Legal and regulatory issues

Age verification

• UK - Sites fail age verification check  +/-

  (BBC) A private members bill going through the House of Lords is calling for it to be mandatory for web retailers to adopt age verification systems. The bill on age-checking has the backing of charities who say it is too easy for children to buy alcohol, knives and violent video games online. A check on twelve sites found that thorough checks were not being done. The Online Purchasing of Goods and Services (Age Verification) Bill has been proposed by Baroness Massey and calls for "robust" checking systems to be used by any site selling age-restricted goods. The age-checking systems would have to be used if one of 20 separate products were sold including knives, alcohol, tobacco, age-restricted video games and DVDs, solvents and spray paints. Trading standards officers from Greenwich Council carried out tests on a number of websites to check their age verification processes. In a supervised test, a 16-year-old bought pre-paid credit cards and then went online to see if he could buy age-restricted goods with it. The credit card was registered with the minor's real date of birth and address. The teenager managed to buy knives, drink, and 18-rated DVDs and games from 12 separate online retailers.

Computer crime

• ITU - Toolkit for Cybercrime Legislation  +/-

  (ITU) The ITU Toolkit for Cybercrime Legislation aims to provide countries with sample legislative language and reference material that can assist in the establishment of harmonized cybercrime laws and procedural rules. The Toolkit is a practical instrument that countries can use for the elaboration of a cybersecurity legal framework and related laws. The development of the ITU Toolkit for Cybercrime Legislation was undertaken by a multidisciplinary international group of experts.

• ITU - Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide for Developing Countries  +/-

  (ITU) The ITU Understanding Cybercrime Guide aims to help developing countries better understand the national and international implications of growing cyber-threats, assess the requirements of existing national regional and international instruments, and assist countries in establishing a sound legal foundation. The Guide provides a comprehensive overview of the most relevant topics linked to the legal aspects of cybercrime.

• US - Federal Trade Commission shuts down rogue ISP  +/-

  (CNET News) The Federal Trade Commission announced that it had Pricewert shut down by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. Pricewert is a San Jose, Calif.-based Internet service provider that allegedly recruits, intentionally and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content.

Consumer protection

• EU - Commission launches guide to consumers' "digital rights"  +/-

  (RAPDI) The European Commission has launched the eYouGuide, a new online tool giving practical advice on the "digital rights" consumers have under EU law. This guide, which responds to a call from the European Parliament in 2007, addresses consumer issues like the rights towards your broadband provider, shopping on the web, downloading music and protecting your personal data online and on social networking sites.

Content regulation

• 10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger  +/-

  (Committee to Protect Journalists) CPJ names the worst online oppressors. Booming online cultures in many Asian and Middle Eastern nations have led to aggressive government repression. Relying on a mix of detentions, regulations, and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa. China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restriction, are among Asia's worst blogging nations. Cuba and Turkmenistan, nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll.

• US - Craigslist to close erotic services category  +/-

  (Guardian) Pressure from US officials has forced classified advertising website Craigslist to pull the shutters down on its controversial sex adverts in favour of a new, closely-monitored system. In an announcement, Craigslist chief executive Jim Buckmaster said the site would be closing the "erotic services" category. Instead, the site will open a new "adult services" category, in which every advert will be manually approved by staff before it is seen by members of the public.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• CA - Research institute report on copyright recalled  +/-

  (CBC) The Conference Board of Canada (a not-for-profit research organization) has recalled three reports advocating tighter copyright rules, stating that the reports didn't follow research standards. The board said it was recalling Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy; National Innovation Performance and Intellectual Property Rights: A Comparative Analysis; and Intellectual Property Rights-Creating Value and Stimulating Investment. It said an internal review showed the reports "did not follow the high-quality research standards of the Conference Board of Canada." University of Ottawa law Prof. Michael Geist, who writes frequently about internet copyright issues, attacked the form and content of the reports, calling one of them "deceptive and plagiarized."

