Minors, one and a half hours online”Children start going online younger and younger, and we need to make sure they are confident online, and that they can find exciting, safe, educational and age-appropriate content as they surf the web”. Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda thus commented on the results of a survey funded by the Commission, released a few days ago, on children’s internet use (more than 23 000 children from 25 countries). According to the findings, “children are going online younger than ever”. Children now aged 15 to 16 first used the Internet when they were 11, “while 9-10 year olds declared that they first used the Internet when they were 7”. There are also differences between countries: children go online the earliest in the Nordic countries, compared to Mediterranean and East-European Countries. Half of children go online daily “for an average of one and a half hours”. Children in the survey say they use the Internet primarily for school work or watching videos (84% and 83% respectively). Playing games (74%) and communicating via instant messaging (61%) are the next “most popular activities online”. Children go online mainly at home (85%), with more than half of 13-16 year olds accessing the Internet in their bedroom. School is the second most common place to access the Internet (63%). One out of three youngsters now connect via their mobile phones. The survey shows that one in eight children have been “upset by something they found online” younger children “lack basic safety skills”. To help address these problems the Commission announced a competition (“European Award for Best Children’s Online Content”, that will be held in 14 countries and will end in June 2011) “to stimulate the production of high quality online content for children”. Consumer market: top and bottom rankingFinancial and real estate services, second-hand cars are markets that are failing EU consumers. Good markets include airlines, cultural goods and services. The EU Commission published the Consumer Markets Scoreboard (autumn 2010), which ranks consumer markets by looking at indicators such as comparability, consumer trust, consumer satisfaction problems, complaints, so as to identify policy responses. The Scoreboard ranks as many as 50 different markets – from food to domestic appliances to car repair – in all EU countries. Investments, pensions and securities, real estate services and internet service provision are the three services markets with the lowest scores. The three worst-performing goods markets are: second-hand cars, clothing and footwear, and meat. “At the other end of the spectrum, airlines show good results in spite of the disruptions of spring 2010 and consumers also appreciate cultural goods and services”, states the Commission document. EU Commissioner in charge of Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli said: “The great promise of the Single Market is what it can deliver for consumers in terms of lower prices, greater choice, transparency and satisfaction. Thanks to the Scoreboard we can pinpoint the markets where this does not seem to be happening”. Our next steps will be to study two markets, internet service provision and meat, more in-depth and to encourage national authorities to use the results in their work”. African, Caribbean and Pacific Observatory on Migration “To design better policies to enhance the migration contribution to development” is the objective of the new African, Caribbean and Pacific Observatory on Migration created by EU and ACP Countries, launched October 25. The bosy is tasked with “providing reliable data and information on migration flows” in ACP Countries. The Observatory will start in twelve pilot countries, namely Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Papua-New-Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, Timor-Leste and Trinidad and Tobago. “South-South migration flows tend to receive less attention than South-North movements. Yet, the number of people migrating from a Southern country to another is extremely important and has impact on development”. said Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development. “The ACP Observatory on migration will help us to have a clearer view on these migratory flows and to shape adequate policies” in the demographic, cultural, and social areas. The Observatory will tackle existing data and information gaps”. The Observatory will foster networking and cooperation between research institutions, private researchers and government agencies. The total budget for the project is around 9 million. The European Union contributes with around 8 million.
