The growth and popularity of  social networking among European and Italian users is surprising, particularly because it is capable of encompassing 80%  of the activities an individual, ranging from work to pleasure. The selection of entertainment services offered is so vast that it has even  engaged the younger generations and children as well. According to Facebook, their users go online up to  5 times a day. These important data reflect our global, European and Italian society and should be considered cautiously, especially if they involve minors.  Where children and adolescents are concerned, it is without a doubt our obligation to guarantee  them a healthy and safe environment albeit virtual.
The high potential offered by social networking can be exploited in multiple ways, ranging from strictly social purposes which allows to meet new people from all over the world, to entertainment or professional purposes. Social networking sites have in fact become the new unconventional marketing channel that makes it possible for businesses to communicate in a direct way with their clients and understand their preferences and needs. These sites are the means through which it is possible to manage human resources in an ideal way as well as create efficient advertising strategies.
Social networks are becoming the heart of our society. They are the new digital tool and as such can be used for well intended purposes or  harmful and illicit intentions.  Internet and social networking sites offer huge opportunities in terms of socializing and interaction but the reverse side of the coin is that they can also be dangerous. In the latter case, it is the weaker categories that pay the price: minors. The number of children that have an account on social networks has been increasing  remarkably. This is why the  main actors involved such as social network societies, parents, politicians and other non governmental organisations have the obligation to make the internet safe so that the children and adolescents who use it may only benefit from it.
Offering adolescents a safe social network has always been a priority for  Ciaopeople .  When our social network expanded and the number of users surpassed 500.000, our effort doubled to guarantee a virtual place that was healthy and safe. It seemed appropriate to investigate these types of initiatives on the  legislative  and European  levels.

We spoke with Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, who provided us with a ample and accurate account of the politics of cooperation and collaboration adopted by the most famous international social networks, from non-profit organizations to the European Commission itself, to protect adolescents and children online and make  the internet a safer place.

After verifying the growing popularity of social networking sites in Europe, which are the main features of this new economic and social phenomenon you focused on and why?

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media: Social networking is indeed a growing phenomenon. Everybody has heard about Facebook, Daily Motion, StudiVZ, Hyves, Tuenti or Linkedin to name but a few. For the last year only, the use of social networkers has grown 35% in Europe while at the same time 56% of internet surfers visited social networking sites. I believe their open and interactive nature has mostly contributed to the growth of the number of these sites but also to the growth in traffic generated by today’s 41.7 million regular users. The fact that we can create profiles, upload and share pictures and videos, chat with friends, play games, create our own blogs, meet new people from all over the world and digitally ‘hug’ them or ‘buy them a drink’, has added to the popularity of social networking among European citizens – especially the younger generation but also businesses who try to enlarge their professional networks.
Did you know that users in Great Britain spend almost 6 hours on average per month on such sites? More surprising, a Facebook representative recently mentioned that a third of their users consult Facebook five times a day! And now 3 – one of the UK’s mobile operators – have even integrated a Facebook button on their mobile phones so that using the internet on your mobile you will be able to check your account non-stop, wherever you want, even if you are not at your PC or laptop.
This is just to show you that social networking sites have changed the way we keep in touch, look for information and entertain ourselves. But is has also given companies innovative means to manage their human resources, customer service and advertising. These networking websites have turned people into active users of technologies, but we should not forget that these changes there are also new challenges. Their immense popularity among teenagers raises serious concerns related to the protection of data and privacy online. This was one of the topics we discussed at the Safer Internet Forum last September.

Can you explain to us the Safer Internet Forum, its main purposes and how it is related to the social networking environment?

V.R.: The European Commission has been organising the Safer Internet Forum every year since 2004. It provides a European platform where representatives of industry, law enforcement authorities, child welfare organisations and policy makers exchange their experience and knowledge on how to make sure that the internet is safe.
Every year we propose different themes for debate. This year four topics were selected: social networking and children, age verification, research conclusions on children’s use of online technologies and media rating. The 2008 forum gathered around 300 participants from both Europe and other countries such as the US, Australia, Brazil and Korea. For the fist time ever we also invited teenagers to take part in the panel on Social Networking – because after all they are the biggest experts you can get when it comes to social networking sites!

In your speech you stressed the importance of self-regulation, cooperation and participation from the companies of the web 2.0 in order to create a better and safer virtual world for the young internet surfers. Are you satisfied with the companies’ cooperation and involvement in this project, or do you think they can do better?