• EU - Commission welcomes Parliament vote on copyright term  +/-

  (Rapid) The Commission welcomes the European Parliament's endorsement of a proposal to extend term of copyright protection for performers and record producers from 50 to 70 years. The Commission is also pleased that the Parliament's text has further strengthened the position of performers by introducing a new claim for session players amounting to 20% of record labels' offline and online sales revenue. According to the proposal, performers can also recover their copyright after 50 years, should the producer fail to market the sound recording. Finally, a newly introduced 'clean slate' would prevent record producers from making deductions to the royalties they pay to featured performers.

• The Economist: copyright and wrongs  +/-

  (Communia) The Economist has launched a new online debate on copyright and wrongs. In support of the initial motion ("existing copyright laws do more harm than good") we have Professor William Fisher (Harvard Law School), while Professor Justin Hughes (Cardozo Law School, New York) argues against it. Users can publish comment all along and even vote on that motion.

• UK - Call to 'disconnect file-sharers'  +/-

  (BBC) Persistent illegal file-sharers should be cut off from the net, an alliance of UK creative industries will tell the government later. The alliance wants the government to force internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect users who ignore repeated warnings about sharing illegal content. John Woodward, head of the UK Film Council, said illegal file-sharing was hurting film-making and risking jobs. The coalition says more than 50% of net traffic in the UK is illegal content.

Cyber-bullying

• IE - New 02 service will block unwanted messages  +/-

  (Irish Times) A service allowing mobile phone users to block unwanted messages from other phones will be available from next month. The service, designed to combat bullying on mobile phones is being offered by O2 and is likely to appeal in particular to parents worried about their children's exposure to such threats. O2's service, called Block It, allows O2 customers to block unwanted text, picture and video messages from other mobile phone numbers.

Data Protection (privacy)

• Amazon blocks Phorm adverts scan  +/-

  (BBC) Amazon has said it will not allow online advertising system Phorm to scan its web pages to produce targeted ads. Phorm builds a profile of users by scanning for keywords on websites visited and then assigns relevant ads. It has proved controversial because it scans almost all sites a user visits and there is an ongoing political debate about how a user gives consent.

• EU - Citizens' privacy must become priority in digital age, says Commissioner Reding  +/-

  (Europa) In a video posted on her website, Viviane Reding, the Europeafn Union's Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said that Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used, and said that the Commission would take action wherever EU Member States failed to ensure that new technologies such as behavioural advertising, RFID 'smart chips' or online social networking respected this right. See Full text of this press release and txt o Commissioner Reding's video message.

• EU - Commission Recommendation on RFID privacy and data protection  +/-

  (RAPID) There are already over 6 billion smart chips, microelectronic devices that can be integrated into a variety of everyday objects from fridges to bus passes. With Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, they can process data automatically when brought close to 'readers' that activate them, pick up their radio signal and exchange data with them. The European Commission adopted a set of recommendations to make sure that everyone involved in the design or operation of technology using smart chips respects the individual's fundamental right to privacy and data protection. see Commission Recommendation of 12.5.2009 on the implementation of privacy and data protection principles in applications supported by radio-frequency identification C(2009) 3200 final. see also RFID: Radio Frequency IDentification: Frequently Asked Questions and Citizen's summary.

• EU - Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'  +/-

  (BBC) The Home Office has been accused of colluding with online ad firm Phorm on "informal guidance" to the public on whether the company's service is legal. E-mails between the ministry and Phorm show the department asking if the firm would be "comforted" by its position.

• EU - UK's privacy laws illegally inadequate  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) UK laws protecting the privacy of people's communications are inadequate, the European Commission has said. The Commission has launched a legal case against the UK over its implementation of European Union Directives. The Commission's investigation was sparked by outrage over trials by BT of Phorm, a system which monitors web use and tries to match advertising to people's perceived interests. The trials were done without BT customers' knowledge or permission. See Commission press release (RAPID).

