A COALITION of parents, governments and the on-line industry should come together to fight child pornography and other harmful and illegal material on The Internet, according to a discussion document from the European Commission.
The document has been issued following growing pressure to deal with pornography, and especially child pornography, following the murder of four girls in Belgium which have been linked to a paedophile network.
The document has been released before the Commission's Green Paper on The Protection of Minors and Human Dignity in Audiovisual and Information Services, and the Green Paper on Broadcasting Services because of the pressure from the public to governments.
At a meeting of cultural ministers in Galway at the end of last month, it was also agreed action would have to be taken and that proposals from the Commission should be available in time for the ministers' formal meeting in December.
The paper from the Commission suggested that co-operation between member-states was vital to fight the sources of criminal content and in restricting distribution of copies. It said there was a need to reinforce co-operation between EU ministries of justice to exchange information on those providing criminal content and to enforce existing laws relating to criminal material.
Member-states should be encouraged to define minimum standards on criminal content.
The Commission was also seeking self-regulation among providers of the Internet and would encourage research into technical issues concerning the role of access providers and host service providers in limiting distribution of illegal content.
However, its strongest recommendation was for the use of filtering software and for a Europe-wide rating system for content.
The discussion paper said the EU did not wish to interfere with the Internet to any great extent or put in place strict legislation. Much of the paper was taken up with listing the benefits, the implications for the internal market and the cultural and financial benefits of the Internet.
"While the benefits of the Internet far outweigh its negative aspects, these aspects cannot be ignored. They are pressing issues of public, political, commercial and legal interest."
It also feared it might be involved in censorship and restricting access to information. As far as illegal content was concerned, this was a matter for member states. "What is illegal off-line remains illegal on-line."
The Commission distinguished between children obtaining pornographic material content for adults and adults obtaining pornography about children.
"Priorities should be set and resources mobilised to tackle the most important issues, that is the fight against criminal content - such as clamping down on child pornography, or use of the Internet as a new technology for criminals."
On the question of "harmful" content, the Commission suggested the development of the use of filtering software, which would stop some sites on the Internet being available to particular computers.
Systems such as Platform for Internet Content Selection were more sophisticated than earlier ones, which tended to operate on key words, blocking out both pornography and medical sites on the World Wide Web, for instance.
The platform, the Commission said, needed a rating system and was recommending a European standard, which would enable families to screen material.
The Commission was asking governments to consider if an EU legal framework was necessary to clarify whether companies that offer access to or services from the Internet were liable for illegal content.
The Commission was also recommending that given the worldwide nature of the Internet, there should be discussions on the possibility of art international convention on illegal and harmful content, in conjunction with a body larger that the EU, such as the OECD, the World Trade Organisation or the United Nations.