Improve child safety on-line, says UK coalition

The manifesto, released today by the Children's Charities Coalition for Internet Safety (CHIS), puts forward recommendations that build on the existing Task Force for the Protection of Children on the Internet, set up by the Home Office in 2001.

This task force, which includes representatives from many of the charities affiliated to the CHIS, has taken great strides in protecting children from the dangers of the internet. But the CHIS says there is still a great deal to do.

It recommends "a major overhaul" of data protection laws to address problems of obtaining consent on-line. It expresses concern that many age-restricted goods and services – such as gambling – are widely available on-line.

It suggests that banks and payment providers should be asked to investigate the possibility of encoding any cards they issue to under-18s so they would indicate to any computer system used by a vendor that the person who owns the card being offered is not a legal adult.

Other recommendations put forward by the coalition include:

• the creation of a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approach to on-line abuse and crimes against children;
• a separate budget and secretariat for the task force;
• a cyber equivalent of the Indecent Displays Act 1981, possibly including the creation of an obligation on web publishers to rate their on-line content;
• the possible use of tax incentives to encourage developers, manufacturers and retailers in promoting on-line child safety;
• changes to the National Policing Plan to make child protection a key national target, and to provide sufficient funding for this;
• the creation of a new or enhanced national operation police resource to deal with internet crimes against children. This may include a special on-line '999' service;
• a strengthening of the UK's contribution to the international fight for on-line child protection;
• clarification of the civil liability of ISPs and other on-line service providers for legal minors using their networks; and
• more research into the long term effects of on-line child abuse and exposure to pornographic content.

The Association of Chief Police Officers supported the recommendations put forward in the manifesto. Speaking to the BBC, Acpo spokesman Stuart Hyde said, "My concern and the concern of my colleagues is that this is new business for the police service and therefore needs to be treated as such".

"My request would be that we ensure that we are doing everything possible to invest some of the income that is generated through the internet into making it a safer place," he added.

Speaking on behalf of the Internet Watch Foundation, an independent organisation charged with addressing issues relating to illegal content on the internet, Fay MacDonald, Communications Co-ordinator for the group, welcomed the move but warned, "We need to look at international co-operation, policy and laws and how they could be added to the political agenda to ensure protection for all internet consumers in the UK."

"These are not problems which can be tackled by a single organisation, Government or even a single country and we would like to see these types of issues on the agenda for the UK and G8 next year," she added.