Apr 2, 2008 5:00 AM PDT    Text size: 

In its recommendations, the council acknowledged that while “voluntary and responsible use of Internet filters ... can promote confidence and security on the Internet for users, in particular children and young people,” its members believed that “use of such filters can impact on the right to freedom of expression and information, as protected by … the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Some of the council’s recommendations included:

• Developing and promoting a minimum level of information for users to enable them to identify when filtering has been activated and to understand how, and according to which criteria, the filtering operates (for example, blacklists, whitelists, keyword blocking, content rating, etc., or combinations thereof)
• Developing minimum levels of and standards for the information provided to the user to explain why a specific type of content has been filtered
• Regularly reviewing and updating filters in order to improve their effectiveness, proportionality and legitimacy in relation to their intended purpose
• Providing clear and concise information and guidance regarding the manual overriding of an activated filter, namely whom to contact when it appears that content has been unreasonably blocked and the reasons which may allow a filter to be overridden for a specific type of content or URL
• Promoting initiatives to raise awareness of the social and ethical responsibilities of those actors who design, use and monitor filters with particular regard to the right to freedom of expression and information and to the right to private life, as well as to the active participation in public life and democratic processes
• Development of strategies to identify content carrying a risk of harm for children and young people, taking into account the diversity of cultures, values and opinions
• Informing children and young people about the benefits and dangers of Internet content and its filtering as part of media education strategies in formal and nonformal education.

  Throughout its recommendations, the council demonstrated a clear concern for the potential impact of filtering on the individual right to expressive freedom across all its member states — a roster of 47 different countries with a total population of approximately 800 million.

  “Notwithstanding the importance of empowering users to use and control filters as mentioned above, and noting the wider public service value of the Internet, public actors on all levels (such as administrations, libraries and educational institutions) which introduce filters or use them when delivering services to the public, should ensure full respect for all users’ right to freedom of expression and information and their right to private life and secrecy of correspondence,” the council stated in its recommendations.

  Joan Irvine, the executive director of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) told XBIZ that the council’s recommendations closely mirror those of the Byron Review, a report authored by Dr. Tanya Byron at the behest of the British government.

  Irvine said that in recent years, reports on content filtering prepared by private sector think tanks have increasingly adopted a more free-speech-friendly tone. While the measures proposed by the U.S. government sometimes focus on politically charged legislative solutions, possibly designed to mollify a given Congressperson’s socially conservative electorate, Irvine noted that reports like that published by the Council of Europe and by Byron are more measured — and more mindful of the importance of expressive freedom and the free exchange of ideas.

  “If you look at the Byron report, you’ll see that it doesn’t attack the [adult] industry,” Irvine said. “If you look at the reports prepared by any of the think tanks, they are all saying the same thing: It’s about everybody working together — the government, private industry, parents — everybody.”