Public Policy Blog

On next Thursday 10th of May the Internet Governance Forum Spain will meet in Madrid for its 2nd Annual Conference.

After more than one year involving hard work by many companies in the new technologies sector, companies as diverse as search engines, mobile handset manufacturers, social networks, ISPs, telecom operators, etc., the principles governing the safe use of Internet-connected devices and services by children and young people in the European Union have been published today. [...]

Many are the predictions those days in the Net concerning our sector and its perspectives for 2012, from how the telecom sector will evolve, to which services and technological trends will be the winners for next year, or how social networks will be positioned, what will be the IT “super themes” for 2012, etc…
This is a difficult and somersault exercise in a very dynamic and evolving sector such as the ICT & Telecom one. However, it is sure that some trends could be already detected.

Concerning the ICT public policy area, we could see the following issues as relevant as they are present in several international and public institutions agendas for 2012. Here are some of them:

Today’s launch of the CEO Coalition reinforces our strategy and commitment to foster the safer and responsible use of ICTs by children and teenagers. Last summer, Telefónica, among other ICT companies, was invited to join the “Coalition to make the Internet a better place for kids” promoted by the Vice-President of the European Commission in [...]

After the summer break, public policy issues are numerous for the ICT sector in this beginning of autumn 2011…Here is a brief overview of some of the main events and issues we will follow during the next weeks:

As part of its digital responsability, Telefónica tries to foster the debate and ideas towards a better and safer use of new technologies. That´s why Telefónica Czech Republic decided to be partner of the conference “Prevention of Internet crimes against Children: Technology, Legislation and Education” in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on 7th June.

After having launched almost a year ago the Digital Agenda for Europe , one of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and a roadmap for the increased usage of ICT services in Europe, the European Commission is organising the first Digital Agenda Assembly for the next 16-17 of June in Brussels.

Ana Luisa Rotta, Vice-Chairperson of PROTEGELES, welcomes the proposal for a European Directive to combat sexual exploitation and child pornography and comments on it.

Telefónica’s expert on child protection, María José Cantarino, from the Corporate Responsability department, writes about the last measure launched in Spain to ease the fight against child sexual abuse images and other contents distributed on the Internet. This initiative was fostered by Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange and Yoigo in cooperation with the NGO Protégeles, the Spanish organisation working for child protection, member of the European Inhope network.