Brian O`Neill, Dublin Institute of Technology, EU Kids Online

Talk Show: The Media as a Tool for Social Inclusion
Public Policy for Children and Communication
Brian O’Neill, Dublin Institute of Technology, EU Kids Online
Children and Communication. Rights, Democracy and
Development. March 6-8, 2012
Promote or Protect?
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A legacy of concern about role of
media in children‟s lives

Yet, also a recognition of the
positive and essential role it plays

An area for public policy and
intervention
Promote or Protect? Perspectives on
Media Literacy and Media Regulations.
Yearbook 2003
Cecilia von Feilitzen, Ulla Carlsson
Nordicom/UNESCO International
Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and
Media
Children and the
communications sphere

Until recently, no competency within
European Union Treaties to address issues
affecting children

In part, children and communication has
raised the issue of the wider visibility of
children and rights (Amsterdam Treaty 1997,
Daphne project)

New policies for audiovisual and
information services in late 1990s

Child protection and safety in legislation

Self- and co-regulatory schemes for media
organisations

Emphasis on the role of the independent
media regulator
Regulating and the media
environment

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Aim of media policy: to safeguard public
interests, such as cultural and linguistic
diversity, the protection of minors and
consumer protection.
European Audiovisual Media Services
Directive (AVMSD) (2010) as principal legal
instrument
A key driver of policy: creating a single
market for broadcasting services,
programmes and advertising
Beginning with the Television Without
Frontiers Directive (1987) and Council of
Europe Convention on Transfrontier
Television (1989)
Does not distinguish between commercial
and public broadcasting
Freedom of Expression
European Convention on Human Rights
Article 10:
. . . freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without
interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
However, exercise of this freedom carries duties and responsibilities:
…may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are
prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national
security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the protection of disorder or crime, for the
protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for
preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the
authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
Controls over programme content
Protection of minors in television broadcasting
(Art. 27 AVMSD):
Member states must make sure that broadcasters
under their jurisdiction:
… do not include programmes which might seriously impair the
physical, mental or moral development of minors, in particular
those that involve pornography or gratuitous violence. This
provision shall extend to other programmes which are likely to
impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors,
except where it is ensured, by selecting the time of the
broadcast or by any technical measure, that minors in the area
of transmission will not normally see or hear such broadcasts.
Graduated Regulation
Source: European Commission Audiovisual Media Policies
http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/reg/tvwf/protection/index_en.ht
m
7
Advertising
Commercial communication includes:

Television advertising

Sponsorship

Teleshopping

Product placement
Protection of Minors and commercial
communication Article 9(1):

must not cause physical or moral harm to
minors
 must not directly exploit minors’ inexperience or
credulity
 must not encourage minors to pressurise
parents to make a purchase.
Further, audiovisual commercial communications
for alcohol must not be aimed at minors or
encourage excessive alcohol consumption
Co-protection / Co-regulation
Recommendation on Protection of Minors and Human Dignity
(1998 and 2006)
Member States should consider the following:

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promoting measures to combat all illegal activities harmful to minors on
the Internet;
drawing up codes of conduct in cooperation with professionals and
regulatory authorities at national and Community level;
encouraging the audiovisual and on-line information services industry to
avoid and combat all discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin,
religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, without infringing
freedom of expression or of the press;
the introduction of measures regarding the online right of reply or
equivalent remedies and
actions to enable minors' responsible use of audiovisual and on-line
information services, in particular through media literacy.
Children’s rights and the digital
environment
 Globally, Information Society policy has tended to emphasise a
competitive knowledge economy balanced with benefits for citizens
 Children‟s rights figure unevenly in the promotion of internet
development and governance (although see Tunis Commitment at WSIS
2005, Council of Europe 2006)
– As each country gains mass internet access, online risks (pornography, hate,
violence etc.) are initially unrestricted, while provision for children is initially
low
– Early regulatory responses were often heavy-handed and thus highly
contested
– A key distinction has emerged between regulating illegal risks, and
regulating or otherwise managing risks which are inappropriate or harmful to
children
 Also, growing recognition of diversity of governance structures already
in existence for the internet
Children’s rights off/online

