Child pornography and sexual grooming on the Internet and mobile phones is becoming an issue of growing concern.
More than two out of three European children aged between 10 and 11 have regular access to the Internet, according to the Commission, with the proportion rising to 85% for 12 and 13-year-olds. Over half have a mobile phone and nearly 20% admit to having been bullied via these new technologies. Almost all admit to having been exposed to pornographic images on the Internet.
In an effort to curb this trend and avoid potentially harmful regulation, leading Internet and Telecoms companies launched a new website yesterday (23 April), www.teachtoday.eu. The website is mainly addressed to teachers and aims to increase their awareness of online dangers as well as make the best use of new technologies for educational purposes.
"It is the first generation ever in which young students know more than teachers," explained EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, recognising the "embarrassing" situations experienced by educators who can sometimes struggle with new technologies.
At the same time, she said teachers should be incited to use computers in the best way as Internet connections are now available in nearly all schools in Europe, according to the latest figures published by the Commission.
Teachtoday.eu has been promoted by a wide alliance of companies including Telecom Italia, Google, Telefonica, Microsoft, Vodafone and MySpace. The website is meant to be an easy tool to explain new features of Web 2.0, like blogs or wikis, and aims to raise awareness of some of the most worrying aspects of the new technologies, like privacy abuse or cyber-bullying.
The European Commission welcomed this effort from the industry and recalled a set of new initiatives it currently has in the pipeline. This year, the second edition of the EU Safer Internet Programme should be adopted. The new set of projects will have a budget of €55 million and will run between 2009 and 2013.
