[Is it just me or have a bunch of international bureaucrats suddenly decided they really, really want to regulate the Net? Of course this has been in the works for some time. Reference: http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/iu.plague.073196.articl... -- Declan] ******** BRUSSELS (November 17, 1997 1:53 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - The European Commission is set to suggest guidelines on Tuesday for codes of conduct aimed at protecting children from harmful material on the Internet or other online networks. The codes would be drawn up by service providers themselves in each of the 15 European Union countries, reflecting the Commission's preference for self-regulation in the sensitive area of Internet content. Reluctant to propose new legislation to rein in the global computer network, the Commission says in a draft report that the EU must respect the "fundamental democratic principles of freedom of expression and respect for privacy." The report, expected to be adopted at the Commission's weekly meeting in Strasbourg, proposes that EU ministers adopt a recommendation asking governments and industry players to cooperate to keep sexually explicit and other harmful online material away from children. The central plank of the recommendation, parts of which would cover the television industry as well, is a network of voluntary codes of conduct. The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, says the codes should ensure that legal but potentially harmful online material is flagged in some way -- for example, through warning pages, descriptive labelling or systems to check ages of users. Parents and teachers should when possible also be given tools to filter out unwanted content so that children can use computer networks without supervision, it says. Users could install filter software themselves or operators could limit access to certain sites, the proposal says. The codes should also set up "hotlines" for handling complaints about illegal content that is "offensive to human dignity," as well as rules for cooperating with judicial and police authorities to combat the circulation of such material, it says. They should also introduce "dissuasive measures" for companies who violate the codes, with appeal and mediation procedures available. The report asks the broadcast industry to experiment with new means of protecting minors and informing viewers, although it gives no specific suggestions. It also asks each country to set up a national body able to share information with its EU counterparts. The United States is also searching for ways to shield children from harmful Internet material after the Supreme Court in June struck down parts of a law banning indecent material as unconstitutional.