Resources for Policy Makers
The Family Online Safety Institute makes available briefing papers for policy makers covering both its own work and, where appropriate, the work of others. Although they may refer to and discuss technical issues, the documents listed here are written from a policy perspective and are therefore non-technical in nature.
- State of Online Safety Report (December 2007). FOSI's annual report, which details the legislative, regulatory, technical and educational landscape in 9 countries, providing details of what works and what doesn't work in the field of online safety around the world.
- FOSI Submission to the Byron Review (November 2007). Dr Tanya Byron was commissioned by UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to conduct a review of 'Children and New Technology'. This is the text of the Institute's submission, which lays out the online safety problem and FOSI's response to it. Much of the current FOSI philosophy and many of its work items are described here.
- Executive Briefing The Potential of POWDER and the Future Prospects of ICRA labels. Published to coincide with the publication of the POWDER Use Cases and Requirements document in May 2007, this briefing gives some background on what POWDER is, what it's doing and FOSI's plans for harnessing the new technology in ICRA labels.
- White paper: Everyone has an opinion on the Web. Produced originally to accompany a presentation to the International Ratings Conference in Sydney in February 2007, this document sets out the background to a lot of the technical work of the Institute.
External Resources for Industry and Policy Makers
![]() |
EU Kids Online This three-year collaboration aims to identify comparable research findings across Europe to evaluate the social, cultural and regulatory influences affecting both risks and children’s and parents' responses to them. It will chart available data, note indicate gaps and identify factors that shape the research capability of European research institutions. Finally, it will examine methodological issues relating to cross-cultural analyses and the study of children’s online experience in order to develop a best practice guide to research. |
| |
![]() |
Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection |
| |
![]() |
Quicklinks |
| |
![]() |
Internet Action Plan |
| |
![]() |