Empowering children through labelling in social networks: illusion or solution?

In order to protect minors from the risks associated with exposure to content which is deemed unsuitable (e.g. sexually implicit images, violence, offensive language) and potentially harmful, many countries have adopted systems of labelling or content classification. The purpose is to provide parents and carers with reliable and useful information so that they can make informed and well-balanced decisions about which content is appropriate for their children. This chapter identifies a number of key issues related to the development of labelling systems for the online and social networking environment, such as the rationale behind labelling, the object of the labelling systems and the types of labelling that could be used. Focusing mainly on policy documents and proposals at the European level (European Union and Council of Europe), references are made to specific national systems to illustrate good practices or recently developed schemes.