A $60 million program aimed at keeping children safe on the Internet – from adult materials and sexual predators alike – has been proposed by the European Commission, which the body said highlights a "disturbing gap" between what kids do online and what their parents only think they do, in the wake of recent cases of kids being abducted by predators they met in cyberspace.
"Children should have the right to use the Internet freely, to chat, to learn, or to play games," the European Union's information society commissioner, Erkki Liikanen, told reporters. "But to move freely online, children must be protected from risks of being exploited or cheated by adults."
The plan includes member states taking what the commission called common action against "illegal and harmful content on the Internet," particularly encouraging parents to use filtering programs, and also pressed member states to broaden cooperation in international Web forums to highlight the dangers children might face in cyberspace, according to one published report.
Adult Sites Against Child Pornography executive director Joan Irvine applauded the proposal. "[We] support the protection of children on the Internet," she told AVN.com, "which is why [we] added two new items to our recommended Best Practices."
Those items, Irvine said, include the group's call for labeling all e-mail marketing material with "ADV ADLT," when the material is of adult orientation; and, including on index pages all disclaimers and age verification information in plain sight and excluding images, "to prevent children from unknowingly viewing adult material."
ASACP has been working with various international hotlines on child protection issues over the past year. Irvine herself attended the INHOPE.org and Safer Internet meetings in Luxembourg last September and impressed the group with her and ASACP's dedication.
"It is important that ASACP keeps informed about what is being done by the various organizations on an international basis," she said after her appearance. "The adult industry needs representation at these meetings since many of the EU decisions may directly affect our businesses. Plus these groups need to be aware that the professional adult site industry is all about providing adult entertainment to consenting adults and is as against child pornography as they are."
