France in favour of "international internet police"

The French Minister for Family Affairs Nadine Morano has called for the setting up of an "international internet police force" to protect children from pornography and from encouragement to take drugs on the internet. Morano told Tuesday's edition of the newspaper Le Figaro that 60 per cent of children between the ages of six and ten use the internet, where they may encounter offensive material. The minister mentions "millions of images of child pornography."

She announced that, on 18th September, she will consult with colleagues from other EU states on a "joint organisation for safety on the internet". In view of the increasing amount of damaging material, she would like to see the setting up of an international internet police force, "I am in favour of freedom, but also of a highway code for the web." She stated that discussions on having ISPs block websites containing images of child pornography are continuing. Suitable systems could be in use by next year.

At the same time, Morano also plans to educate parents, who are often poorly informed, or not particularly computer or web-savvy, using a brochure to be distributed at primary schools. She told the paper that preventive work will be extended to include an advert on TV and the internet from December and that programmes for protecting children needed to improved.

(trk)