V.R.: First of all I think that ensuring a safe online environment for our children is a shared responsibility of many actors: social networking sites, parents, teachers, Non-Governmental Organisations and public bodies. The guiding principle here should always be the respect of the individual’s right to privacy.

Being a Christian-democrat from Luxembourg, I normally prefer efficient industry self-regulation over the creation of new legislation. But – and the SMS-roaming-story has proven this right – industry self-regulation can only be an alternative if it is broadly accepted by all relevant stakeholders and when it is effectively implemented. I think it is quite a remarkable and important step that 17 social networking sites which are active in Europe – for instance MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Bebo, Hyves, StudiVZ and Skyrock– have agreed to sit together on one table and discuss a common set of guidelines to ensure children’s safety online and improve the transparency of their services. This shows that they are very well aware of their common responsibility of protecting young people who have personal accounts on these websites. I am confident that by February 2009 they will agree on a “code of conduct” which they will then implement and monitor. Fulfilling its usual role as a watchdog, the European Commission will follow this very closely – even on the ’site of crime’ if needed because as you might know many of my fellow Commission colleagues do have social networking accounts.

Self-regulation seems to be one of the keywords of your program about a safer internet. How can the social networking sites improve this aspect in order to give a safer virtual environment to teenage surfers?

V.R.: There are some good examples of social networking sites which provide users with extensive safety tools and information. Many of them have systems for reporting unwanted content and inappropriate or illegal behaviour, like cyberbullying and grooming. Such reports are usually followed by written warnings to the offending users who can have their account suspended or even deleted. Some sites perform pre-screening of the content of chatting and messaging, and a minimal collection of personal information. Some sites offer a type of parental control and put age verification systems in place to prevent under-aged users from accessing the site.
I believe all these measures are a good start for keeping teenagers safe when online. But I would also like to encourage the industry to co-operate with non-profit organisations and other actors engaged in child safety. This will allow us to find the best solution to respond to these challenges while making sure that teenagers continue to fully benefit from the internet and the social networking sites.
I particularly believe that industry needs to work on data privacy in the context of social networking. Social networkers need to remain in control of their personal data, today and in the future.

Can you disclose in advance some of the Safer Internet program guidelines which will be introduced in the next Safer Internet day on February 10,  2009?

V.R.: This is work in progress, so please understand that at this stage, I cannot yet disclose the results of this work. These guidelines will result from joint efforts of representatives of the social networking sites. It is up to them to produce common guidelines which make sure that children are protected online taking into account the opinions of child welfare and consumer organisations. The Commission is acting as facilitator and as honest broker in these talks and will at the end assess whether the results are satisfactory.

Ciaopeople, as a representative of the Italian social networking, from the beginning has been adopting a policy to guarantee Internet and social networking as safer virtual places, particularly for teenagers. Which ways has our country been following in order to protect the younger surfers that are increasingly using the web 2.0?

V.R.: In Italy, the European Safer Internet plus programme co-funds the Italian awareness node EASY (http://www.easy4.it) and the Italian hotline STOP-IT (http://www.stop-it.org). These two raise awareness on the potential risks young people and children may face online, while at the same time, explaining how to deal with such risks. These projects are run by the non-profit organisation Save the Children Italy in partnership with the consumer association Adiconsum.
In addition, Save the Children took the lead and opened a national debate on the issue of online safety. In January and February 2008, a telephone survey was conducted among 300 teenagers asking about their use of instant messaging and participation in online communities and social networks. The results were published in one of the main national newspapers Corriere della Sera on the eve of the Safer Internet Day 2008. On top of this, Save the Children Italy organised on 12 February 2008 a round table gathering the representatives of Italy’s main social networking sites. This provided an opportunity to discuss their responsibilities in assuring a safer use of their services among young people and I hope that this initiative will now be followed by concrete steps. I can only encourage the Italian social networking sites and non-profit organisations to continue to work together and find efficient solutions to deal with online safety issues.

Which directions could the Italian social networking follow independently, but always in respect of our laws, in order to make concrete the younger surfers safeguard?

V.R.: My advice would be that active social networking sites in Europe join the European social networking task force which is working, under an organisational umbrella provided by the European Commission’s, on the future “code of conduct”, to be ready in February 2009. Of course, once drawn up, every social network, including the Italian ones, should sign up to this “code of conduct”. This will give a strong message to surfers that their privacy is being respected which in turn will increase the trust into and therefore the use of social networking sites. I am convinced that the “code of conduct”, which will result from the industry’s combined efforts, will strike the right balance: making social networking flourish even more in Europe, while ensuring the safety of Europe’s youngest (but also older) generation.

Simona Fiore

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