European Union (EU) member states on Tuesday endorsed a five-year programme for safer Internet for children.
The 55-million-euro (70 million dollars) programme would co-fund projects to increase public awareness and create a network of contact points which allow for reporting illegal and harmful content and conduct, in particular on child sexual abuse material, grooming and cyber bullying.
Money would also be spent on the establishment of a knowledge base on new trends in the use of online technologies and their consequences for children's lives by bringing together technical, psychological and sociological expertise.
While 75 per cent of children aged between six and 17 years are already online and 50 per cent of 10-year-olds have a mobile phone, a new EU-wide survey published on Tuesday shows that 60 per cent of EU parents are worried that their children might fall a victim to online grooming and 54 per cent that their children could be bullied online.
The programme would run between 2009 and 2013.