Romania planning Internet ‘pass’ for youth

Concretely, the Romanian Upper House is considering the introduction of an “Internet pass” as a way to limit the access of minors to inappropriate audiovisual web content. The pass, in the form of a card, would only state the owner’s age and could be used as a permit to access certain types of audio-visual content based on a PIN code.

The Senate’s proposal comes in response to the call of the European Commission which is seeking views from member states on the situation in the audiovisual industry. The standpoint adopted by the Senate and referred to the EC takes into account the common position of the European Affairs Committee and the Committee for Culture and Media.

Besides the possibility of introducing an Internet passport, the Senate of Romania also considers that running multiple media campaigns to promote parental control tools would be highly useful.

The Senate also remarks that the content of channels for children and youth, including those that retransmit cartoons in Romania via the distributors of audio-visual media services, need diversification and quality improvement.

The answers given by Romania to the European Commission as well as the views of all member states will be taken in consideration in drafting a Green Paper on the preparation for the full convergence of the audiovisual world. AGERPRES