# 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 (3): Promoting a safer online environment

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

The activities will aim to bring together stakeholders so as to promote a safer online environment and protect children from harmful content. The main planned actions are:
1.. Enhancing cooperation, exchange of information, experience and best practices between stakeholders.
Activities will aim to improve cooperation, harmonise approaches in creating a safer online environment for children and enable the exchange of best practices and working methods. Actions will aim to provide stakeholders with an open platform to discuss issues linked to promoting a safer online environment and ways of protecting children from potentially harmful content across different platforms.
2.. Encouraging stakeholders to develop and implement adequate systems of self- and co-regulation. Actions will encourage the creation and implementation of self- and co-regulatory initiatives and encourage stakeholders to take account of child safety when developing new technologies and services.
3.. Encouraging and assisting providers to develop labelling.
Actions will aim at encouraging and assisting Internet service providers to develop, as a tool of self regulation, ‘child safe’ labelling for web pages. These actions may include, inter alia, exploring the possibility of setting up a system of common descriptive symbols or warning messages indicating the age category and/or those aspects of the content which have led to a certain age recommendation, which would help users to be more aware of potentially harmful online content.
4.. Stimulating the involvement of children in creating a safer online environment.
Actions will aim to involve children, ensuring equal participation of girls and boys, with the aim of better understanding their views and experiences concerning the use of online technologies and, with the support of specialists, of promoting a safer online environment for children. This involvement shall be regularly exercised within the framework of activities such as the European Forum on the Rights of the Child, the Safer Internet Forum and others.
5.. Increasing information about adequate tools for dealing with harmful content online.
Activities will aim to increase information, particularly for parents, carers, teachers and educators, about the performance and effectiveness of tools, such as filtering systems, for dealing with potentially harmful content online and to equip all users regularly with simple educational information, instruments and applications adequately supporting them in dealing with harmful content across different platforms.
6.. Ensuring compatibility between the approach taken in the European Union and internationally.
Activities will promote cooperation and exchange of information, experience and best practices between stakeholders at EU level and internationally.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2008/1351/annex/I/division/ACTIONS/division/3 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2008-1351/annex-I/division-ACTIONS/division-3
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.