- Sustainably promoting children’s media competence and IT skills
- Safe access to the Internet for kids
- eco Complaints Office has been successfully combatting illegal Internet content for around 20 years
Children are our future and the future of our children is digital. The rapid development of the Internet and digitalization poses challenges for children, parents, and educators alike. Digital change is having an impact on pedagogical occupational profiles, job descriptions, and work processes like no other technical innovation before it. At the same time, the Internet is a key industry and growth engine for our economy, which is why, on the occasion of International Children’s Day, eco – Association of the Internet Industry is calling on governments to resolutely advance the teaching of core knowledge in information technologies and skills in the area of IT security.
“Imparting media competence and basic skills in IT must become a fixed component of school education. It is absolutely essential that all children and young people, regardless of age group or educational level, acquire and further develop core IT skills and media competence. With the eco Complaints Office, we are actively involved in the area of media competence and education and, among other things, work together with Internet service providers and our partners to increase awareness and sensitization to the issue,” says Alexandra Koch-Skiba, Head of the eco Complaints Office.
Safe access to the Internet for kids
Here, the uppermost priority is to ensure safe use of and access to the Internet. That children can move safely through the Internet in everyday life is a must. Children should not take their first steps on the Internet alone, and teenagers also require support in the digital world. Parents can recommend websites to their children that are particularly suitable for young users. An excellent example for what is needed in all geographical areas and all languages is the German children’s search engine www.FragFinn.de, which not only offers a protected surfing space, but is also a child-friendly Internet portal with news and surfing tips.
Youth protection programs can also help parents to ensure that young people can only access content on the Internet that is age-appropriate. Recognized youth protection programs are available for download at: https://www.jugendschutzprogramm.de/download/?lang=en.
“Older teenagers should above all be informed about reporting and assistance services in order to be able to react correctly on encountering illegal content on the Internet. To this end, the eco Complaints Office accepts reports on all Internet services: websites, emails, data exchange services, chats, newsgroups, and forums. Any Internet user can report content. The lawyers of the eco Complaints Office then check whether the reported content is actually illegal and take appropriate measures to ensure that the content is taken down from the Internet. In addition, criminal content is generally reported to the law enforcement agencies. Combating illegal Internet content is thus a key challenge that eco has taken very seriously for over 20 years,” states Koch-Skiba.
eco Complaints office has been successfully combatting illegal Internet content for around 20 years
The eco Complaints Office has been successfully combatting illegal content on the Internet for around 20 years. The current Annual Report 2017 of the eco Complaints Office confirms just how well its approach works. In 2017, the eco Complaints Office was able to ensure that sites with child sexual abuse material hosted in Germany were taken down within 2.28 days of notification.
Every report counts in the fight against illegal content! If you come across content on the Internet that you consider illegal, don’t hesitate – report it to the eco Complaints Office.
All important information about the eco Complaints Office and the complaint report form can be found at: international.eco.de/eco-complaints-office/
