# Decision No 1351/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 establishing a multiannual Community programme on protecting children using the Internet and other communication technologies (Text with EEA relevance), Division (2): Fighting against illegal content and harmful conduct online

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The activities will aim to reduce the amount of illegal content circulated online and deal adequately with harmful conduct online, with particular focus on online distribution of child sexual abuse material, grooming and cyber-bullying. The main planned actions are:
1.. Providing the public with, and promoting the existence of, contact points and hotlines for reporting online illegal content and harmful conduct.
Activities will ensure that these contact points are effective and visible to the public, that they liaise closely with other actors at national level (in particular with police units specialised in cyber crime), and that they cooperate at EU level to deal with cross-border issues and to exchange best practices. These contact points will also provide the public with the necessary information on how to report illegal content and assess the content of on-line information services which could harm the physical, mental or moral integrity of children.
2.. Tackling harmful conduct online, in particular grooming and cyber-bullying. Activities will aim to tackle online grooming and cyber-bullying.
Actions will deal with technical, psychological and sociological issues relating to these issues and will promote cooperation and coordination between stakeholders.
3.. Stimulating the application of technical solutions for dealing adequately with illegal content and harmful conduct online and informing end-users as to how this technology might be applied.
Activities will encourage the design, development or adaptation and/or promotion of effective technological tools to deal adequately with illegal content and to fight against harmful conduct online, in particular those tools made available free of charge for easy general use by stakeholders, and will also encourage the promotion by service operators of safe, responsible use of connections in order to protect children against illegal and harmful activities. Stakeholders will be informed of the availability of this technology and its proper use. Consideration could be given, inter alia,to the following measures:
(a) adopting a quality label for service providers, so that users can easily check whether or not a given provider subscribes to a code of conduct;
(b) the use by end-users of filters which would prevent information which could harm children's physical, mental or moral integrity from passing through online technologies;
(c) supporting and promoting measures to encourage positive content for children;
(d) aiming to explore the effectiveness of tools developed in cooperation with the Internet industry that enable law enforcement agencies to track down online criminals.
4.. Promoting cooperation and exchange of information, experience and best practices between stakeholders at national and EU level.
Activities will aim to improve coordination between, and encourage the participation and engagement of, stakeholders involved in countering the distribution of illegal content and harmful conduct online. In particular, activities will encourage the international sharing of expertise and pooling of ideas between governments, law enforcement agencies, hotlines, banking/financial/credit card institutions, child abuse counselling centres, child welfare organisations and the Internet industry.
5.. Enhancing cooperation, exchange of information and experience in fighting online illegal content and harmful conduct at international level.
Activities will aim to improve cooperation with third countries, harmonise approaches in dealing with illegal content and harmful conduct online at international level and encourage the development of coordinating links between the Member States' databases relating to child abuse, and also common approaches and methods of work. In particular, activities will be aimed at establishing close cooperation between national authorities, police and contact points. Actions will be taken to build a common EU database collecting information on child abuse and to ensure its connection with Europol.
6.. Engaging domain name registries where they are not yet engaged and strengthening existing cooperation.
Taking account of national legislation, activities will aim to complement the existing actions by improving cooperation with domain name registries in Member States, and encouraging positive relationships with registries outside the EU to enable earlier detection of potentially illegal content and minimise the longevity of websites known to offer child sexual abuse content.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2008/1351/annex/I/division/ACTIONS/division/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2008-1351/annex-I/division-ACTIONS/division-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.