Romanian MP says signature gathering was started for support of code introducing curse filter on Websites

25/8/2010

Representatives of education trade unions, the Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarchy and child protection associations agreed on Wednesday a code regulating language on Internet websites was needed, with a majority of them supporting a law in this regard, according to Romanian news agency Agerpres. The organizations held a first debate on the issue today.

Romanian Social Democratic (PSD) MP Lia Olguta Vasilescu proposed earlier this month that filters be introduced on Romanian websites to prevent curses and bad language. The proposal sparked controversies and was even criticised by the Reporters without Borders organisation as a possibly harmful regulation.

PSD Senator Vasilescu, one of the representatives of the group initiating an online code of conduit, said participants to the debate supported such a code and that 80% of them even wanted a piece of legislation. She said debates would continue and that the process of signature gathering for such a code is ongoing through online media.

She said there were many ways by which harmful language may be banned on Internet websites, including the introduction of filters, the manual removal of messages posted by users or the recording of users.

She said the solution should be found by website administrators and ISPs.

Only one participant to the debate today criticised the idea. Serban Gheorghe, executive head of the National Association of Internet Service Providers, said that Pandora’s box was being opened with the initiative to stop harmful languate on the Internet.

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