Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-341"
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"en.20001004.14.3-341"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner Reding, ladies and gentlemen, this report on the possibility of establishing parental control of television broadcasting in order to protect minors tackles an issue which is extremely important and topical, all the more so when we consider the growing number of television programmes on offer and the increasingly wide and increasingly uncontrolled distribution of the Internet.
I would like to summarise the proposals made in this report which I feel are most important and most viable in practical terms: firstly, the setting up of an group of experts consisting of high-level individuals appointed by the Member States to contribute to the definition of common criteria for the protection of minors in the media context; secondly, the establishment by all the operators in the sector of a code of self-regulation in respect of the protection of minors; thirdly, the possibility of promoting filtering systems and making them available for use on both television programmes and the Internet.
I would like to end by saying that, in accordance with the vote which took place in committee, I cannot accept Amendments Nos 1 and 4 tabled by the liberal group or Amendments Nos 5 and 6 tabled by the Group of the Party of European Socialists, whereas I welcome Amendments Nos 2 and 3 tabled by the Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.
To this I would add two further observations: on the one hand, the number of minors with direct access to televisions and computers is constantly increasing and, on the other, there is a worrying increase in the broadcasting of violent images – portraying all possible types of violence – both in television programmes and over the Internet. For example, last week in Italy, a racket trafficking paedophile pornography via the Internet was uncovered. This discovery was then broadcast on the television network. However, some of the images taken from the sites investigated were also shown, causing great consternation amongst the citizens over the unscrupulous use of such pictures, which are or were certainly inappropriate and harmful for the minors who were watching television at the time.
To return to the report, as you are aware, the European Commission is preparing a report on the implementation of the 'Television without frontiers' directive, to be published in the next few months. Guidelines and considerations on the protection of minors must be included in this report in an appropriate manner.
I would also like to point out that Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the directive explicitly specifies that all the Member States must take appropriate measures to ensure that broadcasts by television broadcasters do not include any programmes which might impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors, in particular programmes that contain pornography or gratuitous violence.
Therefore, we are all aware that, in practice, this is certainly not a simple undertaking. However, in the light of these considerations, our task is to define the objectives which we can reasonably expect to achieve in order to be able to establish genuine, reliable protection for minors.
Firstly, we must identify all the technological systems in order to be able to manage in an informed manner the increase in the broadcasting via television or Internet of material which could be considered harmful to the psychological development of minors: I refer, in particular, to filtering systems and programme classification systems. However, we must also take into account the introduction of the digital system, which will facilitate the use and broadcasting of such programmes.
Secondly, we must specify that, in addition to the technological control systems which I have mentioned, a further two elements are essential to prepare the ground, so to speak. Firstly, we must promote the development at national level of information and awareness-raising policies targeting families and the world of education in general. Secondly, we must encourage producers to take responsibility for the quality of television programmes and broadcasters to take responsibility for broadcasting procedures for these programmes.
Clearly, we cannot attempt to harmonise legislation on the protection of minors in that, under the principle of subsidiarity, each Member State is sovereign in this matter, but also because cultural and moral concepts and therefore views on these issues differ widely from country to country: for example, there are differences in the definition of who exactly is a minor and the definition of violence, etc.
However, having said this, if we are to produce more than empty words to protect children we do need to provide clear recommendations on the protection of minors in the media context."@en1
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