The agreement signed in Luxembourg at the Safer Internet Day organised by the European Commission will empower teenagers to deal with potential risks they may face online, like cyberbullying or revealing personal information. This is the first agreement to be signed at European level which will involve 17 leading web firms such as Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu.

Europe's major social networking sites have come together for the first time for the celebration of the 2009 Safer Internet Day, to recognise their responsibility and identify potential risks on their sites for under 18s. These risks include cyberbullying (harassing children on internet sites or via mobile messages), grooming (when an adult befriends a child with the intention of committing sexual abuse) and risky behaviour like revealing personal information.

This agreement is the result of discussions in the Social Networking Task Force set up by the European Commission in April 2008. This group brought together social networking sites, NGOs and researchers, and is a good example of industry self-regulation, an approach favoured by the Commission if effectively implemented.

Specific actions to limit risks for under 18s on the Web

• Providing an easy to use and accessible "report abuse" button, allowing users to report inappropriate contact from or conduct by another user with one click.
• Making sure that the full online profiles and contact lists of website users who are registered as under 18s are set to "private" by default. This will make it harder for people with bad intentions to get in touch with the young person.
• Ensuring that private profiles of users under the age of 18 are not searchable (on the websites or via search engines)
• Guaranteeing that privacy options are prominent and accessible at all times, so that users can easily work out if just their friends, or the entire world, can see what they post online.
• Preventing under-age users from using their services: if a social networking site targets teenagers over 13, it should be difficult for people below that age to register.

Social networking sites will inform the Commission about their individual safety policies and how they will put these principles in place by April 2009.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, welcomed this first European agreement on Social Networking, as an important step forward towards making children's clicks on social networking sites safer in Europe. "Social networking has enormous potential to flourish in Europe, to help boost our economy and make our society more interactive , as long as children and teenagers have the trust and the right tools to remain safe when making new 'friends' and sharing personal details online. I will closely monitor the implementation of today's agreement and the Commission will come back to this matter in a year's time", said Commissioner Reding.

Similar initiatives in this area include the Social Networking guidance from UK Home Office of April 2008, and separate agreements between Myspace, and Facebook with 49 State Attorneys General in the United Sates.

Safer Internet Day, Social Networking and protective measures for children

Social networking sites are an emerging social and economic phenomenon, attracting 41.7 million regular users in Europe and changing the way we interact with each other on the Web. The use of social networks has grown over the past year by 35% in Europe and is expected to more than double to 107.4 million users by 2012. To make sure that social networks continue to grow, young users need to feel safe when expanding their networks or sharing any personal information.

With this aim, the European Commission put forward in December 2008 the Safer Internet Programme in order to promote safer use of the Internet and other communication technologies, especially by children. This Programme will run from 2009 to 2013.

Safer Internet Day has been organised every year since 2004 and includes events in more than 50 countries in Europe and worldwide. Protective initiatives such as the one signed this year, were also the result of previous Safer Internet Days, such as it was the case in 2007 when, on the initiative of Commissioner Reding, an agreement on safer mobile use by young teenagers was signed by all major mobile operators.