The Internet: Can It Be Tamed?
Brussels -- Tuesday 21 June 2011
The EU is beginning to get to grips with the myriad issues surrounding the internet. It is playing catch up, but the Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee is busy updating policy across the board in areas such as data protection, cyber security, children on the internet and social networking. As the ECR Group's Coordinator I am supervising our approach on a number of important areas.
I believe that the EU is probably a good place to begin to tackle what is ostensibly the biggest cross-border issue after trade. In fact the internet and trade are intrinsically linked: most trade now has an online element to it at some stage in the chain, and we are relying on the web more and more to facilitate business. The EU has to get on top of this, because if it doesn't it will create greater problems down the line.
My EPP colleague, Axel Voss MEP, is leading a European Parliament Report on a comprehensive approach on personal data protection. This was adopted at Committee stage last week. I am shadowing the Report and I must say I do support some of the big ideas contained within it: the need for harmonisation of privacy laws; the need for better enforcement of data protection regulation and also the need to reduce the collection of people's data by companies to sensible levels.
In terms of Cyber Security, another Parliament Report is due to be adopted very soon. The UK government has opted in to the Directive on attacks against information systems, which seeks to address large scale threats by ensuring that Member States across the EU have adequate legislation in place. Mrs Hohlmeier, the MEP leading the report, has been keen to make sure that robust penalties for hackers and cyber gangs are in place. At the moment these types of criminals hardly ever face justice. Crimes such as identity theft and extortion are becoming commonplace and seriously undermining confidence in the internet. Terrorism is also a looming web-based threat.
Another dossier which I am shadowing is the proposed Directive on the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. There has been much wrangling about some key issues (such as the approach to grooming and the use of internet blocking) but we hope to see progress on the file, which is currently in the trilogue phase. The internet has provided paedophiles with another tool to facilitate abuse and we are keen to shut that down as quickly as possible.
In a speech I gave in Washinton D.C. in April, I urged countries to work together to tackle the global threat posed by cybercrime. I'm keen to see progress at Government level, but I really want to warn individuals to be particularly careful about what information they share online. As well as standards and legal frameworks implemented by decisionmakers, we must ensure that all users take the necessary precautions to prevent them or their children from falling victim to cybercrime.
