Ensuring effective regulation
In the hope that it may be of assistance to Forum members, the Council offers the following
suggestions on the implementation of regulatory control.
That Forum members move to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
In order to address effectively child pornography on the internet the Council recommends a
move towards the establishment of a network of laws in Forum countries, together with a
hotline supported by legislation which would permit government intervention.
The Council considers that there is a need for a Forum wide approach to the prevention of
child pornography on the internet and considers that giving priority to a consultative approach
rather than a punitive one would be more effective and appropriate. To this end it suggests the
establishment of a Standing Commission of the Forum to develop a model law in consultation
with internet service providers and monitor its operation with a view to ensuring its efficiency
and improvement. The development of Codes of Practice should occur on a Forum wide
basis. The sophisticated and unlimited potential of the technology requires an approach that is
cooperative and educative, and which combines prevention with on going monitoring.
The Standing Commission would have the additional responsibility of:
•
formulating and revising codes of practice and monitoring compliance;
•
advising and assisting parents and other carers of children in relation to the
supervision and control of children's access to internet content;
•
conducting and coordinating community education programmes about internet
services;
•
conducting research into issues relating to internet content and usage;
•
liaising with other relevant regulatory bodies about cooperative arrangements for the
regulation of online content;
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