ASKfm Produces Self-Declaration for European ICT Coalition for Children Online 2017

ASKfm is a member of the European ICT Coalition for Children Online. It is an industry self-regulatory initiative where 20 companies pledge to encourage safe and responsible use of online services and devices among children and young people, as well as to encourage empowerment of parents and carers to protect children and young people in the digital world.

In 2012 the ICT Coalition industry members signed up to 6 key best practice guiding principles, namely, content, parental controls, dealing with abuse/misuse, child sexual abuse content or illegal content, privacy and control, education and awareness. All members, including ASKfm, provide a self-declaration statement setting out what the company has done to implement and encourage these six safety principles to ensure that the safety of younger internet users is integral to the products and services they develop. These company self-declarations are then published on the ICT Coalition website. In 2017 ASKfm has produced its second self-declaration of how safety principles have been implemented into its service. This declaration can be found here: ICT Coalition ASKfm self-declaration of the implementation of safety principles.

In response to the company self-declarations the ICT Coalition appoints an independent assessor who reviews these self-declarations and their implementation and gives a statement about the progress and challenges of the digital world so that companies could consider further actions.

ICT Coalition members have to meet with stakeholders – NGOs, who advocate on behalf of children’s and parents’ best interests, European governments and the European Commission who are in charge of overseeing protection of children and young people online, e.g. the Better Internet for Kids.