• UK - Database of all children launched  +/-

  (BBC) A controversial database which holds the details of every child in England has become available to childcare professionals for the first time. ContactPoint, a response to Lord Laming's report following the death of Victoria Climbie, is beginning its national roll-out in the north west. But the system, costing £224m, has been delayed twice amid data security fears. The government says it will enable more co-ordinated services for children and ensure none slips through the net. It will hold the details of 11 million children and young people aged up to 18 years. 390,000 people will have access to the database, but will have gone through stringent security training.

• US - Glympse can locate kids via cell phone GPS  +/-

  (SafeKids.com) Glympse joins Loopt and Google Latitude as the newest location-based service that uses cell phones? GPS capability to tell people where you are. Glympse requires almost no effort on the part of the person who is following you. All they have to do is click on a Web link on a computer or a Web- enabled phone to see where you are on a map. To transmit your location, you need to download an application to your phone and use the application to send a "Glympse," which authorizes that person to follow you for a specific amount of time and send them the link they need to see you on a map.

e-Government

• EU - Commission calls for action to unlock public sector information re-use  +/-

  (EUROPA) The Commission has reported on the impact of common EU rules on the re-use of public sector information (the PSI Directive) put in place in 2003. The Directive sets out how public sector bodies should make their information available for re-use in order to remove barriers such as discriminatory practices, monopoly markets and a lack of transparency. It has had a positive impact on the public sector information market. Commercial re-use of public sector information is now being encouraged by Member States, exclusive agreements in some Member States have been ended and charges for re-use have been lowered. However, the sector has not yet generated its full potential for the European economy. The Commission called on EU Member States to implement practical measures such as making it easier to get a license to re-use public sector information, to put an end to exclusive agreements, to identify information that could be reused and make it easily available, to ensure that EU rules have a positive impact on the economy. see the Communication on Re-use of Public Sector Information - Review of Directive 2003/98/EC and Staff working document.

Employment and social issues

• CH - 'Ill' worker fired over Facebook  +/-

  (BBC) A Swiss woman has lost her job after her employers spotted she was using the Facebook website when she had claimed to be too ill to use a computer. The unnamed woman was suffering a migraine and had told her employer, Nationale Suisse, she needed to lie in a darkened room. The company said its discovery that she was also using Facebook destroyed its trust in her and prompted her sacking.

Filtering & blocking

• CN - Die Große Chinesische Firewall  +/-

  (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger) Wolfgang Kleinwächter ist Professor am Department for Media and Information Sciences der Universität Aarhus in Dänemark und Direktor des NETCOM Instituts der Medienstadt Leipzig e.V.. Im Interview spricht er über Internetzensur in China und die Gefahr einer Aufsplitterung des World Wide Web.

Hotlines

• EU - Russia and South Africa join INHOPE network  +/-

  (Press Release) The INHOPE network has three new Internet Hotlines from Russia and South Africa, expanding the network to 35 Hotlines in 31 countries around the globe. Hotline Contact details: Film Publication Board (South Africa), Friendly Runet Foundation and National Internet-Safety Node in Russia (Russia) .

• UK - Policing the dark side of the net  +/-

  (BBC) The BBC goes behind the scenes at the Internet Watch Foundation to see how its researchers cope with the psychologically demanding job of policing sites peddling images of child abuse. The watchdog that blocked a Wikipedia page last year over a rock album cover says it still believes that the image at the heart of that controversy was illegal. But the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says it has moved on after the row in December 2008, and claims its quest to eradicate child abuse images from the web is now having real success.

Information society and Internet policy

• EU - Commissioner Reding calls for full privatisation and full accountability of ICANN  +/-

  (RAPID) In a video posted on her website, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, called for greater transparency and accountability in Internet Governance as of October 2009. Key decisions related to Internet Governance, like top level domains and managing the internet's core directory, are currently made by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private not-for profit corporation established in California. So far, ICANN has been operating under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce. However, this agreement expires on 30 September this year. For the time after, Commissioner Reding outlined a new governance model for the internet. This would include a fully private and accountable ICANN, accompanied by an independent judicial body, as well as a "G12 for Internet Governance" - a multilateral forum for governments to discuss general internet governance policy and security issues. See Text of Mrs Reding's message.

