Critical draft report on Safer Internet Plan

The EU Safer Internet Action Plan, than ran from 1999 to 2002, did not deliver very impressive results, to put it mildly. Rapporteur Bill Newton Dunn (UK Liberal Democrat) from the Parliamentary Committee on Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) wrote a slashing draft report about the request to extend the plan for another 2 years. The original plan had 4 objectives:
*Create a European network of childporn hotlines
*Develop European filtering and rating systems
*Encourage awareness actions
*Organise an international conference about the topic

Analysing the achievements, Newton Dunn states that nobody seems to know the telephone numbers of the supposed network of hotlines in 10 member states. Secondly, in stead of validating existing filtering software and carry out security tests against counter-attacks, the express wish of the EP, the Commission financed 13 seemingly vague and uncoordinated filtering projects. Awareness has not been promoted very well either. ‘Projects such as the SUI project resulted in the distribution of 60.000 copies of a brochure on safer Internet use to teachers (…).’ Finally, no conference was organised, ‘and now, in the rapporteur’s opinion, the money would be better spent with the candidate countries.’

The report will be discussed in the next meeting of LIBE, on 17 February 2003. Next day LIBE will vote, followed in Plenary on 10 March.

Revised Newton Dunn draft report (January 2003)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/committees/libe/20030217/481624en.pdf