La protection des mineurs sur internet

A significant number of public awareness campaigns reinforces today the objectives laid down by the legislations.

5. Public awareness campaigns

The protection of the minors on the Internet implies information of the public concerned : children, teenagers, teachers, parents, suppliers of access, managers of Internet sites.

The French «double» of the Observatory of the rights of the Internet, the FDI^37(*), achieve as for it a work of size in the protection of the minors on Internet.

It launched just a year ago (le11 February 2003), with the support of the Ministry delegated to the Family, a working group devoted to the child welfare vis-a-vis the contents and illicit behaviors on Internet in France and Europe^38(*).

Lastly, the authorities of regulation of the Internet take an active part in the debate on the protection of the minors on Internet. Consequently, the question arises of knowing which is the legal authenticity of the opinions delivered by those.

6. Quid of the legal authenticity of the opinions of these organizations ?

It should be noticed, in this respect, that in France as in Belgium, the opinions resulting from these public organizations do not have the force of law but are advisory. However, a nuance is necessary : the FDI is officially supported by the ministry delegated to the Family ; in Belgium, the Observatory of the rights of the Internet was seized on May 8, 2002 by the Minister for the economy « of a request for opinion on the rights of the minors of age evolving/moving on the Internet ».

In general, the opinions in accordance with an official consultation of the government, constitute bases of bills.

All lets believe that the pornography is encircled with difficulty by the Right carrying abundant :

· The national law is not enough : the extraneity of the pornography on line highlights the limits of the national public action.

· International law : it misses cohesion, and that reduces the coercive force.

At the European level, Eurojust which is a legal and police co-operation tends to stop the impunity of transborder criminality. ^39(*)

· The netiquette : of a rather contractual value, it sees legitimacy or then the debatable authority vis-a-vis a primarily penal infringement.

This last report returns to the principle of the so expensive legality of the offenses and sorrows to Cesare Beccaria^40(*). « Light Nullum crimen, nulla poenna sine » : there is neither offense, nor sorrow without law^41(*).

The problems of «the pornography on Internet and the protection of the minors» let raise another question which is that of the specific regulation.

... Of the pornography on Internet and the protection of the minors : which regulation ?

Maximilien AMEGEE

HAAS Company of lawyers - Department News Technologies

Doctorand

Of Right of New technologies and information systems

DEA of general Theory and philosophy of the right

Large a thank you with Maîtres Thibault Verbiest and Etienne Wery who initiated me with this topic.

* ³⁷ Consultable under: http://www.foruminternet.org

* ³⁸ The working group To protect childhood on Internet in France and Europe

Under  : http://www.foruminternet.org/groupes_travail/lire.phtml?id=506

* ³⁹ Eurojust is a great first in the European construction industry since it is at the same time the legal co-operation and the police co-operation. It results from the new drafting of articles 29 and 31 of the Treaty on the European Union adopted with the European Council of Nice.

* ⁴⁰ Cesare Beccaria, Of the offenses and the sorrows, Paris, Flammarion, 1990

(It is the republication of its test «Of the offenses and the sorrows», which it initially published in an anonymous way in 1764)

* ⁴¹ Article 111-3 of the New penal code points out the fundamental principle of the legality of the offenses and the sorrows, «  no one cannot be punished for a crime or an offense whose elements are not defined by the payment  »

Article 8 of the Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen of August 26, 1789 clearly posed this rule  : «  no one can be punished only under the terms of one law established and promulgated before  ».