Mobile and wireless

• EU - Cost of roaming texts, calls and data services to plummet from 1 July  +/-

  (RAPID) A text message sent from abroad in the EU will cost no more than €0.11 as of 1 July, instead of €0.28 today. The times where consumers had to expect "bill shocks" for downloading a picture or a movie with a mobile phone while roaming in the EU are over. The European Parliament, in its plenary session in Strasbourg, today voted by a large majority in favour of new EU rules on SMS and data roaming. The Parliament also voted for further cuts in the price of mobile phone calls while roaming in another EU country. The present cap for a mobile phone call made abroad will progressively drop from €0.46 to €0.35 per minute by July 2011, and from €0.22 today to €0.11 for mobile calls received while roaming abroad. Mobile operators will also be required to bill roaming calls by the second from the 31st second at the latest, which will end the current practice under which consumers are overcharged by up to 24%. As the Council of EU Telecoms Ministers has already signalled its agreement with the new roaming rules, the vote paves the way for an entry into force of the new rules just in time for the summer holidays. European consumers are expected to save up to 60% on their bill for using a mobile phone abroad in the EU.

Protection of minors

• Alarm bells ring over "sexting"  +/-

  (BBC) It may seem like harmless fun to a 15-year-old wanting to impress their new boyfriend or girlfriend. But the practice of sexting - sending nude or semi-nude images of oneself to others via mobile phones - is having unintended and, in some cases, tragic consequences. The risk of having one's private pictures distributed among schoolmates or uploaded on to social-networking websites is only one part of it. It could also lead to a criminal conviction as a sex offender for any teenager who forwards them on to someone else.

• EU - Cory Doctorow discusses "SEXTING"  +/-

  (INSAFE) Science fiction author and prominent blogger Cory Doctorow discusses the relationship between "SEXTING" and information diffusion. He suggests various ways we can demonstrate the viral spread of information to young people so they are aware how quickly photos and video spread once released onto the Internet. This film posted on YouTube is an outtake of a film produced for a training event in Rome, May 2009. Full film will be uploaded soon. Filmed and edited by the Insafe Team.

• EU - Participants in the conference Safer Internet for Children adopted the Prague Declaration  +/-

  (CZ Presidency) The Czech Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the European Commission organised a ministerial conference Safer Internet for Children - fighting together against illegal content and conduct on-line in Prague on 20 April 2009. The Czech Republic was represented by Minister of Interior Ivan Langer and the Police President, Oldřich Martinů. The conference was dedicated to the process of improving cooperation between all stakeholders in the field of promoting safer Internet and mobile communications, especially for children. At the end of the conference the participants adopted the Prague Declaration.

• ITU - Guidelines proposed for Child Online Protection (COP) initiative  +/-

  (ITU) Guidelines for the protection of children in cyberspace were presented as drafts for discussion on 18 May in connection with the theme for the 2009 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The draft guidelines will be reviewed at the Strategic Dialogue on Safer internet Environment for Children in Tokyo, 2-3 June. The final Guidelines on Child Online Protection will be issued at ITU TELECOM WORLD, 5-9 October 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. Comments will be accepted until 30 June 2009. see Draft Guidelines for Children; Draft Guidelines for Parents, Guardians and Educators; Draft Guidelines for Industry; Draft Guidelines for Policy Makers. See also ITU Press Release.

• US - "Sexting" not just a teen problem  +/-

  (Press Release) A new survey from the marketing consultancy and research company, AK Tweens, shows an alarming trend among tween girls - sexting. Believed by most experts and parents to be a "teen" only problem, the survey revealed that 30% of tween girls - many as young as 10 years old - are "sexting" - sending, receiving and/or posting sexy messages/photos (e.g. photos of themselves in their underwear, or without clothes, messages of a sexual or suggestive nature) online and via cell phone/email.

• US - NTIA Online Safety and Technology Working Group  +/-

  (Press Release) U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the Online Safety and Technology Working Group - a working group dedicated to keeping children safe on the Internet. More than two dozen private sector and child and family advocacy leaders will help evaluate industry efforts to protect the privacy and safety of children and families online. Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace/Fox Interactive Media, and Ms. Anne Collier, Net Family News/ConnectSafely.org will act as Co-Chairs of the Group.