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. Consideration of
children‟s rights centres on the 3 P‟s of protection, provision,
promotion

Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography  international legislation outlawing online
child abuse images

The Oslo Challenge, (UNICEF 1999) recognises the media and
information environment as a relevant context for the realisation
of children‟s rights

EC Communication „Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the
Child (2006), „An EU Strategy for Youth‟ (2009), „An EU Agenda for
the Rights of the Child‟ (2011)

Recent initiatives from OECD The protection of children online
(2010), ITU Child Online Protection, EC Safer Internet Programme,
ECPAT, UNICEF, etc.

Given actions from DG JUST, EAC & CNECT, valuable call from EP
Committee on Culture and Education for a single framework
directive on the rights of minors in the digital world
Protection

Rights of protection against all forms of abuse and neglect (Art. 19),
including against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Art. 34), and
„other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child‟s
welfare‟ (Art. 36)
 Efforts to prevent online child abuse images, sexual grooming, child trafficking

Protection from „material injurious to the child‟s well-being‟ (Art. 17),
„arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, or
correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and
reputation‟ (Art.16) and right of child to preserve his or her identity
(Art. 8)
 Proving harder to manage (for firms, and for users) re: online reputational risks,
intrusions of privacy, cyberbullying, pornography, personal data mis/use etc
Provision

Children‟s rights to recreation and leisure as appropriate to
their age (Art. 31), to an education that will support the
development of their full potential (Art. 28) and prepare them
„for responsible life in a free society‟ (Art. 29)
 Variable efforts to enable e-learning and digital skills/citizenship – can
be ill-defined , expensive, and tend to exacerbate not ameliorate
existing inequalities

Recognition of „the important function performed by the mass
media’ encourages production of diverse material of social
and cultural benefit to the child (incl. minority/indigenous
groups,) to promote the social and moral well-being of the
child (Art. 17); recognises limiting provisions to children‟s
rights to free expression (Art. 13) and parents‟ responsibility
for their upbringing (Art.18),
 Task is to stimulate the market, but provision is expensive, and thus
heavily commercial, while efforts to protect tend to restrict child’s
freedom of expression
Participation

Since „in all actions concerning children … the best interests of the
child shall be a primary consideration‟ (Art. 3), participation rights
include the right of children to be consulted in all matters affecting
them (Art. 12), freedom of expression (Art. 13, ‘the right to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of
frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or
through any other media of the child's choice’), ‘the right of the child
to freedom of thought, conscience and religion’ (Art. 14) and ‘the
rights to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly’
(Art. 15).
 The right to be consulted is increasingly embedded in the structures of public and
civil society organisations. Otherwise children’s participation rights are little
recognised, often undermined by efforts to protect. Evidence shows children’s
online experiences are narrower, less creative or participatory than hoped.
Persistent challenges
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As the governance landscape matures within a multi-stakeholder framework and
as children‟s rights are more recognised (see EC “Better Internet Strategy for
Kids”), there remain key challenges to establishing and promoting children‟s
rights online:
–
Definition: what is a risk, its extent and severity, its relation to harm, cultural factors
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Evidence: usually insufficient, mainly in Global North, quickly dated, little longitudinal
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Principles: often clashing priorities between market liberalisation and public interests,
and between adult freedom of expression and child rights to protection
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Jurisdiction: global internet, national regulations, legal uncertainties, migrating risks,
lack of trusted bodies, difficulties of enforcement
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Coordination: policy is fragmented and the digital landscape is changing fast
In Europe, the preferred solution is already-existing legislation, plus selfregulation (of uncertain effectiveness) for internet-specific challenges
Thank you..
 EU Kids Online is a multi-national research collaboration.
 Reports and findings can be freely accessed from:
www.eukidsonline.net