EU phone firms aim to shield kids from abuse

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By Sabina Zawadzki

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Skinheads, scantily-clad women, a machinegun-toting robot and "Klaus", an impressionable youngster, starred in a European Commission drive on Tuesday to make the Internet and mobile phones safer for children.

Sharing the platform were telecoms giants such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telecom Italia who promised to try to help protect kids from paedophiles, abuse and pornographic images when they use their phones.

An accord signed by the operators kicked off an EU-wide Safer Internet Day, promoting actions such as a German television advertisement featuring undesirable intruders preying on Klaus via his home computer.

"Operators have agreed to implement what they have put on the table by February next year to make sure that children’s and young teenagers’ use of mobiles will be safe," said EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding, who helped broker the agreement.

In Germany, Italy and Poland more than 90 percent of teenagers own mobile phones. In countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Greece, more children own mobile phones than have access to the Internet, according to the Commission.

But more users means more kids open to risks -- in Britain, for example, 14 percent of children have been victims of bullying through their phones, and 10 percent .....continued below

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"We had several cases prior to (self-regulation) where children had access to flirty chatrooms, where they then met with people and were then raped or abused," said John Carr, spokesman for UK-based Children’s Charity Coalition on Internet Safety, adding that such cases have now been reduced.

The operators agreed to help parents customise their children’s access to content, offer safety information and encourage discussion about risks. They will also classify content as suitable or unsuitable for children.

The agreement will form the basis of national codes of conduct across the EU. It is derived from measures already taken in member states such as Germany, Britain, Italy and France that have been proved to work.

The Commission sees self-regulation as a better way to protect children because it is more likely to keep up with the pace of soaring phone use and fast-changing technology than legislation, which takes too long to enact.

As for Klaus, his mother naively welcomes the skinheads and their friends through the door to see her son. At the end, the advert warns parents: "In real life, you would protect your children. So why not protect them on the Internet."