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Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs 2

The question of safe Internet use:
How can the EU ensure a safer Internet for its youth? What measures can be taken to reduce the impact of cyber-bullying, Internet grooming and unregulated social networking sites on the life of young people without violating the right to free speech and freedom of information?

Honorable Delegates,

My name is Ioana Laura Crisan and I will be your Committee President in the National MEP session 2016! I am eagerly looking forward to meeting all of you!

The majority of you will be new to the Model European Parliament, but please do not worry: Most delegates have no previous experience and you are here to learn together. You will meet amazing people from all around Austria and create bonds that will truly last. While the MEP is about working hard, do not forget to enjoy your experience, as it is a thrilling one!

This research module will contain a brief summary of the information you will need, if you want to succeed in the MEP. It is crucial for you to be well prepared and to know your topic extremely well. At the end of the session, we will grade you according to your participation during the debates and assembly meeting. Without preparation, you will simply not be able to attend and contribute to the discussion. To make sure that you gain all the necessary knowledge, you will be expected to send me summaries and other essays by the deadlines that we have set. All preparation work is listed below.

A bit of advice:

It is vital that you have a good grasp of the topic of our committee. During debates, my colleagues and I will only be able to guide your discussion and interfere when we think that the information you have included is wrong/outdated. It will be up to YOU and your fellow delegates to draft the resolution and to make sure that it answers the question.

Another important thing is that you know what terms and expressions like Committee President, Resolution, General Assembly etc. mean, so that we can be as efficient as possible. You will hear these words frequently over the following period of time, so you need to know what they mean. You can find all this information on the home page of the MEP. (www.mepeurope.eu – education) You might find it helpful to make some sort of vocab list. Do what works best for you.

The language of the MEP is ENGLISH. You can speak whatever language you’d like in our free time, but during debates you have to speak English.

Now you must understand the principle of MEP. You will be writing a resolution for the EU/Austria. This does not mean that you shouldn’t research information about other countries as well. It is important that you see this problem from different perspective. Many other states (f.e. the USA) are the origin of various sites that Europeans use. The problem with Internet safety is quite a delicate one and affects the entire world. However, you must be careful when formulation the resolution, the regulations you want to impose should mostly concern the EU.

MONEY IS NOT A PROBLEM. Delegates often forget this crucial rule of the MEP. They’ll start asking money related questions in the General Assembly. The idea of MEP is that you have unlimited access to money. So you don’t have to worry about how something will be funded.

As your Committee President, together with my Co CP and CP Sec I will be chairing our discussions and direct you towards drafting a resolution. We will show you how it is done but cannot monitor your content input. Therefore it is necessary for all of you to do some preparation using the links and tips provided below. As you will all maybe be interested in representing Austria in the upcoming MEP sessions in Budapest, Sofia and Copenhagen we will be evaluating and grading your performance in the committee as well as in the General Assembly.

In order to make things easier for you, we have attached a couple of links which can help you with your research. You should inform yourself about current statistics, problems, causes and effects of youth unemployment and an aging society.

Three things to keep in mind:

The MEP works under the assumption of an unlimited budget, thus financial issues should not be taken into consideration.
The MEP attempts to remain politically independent as an institution. Hence, political campaigns should not be part of your preparation.
Bear in mind that, if you want to make arguments or claims, you need proof and evidence. While researching you should not forget that some sources are more credible than others.

Lastly, you must always remember that YOU have to form YOUR OWN OPINION. The links and articles we have sent you are only supposed to make you understand all that your topic is about. They are not there to impose on you anything. Also, these links only represent a part of the information you need. Feel free to research anything you want.

CP: Ioana Crisan
CoCP: Shayan Kohler
CPSec: Anja Weinberger
CIE: Mia Hermann

preparation links

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/self-regulation-better-internet-kids

ATTENTION OLD DOCUMENT 2008

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_248_sum_en.pdf

Really important: law of freedom of information PDF to download (maybe get in touch with each other, get to know this stuff well so you know what laws your resolution must take into consideration, as it cannot contradict any existing legislation):

https://www.google.at/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwj13YfDrNfJAhXJRhQKHRjZBhwQFggsMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Feutopialaw.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F11%2Feu-law-and-freedom-of-information.docx&usg=AFQjCNEBDYP9N64ypndlM-e8wSnZCfHa7A&sig2=2X8h11sHOJTlsCjfRsT4cQ

Amazing content, also the view of a lawyer on the topic, might be useful as to what limitations the EU law encounters in its fight against cyber bullying

http://deletecyberbullying.eu

Section on EU Law (if you want you can take a look at UK law and international law -- but BEWARE: you are suppose to create a resolution for THE EU AND NOT THE WHOLE WORLD/OTHER ORGANISATIONS so cyber bullying in the USA is NOT interesting for you) might be interesting:

https://www.cybersmile.org/advice-help/category/cyberbullying-and-the-law

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/cybersecurity

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/online-privacy

https://www.eba.europa.eu/regulation-and-policy/consumer-protection-and-financial-innovation/guidelines-on-the-security-of-internet-payments

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/broadband-strategy-policy

http://www.eubusiness.com/topics/internet

http://users.ugent.be/~bfdwever/owk1011/docwiki3/Longitudinal_study_of_safe_Internet_use_of_young_children.pdf

http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/EUKidsOnline/EU%20Kids%20I%20%282006-9%29/EU%20Kids%20Online%20I%20Reports/WP3NationalReportAustria.pdf

https://www.digitales.oesterreich.gv.at/site/6534/default.aspx

https://www.bka.gv.at/site/7902/default.aspx

http://europa.eu/epic/news/2014/20140805-cyberbullying-harm-european-children_en.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/22/cyberbullying-teenagers-worse-than-drug-abuse-says-report