11 February, 2014
Press release: Safer Internet Day 2014: “Online child safety must be a common effort”
ETNO welcomes #SID2014 and points to importance of education, safer services and collaboration
ETNO joins the 2014 initiatives to celebrate the Safer Internet Day, which this year extends to over 100 countries and will include 1000 events in Europe and across the world.
ETNO, which represents Europe’s biggest telecom operators, is committed to making the internet a safer place for kids and has established to this end an internal Children Protection Task Force. The task force gathers members from ETNO companies and is aimed at improving the safety of communication services for children, by promoting the responsible and informed use of the ICT services, while offering innovative high-quality, safety embedded online services and products.
ETNO’s Chairman Luigi Gambardella said: “Online child safety is fundamental and should be pursued by different means, starting from awareness raising and education, with the combined efforts of all players of the internet ecosystem, and by closely collaborating with parents, schools, NGOs and public authorities. ETNO also supports the EU Commission’s Better Internet for Kids initiative, as an important opportunity to discuss improvements and exchange best practices”.
ETNO is also one of the key trade associations supporting the ICT Coalition on Child Safety (www.ictcoalition.eu). Our member companies are active contributors to this voluntary industry initiative and signed up to a specific set of principles to promote the safe and responsible use of online services and internet devices among children and young people.
ETNO pillars for a safer internet: Education - Safer services - Cooperation
Every month, in a European school, you will find an expert from a telecom operator who dedicates time to children, teenagers or teachers to help explain to them how to make the most out of the internet while keeping safe.
But education and raising awareness are just one of the 3 pillars of ETNO members’ commitment. We also work hard on providing safer services (e.g., offering services especially designed for the youngsters and through the inclusion of security features on internet, mobile and IPTV services) and facilitate cooperation among members and with public institutions with the aim of promoting best practices.
More on ETNO companies’ programmes
If you want to get more examples of what telecom operators do to empower a safer use of the internet, check our dedicated website
