Although children are younger and younger when they start using new technologies, surfing the web and holding their own profiles in social networks, they are in many cases unaware about the dangers they can face and how to avoid them. For that purpose, the European Commission has announced on the Safer Internet Day 2011 celebrated on 8 February, the opening of a debate with the most relevant actors in this sector in order to protect and safeguard children in the net.

According to the data released by a recent pan-European survey, children go online more and more, and in a more personalised way, as one out of three children connecting to the net does it via mobile phones and one in four via game consoles. Furthermore, more than a half of 9-16 year olds have a social networking profile, and 26% of them have completely "public" profiles, which in many occasions includes their address and phone number.

These data show that in many cases children are not aware about how to protect themselves in the Internet, although they are more and more active in it. Under the motto "Internet is more than a game, it's your life!", the Safer Internet Day 2011 aims to remind young people that what they do or say online could break through into their "real" life even if they use an avatar or a nickname.

With 55 million euro funding coming from the Safer Internet Programme, the European Commission supports the activities and initiatives put forward by the Safer Internet Day, which is organised every year by INSAFE, the network of Awareness Centres promoting safe, responsible use of the Internet and mobile devices by young people. Since 2004, Safer Internet Day takes place with events in more than 65 countries in Europe and worldwide.

European Commission redoubling efforts to protect children in the Internet

Taking into account the changing patterns of technology used by youngsters, the Commission has announced that it will engage into dialogue and work with new groups and industry-sectors to better protect children online. For that purpose, manufacturers of mobile devices and game consoles, Internet service providers, social networking companies, mobile applications and content providers, consumer organisations, researchers and childrens' organisations have been invited to join the collaborative platform.

Already in the past, the European Commission signed agreements with major social networking sites in order to protect children online. With this new collaborative platform, the European Commission aims to build on the achievements of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU and the European Framework for the Safer Mobile Use by Younger Teenagers and Children. This process will lead to the review the 2006 Recommendation on minors and how to protect them in audiovisual media and Internet and on the 2008 Communication on the protection of youngsters from harmful content in video games.