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Activities :: Social Networking Sites :: Safer social networking

Safer social networking: the choice of self-regulation

Misuse of new technologies can present many risks to children and young people, such as cyber-bullying, grooming, privacy violation or exposure to harmful content (pornography, racism, etc). European legislation already exists to protect young people online (protection of personal data). And yet, technology is changing our societies so fast that it is difficult for legislators to keep up. The adoption of new rules takes time, especially when they have to be agreed by 27 countries.

This is why, in the interest of online child safety, the European Commission encourages those who create new interactive tools to adopt rules and principles themselves (self-regulation). The Commission's role is to bring all the relevant players (industry, associations, etc) together for them to agree on these rules and principles.

Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU

In 2008, the Commission convened 18 of Europe's major social networks as well as researchers and child welfare organizations, to form a European Social Networking Task Force to discuss guidelines for the use of social networking sites by children. These guidelines were to be adopted voluntarily by the European industry.

"The Safer Social Networking Principles for EU" were signed February 10, 2009 during Safer Internet Day, in Luxembourg.

"The Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU" have been developed by social networking services providers in consultation with the European Commission, as part of its Safer Internet Plus Programme, and a number of NGOs, to provide good practice recommendations for the providers of social networking and other user interactive sites, to enhance the safety of children and young people using their services." Read full text of the Principles

Signatories and self-declarations

Signatories to the Principles have provided the Commission with a self-declaration on their individual safety policies, specifying how they implement these principles. The self-declarations are available in the table below.
 

Signatories and self-declarations	Date of accession to the Principles	Date of submission of the self-declarations
Arto                                        (94 KB)	10 February 2009	15 April 2009
Bebo                                       (103 KB)	10 February 2009	17 April 2009
Dailymotion                           (124 KB)	10 February 2009	10 April 2009
Facebook                               (92 KB)	10 February 2009	16 April 2009
Giovani.it	10 February 2009
Google                                    (37 KB)	10 February 2009	15 May 2009
Hyves.nl                                 (137 KB)	10 February 2009	17 April 2009
Microsoft Europe                    (490 KB)	10 February 2009	17 April 2009
MySpace                                 (171 KB)	10 February 2009	17 April 2009
nasza-klasa.pl                        (178 KB)	10 February 2009	1 May 2009
Netlog                                     (75 KB)	10 February 2009	28 May 2009
One.lt                                      (75 KB)	10 February 2009	17 June 2009
Piczo                                       (116 KB)	10 February 2009	16 April 2009
Rate.ee                                   (213 KB)	9 June 2009	9 June 2009
Skyrock.com                          (457 KB)	10 February 2009	29 April 2009
StudiVZ.de                              (85 KB)	10 February 2009	17 June 2009
Sulake/Habbo.com                (122 KB)	10 February 2009	15 April 2009
Tuenti                                     (EN)     (ES)	12 June 2009	12 June 2009
Yahoo! Europe                       (142 KB)	10 February 2009	17 April 2009
Zap.lu                                     (96 KB)	10 February 2009	17 April 2009

See a short description of the companies supporting the Principles

Next steps

• The Commission will evaluate this agreement in one year's time from signature.