17 leading web firms have signed for the first time a European agreement to improve the safety of under 18s who use social networking sites. These include Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu. Social networking sites are an emerging social and economic phenomenon, attracting 41.7 million regular users in Europe and changing the way we interact with each other on the Web.

Children are among the most active — and most vulnerable — participants online. According to recent surveys, over 60 per cent of children and teenagers talk in chat rooms on a daily basis. Three in four children online are willing to share personal information about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services. One in five children will be targeted by a predator or paedophile each year. Protecting children in cyberspace is, therefore, clearly our duty.

The third million .eu domain name was registered on 11 January by a German citizen. Two and a half years after its launch, this confirms the success of the .eu top-level internet domain. It is the fourth most popular internet domain among European country domains and the ninth worldwide.

In the EU27, 60% of households had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2008, compared with 54% during the first quarter of 2007, and 48% had a broadband internet connection, compared with 42% in 2007. These data published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, represent only a small part of the results of a survey on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage in households and by individuals in the EU27 Member States, Norway, Iceland and Croatia. As well as internet use and broadband connections, the survey also covers other indicators such as e-shopping, e-government and advanced communication and content related services.

The Commission is proposing to update and simplify the GSM Directive to allow the introduction of new mobile services using the 3G (UMTS) technology in the GSM bands.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation “Towards a Strengthened Network and Information Security Policy in Europe”. It will help to gather information from as many sources as possible on the possible objectives of such a policy at EU level and on the means of achieving them. The consultation is accessible online until 9 January 2009.

Amendment 138 was initiated by several Members of the European Parliament. In its version adopted by the plenary of the European Parliament, the amendment requires telecoms regulators to apply the principle: "that no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, save when public security is threatened where the ruling may be subsequent."

Register before 31 October for the early bird fee. This conference is Europe's largest ICT research event in 2008 and takes place over three days from 25 - 27 November in Lyon, France. The event is organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the French Presidency of the European Union. It will examine EU priorities in ICT research for over €2 billion of funding available in 2009-2010. More than 4000 participants are expected to attend the event.

Europe could take the lead in the next generation of the Internet. The European Commission today outlined the main steps that Europe has to take to respond to the next wave of the Information Revolution that will intensify in the coming years due to trends such as social networking, the decisive shift to on-line business services, nomadic services based on GPS and mobile TV and the growth of smart tags. The report shows that Europe is well placed to exploit these trends because of its policies to support open and pro-competitive telecom networks as well as privacy and security. A public consultation has been launched today by the Commission on the policy and private sector responses to these opportunities. The Commission report also unveils a new Broadband Performance Index (BPI) that compares national performance on key measures such as broadband speed, price, competition and coverage. Sweden and the Netherlands top this European broadband league, which complements the more traditional broadband penetration index used so far by telecoms regulators.

Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, will today give a speech on Social Networking. It will be the first public statement of the Commissioner on this subject. The speech will be given at today's Safer Internet Forum that takes place in Luxembourg and focuses on Safer Internet and children this year. Commissioner Reding will underline the importance of self-regulation and will also meet representatives of the social networking companies Myspace and Dailymotion.

Mobile phone users can expect the cost of sending text messages from abroad in the EU to be much cheaper next summer. The European Commission today proposed to reduce the price of roaming text messages by 60% as of 1 July 2009. EU citizens travelling in other EU countries should pay no more than €0.11 per SMS compared to the current EU average of €0.29. The Commission also wants to improve transparency for surfing the web and downloading data on a mobile phone while abroad: consumers used to cheaper data services at home should be better protected against roaming "bill shocks" that can run to thousands of euro. The proposals will now be submitted to the European Parliament and Council, who must agree before they become law. The EU already reduced charges for making and receiving calls abroad (voice roaming) by 60% in summer 2007.

Over 200 proposals were received by the time the Call for Proposals for Networking Sessions at ICT 2008 closed. Now website visitors can rate them and comment on them, influencing which proposals will be selected for the event taking place in Lyon, France in November.

An EU-wide survey of 27,000 households has revealed the emergence of new consumption patterns in telecoms services in Europe. Technological progress and competition have brought more choice to European consumers; 24% of households have given up their fixed telephone in favour of mobile phones while 22% of them are using their computer from home to make phone calls over the Internet. In an increasing number of Member States, European households are using wireless access to connect to the Internet, via mobile or satellite networks. Meanwhile, 29% of European households buy bundled telecoms and media packages, an increase of nearly 10% since last year. Nevertheless, the top priority for consumers in this fast evolving environment remains the quality of services.

Use of mobile data services within individual Member States is growing much faster than cross border data roaming services, says a Connect2Roam study carried out for the European Commission. This is because mobile operators are introducing aggressive retail rates to compete with existing broadband offers. However, use of data roaming services remains limited as consumers are discouraged by extremely high charges when compared to national prices, as well as a lack of transparency related to the pricing by volume of data (Megabytes) used. High-volume users are susceptible to bill shocks if, for example, they surf the internet for long periods when using their datacard connection on a laptop computer.

The Commission adopted on 13 June, in line with the rules of the EU's regulatory framework for electronic communications of 2002, a decision on the harmonisation of the 2500-2690 MHz frequency band for terrestrial systems capable of providing electronic communications services in the Community. With Member States planning to issue licenses starting in 2008, this decision ensures coherent technical conditions within the Community for the provision of services such as mobile Internet access.

The deadline for submitting your networking session proposal is 16 June at 12h00 Brussels time. The selected sessions will complement the conference and exhibition and provide an open forum for exchanging views and ideas on how to address current ICT challenges. Researchers, innovators and engineers from all ICT fields are invited to suggest pertinent themes. Submit your proposal via the web site.

6 June 2008 – PROTEGELES' tips have aided in one of the largest operations by the Brigada de Investigación Tecnológica of the Spanish National Police against child sexual abuse images on the Internet in Spain with over 55 people arrested and 179 hard discs intervened.

Following numerous requests, the deadline for the submission of exhibition proposals has been extended to 15 May 2008. The call is open to any organisation involved in European research and development as well as deployment projects and associated support activities. This includes universities, research institutes, non-profit organisations, public authorities and commercial companies including small and medium sized enterprises. Submit your proposal via the web site.

More than half of Europeans are now regular Internet users, 80% of them have broadband connections and 60% of public services in the EU are fully available online. Two thirds of schools and half of doctors make use of fast Internet connections, thanks to strong broadband growth in Europe. These are the findings of a Commission report on the results achieved so far with i2010, the EU's digital-led strategy for growth and jobs. The strategy, agreed in 2005, has led to a firm commitment to promoting ICT at EU and national levels. As of 2007, all Member States consider ICT development as one of the main achievements in their structural reform programmes. In parallel, the EU institutions have encouraged the building of a single market for online services and increased research funding. A single market for telecoms, promoting cross-border communication services, is, however, still in the making.

What do Milka, Bridgestone and Versace have in common? They all chose the newly created ".eu" as the Top Level Domain (TLD) for their online web presence. During the past two years, businesses, NGOs and EU residents have secured over 2.8 million European internet identities, making .eu, at its second birthday today, the fourth most popular Top Level Domain in Europe and the ninth worldwide. By promoting an online identity that is distinctly European, .eu helps citizens and businesses to reap the full benefits of the single market and the freedoms that this provides.