Social Communities sign new code of conduct to advance youth protection

In March 2009 three German  IT-companies - VZnet Netzwerke Ltd. (formerly studiVZ), Lokalisten Media and wer-kennt-wen.de - have signed a new code of conduct to improve youth protection of children within social communities. The code includes several measures that crucially ameliorate the level of youth protection, data privacy and consumer protection. Within the framework, the companies commit to protect adolescent users by a combination of technical measures and extensive user education. To give an example of the laid down measures, the profiles of users aged under 16 can not be found by external search engines. Furthermore, the implementation of an alert button is provided in order to enable users to report inadequate behaviour. This action directly tackles both the problem of cyber-mobbing and the dissemination of content unsuitable for minors (pictures, music etc.). All measures have been implemented by the end of June 2009.

Here you can find the code of conduct...

FSM Press conference March 11th, l. to r. Markus Berger de-León (StudiVZ), Sabine Frank (FSM), Stefanie Waehlert (Lokalisten), Patrick Ohler (wer-kennt-wen.de)