstract

In this feature, we will try to describe the characteristics of current cyberpsychology research in Europe. In particular, CyberEurope aims at describing the leading research groups and projects running on the other side of the Ocean.

Safer Internet Programme: Regulating Social Networks

Since 1999, the European Commission has developed various strategies to make the Internet safer through the Safer Internet Programme (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm). Each one of these strategies spans several years, and funds activities at national and European levels. The main objectives are:

To promote the safer use of the Internet and other communication technologies, particularly for children and young people;

To educate users, particularly children, parents, carers, teachers, and educators, in this regard;

To fight against illegal content and harmful conduct online.

In this issue, as in the last issue, we will focus on the Programme work on social networks. Why is the Commission active in this area?

Social-networking sites represent economic opportunities for the European industry, and offer the whole society new ways to communicate and express creativity;

Social-networking sites raise new issues with regard to privacy and the protection of minors.

European Commission calls on social-networking companies to improve child-safety policies

The Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU were signed on February 10, 2009, by 18 major social-networking service providers active in Europe, and these were joined by two further signatories in June 2009 (IP/09/232, MEMO/09/58). All signatories, except Giovani.it, provided their self-declarations to the European Commission by June 2009.

The documents recognise providers' responsibility, and identify potential risks on their sites for those under the age of 18. These include cyberbullying (harassing children on Internet sites or via mobile messages), grooming (when an adult befriends a child with the intention of committing sexual abuse), and risky behaviour like revealing personal information. By signing the document, the providers aim to limit these risks by:

Providing an easy-to-use and accessible “report abuse” button, allowing users to report inappropriate contact from or conduct by another user with one click;

Making sure that the full online profiles and contact lists of Web site users who are registered as under 18s are set to “private” by default. This will make it harder for people with bad intentions to get in touch with the young person;

Ensuring that private profiles of users under the age of 18 are not searchable (on the Web sites or via search engines);

Guaranteeing that privacy options are prominent and accessible at all times, so that users can easily work out if just their friends or the entire world can see what they post online;

Preventing under-age users from using their services: if a social-networking site targets teenagers over the age of 13, it should be difficult for people below that age to register.

One year on, the Commission has published a report (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/social_networking/eu_action/implementation_princip/index_en.htm) on the implementation of the Principles on the 25 sites run by the signatories—Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, YouTube, Hyves, Windows Live, Xboxlive, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Piczo, Rate.ee, Skyrock, SchülerVZ StudiVZ MeinVZ, Habbo, IRC Galleria, Tuenti, Yahoo!Answers, Flickr, and Zap.lu.

Findings show that 19 out of 23 sites provide safety tips and information specifically targeted toward children and/or teenagers (this measure is not applicable for two of the services). This information is both easy to find and easy to understand on 14 sites: YouTube, Habbo Hotel, Hyves, IRC Galleria, MySpace, nasza-klasa, Netlog, One, Rate, SchülerVZ, Skyrock, Yahoo!Answers, Yahoo!Flickr, and Zap.

The report also shows that most of the companies empower minors to deal with potential online risks and employ a safe approach to privacy by:

Making it easy for users to block other users and remove comments from their profiles;

Making privacy options easy to change so that users can choose whether only their friends or the entire world can see what they post online;

Giving users control over the display of their online status (which allows other users to see whether they are online or not).

However, there has been less systematic implementation of other equally important measures designed to protect privacy:

Forty percent of the social-networking sites assessed make minors' personal information visible only by their friends by default, including: SchülerVZ, Facebook, Tuenti, Giovani, Flickr, Yahoo Answers, One, Habbo, Windows Live, and MySpace;

Only 11 out of 22 make it impossible for the private profiles of minors to be found through search engines including: Arto, Bebo, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Piczo, SchülerVZ, Windows Live, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo!Flickr, and Zap;

While 19 out of 25 sites have a link for reports available at all times, only 9 (out of 22) responded to complaints submitted during the assessment including: Arto, Dailymotion, YouTube, Habbo Hotel, Hyves, IRC Galleria, MySpace, Rate, and Windows Live. There is therefore an urgent need for better services to respond to users' reports asking for help.

“If we want children to think before they post, social-networking companies should post the right information using the right language. Last year, the European Commission urged companies to act, and I am glad that many have heeded this call,” said EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, during the presentation of the results. “However, I expect all companies to do more. Minors' profiles need to be set to private by default and questions or abuse reports have to receive quick and appropriate responses. The Internet is now vital to our children, and it is the responsibility of all to make it safe.”