The European Commission will be reviewing the agreement it has signed with social networking services, such as Facebook, Hyves, Tuenti, Nasza-Klasa SchuelerVZ, Hi5, Iwiw or Myvip, after a survey indicated that child protection is inadequate.
In Cyprus, the percentage of children with a profile on a social networking site is much higher than the EU average, with 86% of 13-16 year olds and 56% of 9-12 year olds having a profile.
According to a pan-European survey carried out for the European Commission, 77% of 13-16 year olds and 38% of 9-12 year olds in the EU have a profile on a social networking site, yet a quarter of children who use social networking sites say their profile is set to ''public'', meaning that everyone can see it, and many of these display their address and/or phone number.
Furthermore, only 56% of 11-12 year olds said they knew how to change their privacy settings on the social networking site.
The Commission is monitoring the implementation of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU, the self-regulatory agreement signed by social networking companies in which they commit to implement a series of measures on their services in order to ensure the safety of minors.
It will shortly publish the first batch of the results of the assessment of the implementation of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU by signatories Arto, Bebo, Facebook, Giovani, Hyves, IRC Galleria, MySpace, Nasza-Klasa, Netlog, One.lt, Rate, SchuelerVZ, Tuenti and Zap.
The report published on Monday also shows that some of the social networking sites that are popular among youngsters in Europe are not signatories to the Safer Social Networking Principles.
Given the decreasing age of children using the internet and social networking services and the fact that more children are accessing the internet via mobile devices, the Commission has launched a review of the current industry self-regulatory agreements in the field.
Social networking companies, manufacturers of mobile devices and game consoles, internet service providers, mobile applications and content providers, consumer organisations, researchers and children's organisations will be invited to join the collaborative platform.
Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said that ''growing numbers of children are on social networking sites but many are not taking all necessary steps to protect themselves online.''
''These children are placing themselves in harm's way, vulnerable to stalkers and groomers. All social networking companies should therefore immediately make minors' profiles accessible by default only to their approved list of contacts and out of search engines' reach. And those companies that have not yet signed up to the EU's Safer Networking Principles should do so without delay so as to ensure our children's safety,'' she added.