Racism and xenophobia

• Simon Wiesenthal Centre: Facebook used to 'promote hatred of Jews'  +/-

  (Times) Facebook was under increasing fire allegedly hosting pages promoting hatred against Jews after a report found that militants and hate groups were increasingly using social networking sites as propaganda tools to recruit new members. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish human rights group named after the renowned Nazi-hunter, said it has found a 25 per cent rise in the past year in the number of "problematic" social networking groups on such sites as YouTube. A third of the new postings were on Facebook alone. The centre said it had identified more than 10,000 websites, social networking groups, portals, blogs, chat rooms, videos and hate games that promoted racial violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate music and terrorism.

Rating and filtering

• Apple May Offer Age Controls for iPhone Apps  +/-

  (New York Times) New details about the parental control system coming to the App Store. All iPhone applications will be rated in one of four age categories: 4+, 9+, 12+, or 17+. When Apple announced the coming 3.0 release of its iPhone software, it referred to parental controls for apps. I assume the new system will allow Apple to accept more applications that it now rejects, on the theory that parents will be able to limit children from getting applications that can give them access to raunchy or violent material. (The iPhone and iTouch already offer a way for parents to block the devices' Web browser and YouTube viewer).

• AU - ACMA releases report on internet filtering technologies and online safety measures  +/-

  (INHOPE) On 22 April 2009 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released its second report on international developments in internet filtering technologies and other safety initiatives. The report finds that the most comprehensive method of addressing online safety and security risks is to target multiple points along the supply chain for internet content and services.

• JP - New Service from OCN Provides Children with Safer Internet  +/-

  (Press Release) Customers of NTT Communications' "OCN" Internet access service can take advantage of a new offering to make home computers and the Internet safer for their children. The service, named "OCN Kids Care," was launched in response to children's increasing access to potentially harmful sites on the Internet. The service not only allows parents to set rules for Internet usage and then change settings remotely if necessary, it also helps to create a transparent atmosphere in which parents and their children can openly discuss Internet safety issues.

Security and encryption

• EU - Reding calls for 'Mister Cyber Security'  +/-

  (RAPID) In a video posted on her website, Viviane Reding, the European Union's Commissioner for Information Society and Media, called on Member States to act to ensure that Europe's electronic communication networks are well protected. "So far, the EU's 27 Member States have been quite negligent. Europe needs a 'Mister Cyber Security', a security tsar with authority to act immediately if a cyber attack is underway, a Cyber Cop in charge of the coordination of our forces and of developing tactical plans to improve our level of resilience." See text of message. See also website of the EU Ministerial Conference on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, Tallinn, 27-28 April 2009.

• Pornographic videos flood YouTube  +/-

  (BBC News) Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack. Many started with footage of children's videos before groups of adults performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen. YouTube owner Google said it was aware and addressing the problem.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• EU - Commission calls on mobile operators to continue to improve child safety policies  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission today called on mobile operators to do more to keep children safe while using mobile phones by putting in place all the measures in the voluntary code of conduct, signed by 26 mobile operators in 2007. A report just published by the GSM Association, the trade body of the mobile phone industry, showed that national self-regulatory codes based on the framework agreement brokered by the European Commission now exist in 22 Member States, 90% of them in line with the 2007 agreement, and 80% of operators have put in place measures to control child access to adult content.

• EU - European Framework for Safer Mobile Use - implementation report  +/-

  (GSM Association) Two years on from the introduction of the European Framework for Safer Mobile Use by Younger Teenagers and Children, Pricewaterhouse Coopers published a report summarising the status of its implementation in the EU. The report shows that the Framework has been transposed into codes of conduct in 22 EU Member States and that mobile operator signatories have taken substantial action to implement these codes alongside other voluntary activities.

