HIE Meeting Place Announce index

Workshops on a safer Internet

Two safer Internet events are taking place in Luxembourg on 27/28 February 2003.

A workshop on "Quality labels for websites — alternative approaches to content rating" is being held on 27 February 2003. The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Oxford University, is undertaking work on quality labels as part of its activities under the selfregulation.info (www.selfregulation.info )  info project funded by the Commission under the Safer Internet Action Plan.

The agenda of the workshop will include a discussion of existing quality labels and trustmarks in the field of ecommerce. Commission initiatives such as the Communication on Quality Criteria for Health-related Websites
will be presented. Comparisons will be drawn with ways of indicating content suitable for children, including self-rating, third-party rating and use of domain names for child-friendly content such as the new .kids.us
domain.

The input from this event will help PCMLP design and implement a pilot project. This workshop is a unique opportunity to 'compare and contrast' a variety of self-regulatory initiatives which have in common the desire to
increase user empowerment by providing reliable information about transactions and content.

Content providers, those running self-regulatory bodies and content rating and trustmark schemes, policy-makers and administrators in the area of protection of minors, policy-makers and administrators in the area of domain names, and consumer, family welfare and childen's rights organisations should attend.

On 28 February 2003, the SIFKAL project (www.sifkal.org ), co-funded under the Safer Internet Action Plan, is organising a workshop on legal and pedagogical aspects of a safer Internet. This workshop aims to:

1. bridge the gap between (ongoing and finished) preparatory awareness activities with the envisioned European awareness network. Demonstrate and feed concrete results to the new European awareness efforts;
2. bring experts from all three IAP safer internet disciplines (awareness, hotlines, filtering) as well as external experts together for the first time, in order to exchange experiences, demonstrate conducted work, and discuss actions about Safer Internet for the new coordinated network of awareness;
3. tackle the legal issues concerning safer internet; and
4. disseminate results to those responsible in the educational sector on a European level.

This workshop intends to support the safer Internet activities at this crucial time of action, and to feed concrete results from the action plan into the new generation projects. There is a lot of new research available — survey results coming out of the final deliverables, which need to be discussed and circulated among all stakeholders in the safer Internet framework.

The participation of all finalised and ongoing projects is highly recommended. The SIFKAL project invites all EU projects as well as external stakeholders in safer internet activities to take part in this event. We also welcome those responsible in the educational sector to participate in the discussions and take up the opportunity to get informed on European safer Internet activities.

More information

A registration form and further details about both workshops can be found at www.saferinternet.org