EU launches cyber-bullying campaign

The European Commission has launched a campaign to highlight the risks of cyber-bullying.

The video clip and internet-based campaign marks this year’s Safer Internet Day, which has been designed to help children understand online risks and take measures to protect themselves from hackers, viruses or online strangers.

The Europe-wide annual awareness day is supported by businesses such as Microsoft and Kaspersky and charities such as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

The Commission said it is focusing on the topic of cyber-bullying because it is one of the most frequent problems young people encounter on the internet, especially those using social networking sites.

This was highlighted further by Microsoft, which announced research showing nearly a third of the 20,000 children it polled had suffered from bullying while using the web.

The Commission also used the awareness day, which is in its sixth year, to announce details of an agreement on internet safety that many web firms have signed up to.

Under the terms of the agreement the sites, which include Bebo, Facebook, Youtube, Habbo Hotel and Yahoo! Europe, will take steps to protect younger users.

These include prominently displaying a 'Report Abuse' button, switching the online profiles of those under 18 to private by default, making the profiles of those under 18 not searchable and discouraging registrations from those too young to use the site.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for information society and media, said the agreement was "an important step forward towards making our children's clicks on social networking sites safer in Europe".

She said the potential for social networking sites to flourish should only be nurtured when children have the trust and tools to stay safe while they use such web destinations.

"I will closely monitor the implementation of today's agreement and the Commission will come back to this matter in a year's time,” she said.