Telecommunications

• EU - Commission acts on termination rates  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has set out clear guidance for EU telecoms regulators on the cost-based method to be used when calculating termination rates - the wholesale fees charged by operators to connect the call from another operator's network which are part of everyone's phone bill. The guidance is in the form of a "Recommendation" that national regulators are obliged to take "the utmost account" of. The Recommendation indicates specifically that termination rates at national level should be based only on the real costs that an efficient operator incurs to establish the connection. see Frequently Asked Questions. see also Ending the Fixed-Mobile-Subsidy: the new Commission Recommendation on Termination Rates in the EU Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media.

• EU - Net-neutrality clause likely to delay telecoms reform  +/-

  (ZDNet.co.uk) The last-minute addition of a net-neutrality clause to a package of telecommunications reforms will probably delay the package's approval by telecoms ministers, the European Parliament has said. The Parliament voted through the Telecoms Package, which includes a mixture of reforms covering topics ranging from number-porting and data-breach notification to radio-spectrum use and the establishment of a Europe-wide telecoms super-regulator. The sticking point is a clause inserted shortly before the vote that says "no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities ... save when public security is threatened". The Telecoms Package also stated that internet access was a fundamental right. The clause in question, numbered 138/46, is widely seen as a way of stopping so-called "three-strikes" legislation, such as the Hadopi bill that the French parliament rejected last month but will reconsider on 12 May. Such legislation can force ISPs to cut off users who are suspected of illegal file-sharing. see European Parliament Approves EU Telecoms Reform but Adds 1 Amendment: Commission Reaction (RAPID).

Market & Technology

Portals, browsers and search engines

• A search engine that computes answers instead of looking them up  +/-

  (Economist) The latest internet search engine is Wolfram Alpha. Instead of serving up a list of popular links to other sites that contain the search term picked by a user, Alpha is a more-or-less closed system. It tries to dissect a question into its components and then performs calculations, using its own source materials, to compute an answer. The results are presented as a sleek collage of tables, charts and graphics. Alpha takes a different approach to the automation or "crowdsourcing" normally used to generate knowledge from the web. In that sense it is more like (and may be more threatening to) Wikipedia than Google.

• Google rolls out search changes  +/-

  (BBC) Google has launched two experimental products it hopes will change the way users search for pictures and news. A feature known as Similar Images uses a picture rather than text to find other matching images. Timeline presents information already available in Google News but organised and displayed chronologically. Alongside these features is a new version of Google Labs, in which users can take a peek at what its thousands of engineers are working on. Amid past criticism that Google has wasted too much time and effort on projects that have little impact, the aim of the Labs upgrade is to make prototypes available earlier.

Statistics

• Facebook now accounts for one third of all online social networking time  +/-

  (Guardian) The latest comScore data is good news for Facebook, ranking the site as the sixth most popular website in the world with 275 million unique users each month. Facebook now accounts for 4.1 minutes of every 100 minutes we spend online. The site accounts for more than 30% of all time spend on social networking sites, up from just over 12% a year earlier. Facebook has seen very strong growth in Europe over the past 12 months, ranked as the most popular social networking site in 11 of the 17 countries comScore monitors.

• JP Only 1 in 3 Japanese teens have installed mobile filters  +/-

  (Filtering Facts) Last year, Japan announced a plan to provide filters for mobile devices used by minors. Since April 1, cell phone companies have been obligated to provide filters on cell phones sold to youth under 18 years of age. Though parents are not punishable under the law, they are required to inform cell phone companies if a phone they are purchasing is for use by a child. Only one in every three Tokyo middle school students has activated filters on their cell phones that block access to sites considered harmful to youth, a police survey has found. Among the reasons given by students for not activating the filters, "Because my parents have not told me to" was highest at 42.1 percent. Likewise, the top reason for activating the filters was "Because my parents told me to" at 64.6 percent.

• Study: Young adults haven't warmed up to Twitter  +/-

  (CNET News) While 99 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have profiles on social networks, only 22 percent use Twitter, according to a new survey from Pace University and the Participatory Media Network. This is consistent with what some observers have said about Twitter's recent push from early-adopter territory into the mainstream: that it's catching on with a slightly older demographic than the teenagers and college students who formed Facebook's initial core. But of those young people using Twitter, the survey found that 85 percent of them follow friends, 54 percent follow celebrities, 29 percent follow family members, and 29 percent follow companies - not stellar news for the brands and marketers that have flocked to Twitter as the latest "conversational" destination.

• UK - 'Reduction' seen in abuse sites  +/-

  (BBC) The number of websites showing and selling images of child abuse has fallen in the last 12 months. The number of sites hosting such images dropped by 10% in 2008, reveal figures from the Internet Watch Foundation. The watchdog warned that the fall in numbers masked a rise in the severity of images seen on the remaining sites. see also Child Porn Websites Domains Concentrated in Ten Registries (Goldstein Report) A small number of registries and registrars are responsible for three-quarters of child porn websites says the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in their annual report. The IWF found 74 per cent of child sexual abuse domains they traced are commercial operations selling indecent images of children with 76 per cent of these (some 850 unique domains) are registered with just ten unnamed domain name registries. Of these, five registries and registrars accounted for 55 per cent of all the commercial child sexual abuse domains known to IWF during 2008.

Forthcoming events

• 2009-05-19 EU, Brussels - Data Protection Conference 2009 Personal data - more use, more protection?  +/-

  (Europa) 19-20 May 2009. European Commission, Charlemagne building, Brussels. The European Commission organises a personal data use and protection conference to look at new challenges for privacy. How should personal data be protected in a globalised world with increased mobility and in the wake of modern communication and information technologies and new policies? Which data is accessed and exchanged by public authorities and private companies? How well are current rules on international transfers of personal data working in a time of “cloud computing”? What are the expectations of individuals and business and society as a whole?

• 2009-06-02 ITU, Tokyo - Safer Internet Environment for Children  +/-

  (ITU) ITU, within the context of the Child Online Protection Initiative, together with MIC Japan is organizing a Strategic Dialogue on Safer Internet Environment for Children that will be held on 2-3 June in Tokyo, Japan. The Tokyo Strategic Dialogue will provide a platform for policy-makers, regulators, industry representatives, research and academia to exchange views, experiences and good practices on key policy and strategy issues in the area of child online protection. It will also examine the dimensions of child e-safety, including information about the dangers facing children online, the tools presently available to reduce the risks to them, including current, new and emerging ICTs and finally, recommendations and key activities which could be undertaken in this area. See Draft Programme.

• 2009-06-11 EU, London - EU Kids Online conference  +/-

  (EU Kids Online) Thursday June 11th 2009, New Academic Building, London School of Economics and Political Science, London. An international one-day conference for researchers, policy makers, industry, educators, NGOs and government to address the policy issues and research findings about children and the internet. The conference will focus on European research on cultural, contextual and risk issues regarding children and the internet. It will report the final results and recommendations from three years' work by the EU Kids Online network of 60 researchers in 21 countries funded by the EC Safer Internet plus Programme. It will also showcase the latest current research in Europe and Worldwide.

• 2009-10-22 EU, Luxembourg - Safer Internet Forum 2009  +/-

  (Euroap) The 2009 edition of the Safer Internet Forum will take place in Luxembourg on 22 and 23 October and its main theme will be "Promoting internet safety in schools". The Forum will be open for stakeholders from NGOs, governments, researchers, industry representatives, including Internet Service Providers, mobile network operators, social networking sites, software developers. You can consult the draft agenda of the event. Further details on the programme and registration will be published at a later stage. The Safer Internet Forum will be preceeded by the INSAFE Pan-European Youth Panel and a Teachers' Panel. Both meetings will take place on 21 October in Luxembourg and will be closed to the public. The main conclusions of both the Youth and the Teachers' Panel will be presented during the Safer Internet Forum.

QuickLinks consists of

• a free newsletter appearing approximately every two to three weeks. The newsletter is distributed by electronic mail through an "announcement only" mailing list.
• a Web site with frequent updates, an events page, news items organised by category as well as chronologically by issue and full text search.