Lagardère Active’s youth websites become the first partners of Internet Sans Crainte (Internet Without Fear)!

Conscious of its responsibility toward young people, Lagardère Active’s France and International Television Department – which produces leading youth channels Gulli, Canal J and TiJi – has always been committed to encouraging the responsible use of media and ensuring that its own media represent a safe environment.

Taking this approach still further, it has now broken new ground by concluding a partnership between its websites and Internet Sans Crainte, a national programme that heightens youth awareness of the issues and risks inherent to the Internet, and is representing France as part of Europe’s Safer Internet Plus programme.

Through this partnership, Internet Sans Crainte is backing the channels in their goal of involving parents in the crucial responsibility of educating their children about the Internet to promote risk-free usage.

The partnership will be embodied via the permanent presence on the websites – in the “Parents’ Corner” – of an advice page produced by Internet Sans Crainte that features 30 points of advice for parents on letting their children enjoy the Internet in complete safety.
http://www.gulli.fr/Parents/Internet-sans-crainte2/Internet-sans-crainte
http://www.tiji.fr/Les-parents/Internet-sans-crainte/30-conseils
http://www.canalj.fr/Club-R/Internet-sans-crainte2/Internet-Sans-Crainte

This initiative adds further weight to Lagardère’s ongoing commitment:

• To provide quality, fun, educational, violence-free content.
• To provide 24/7 control over all exchanges among users of its websites.
• To banish all insults, racist remarks and extreme language from blogs, forums and chats by checking all messages sent.
• Not to broadcast advertising that is inappropriate for children.
• To ensure safe browsing on its sites by carefully selecting the partners for which it provides external links.
• To filter ‘handles’ (after registration).
• To answer all questions from parents relating to the safety of their children on these sites via the “Contact us“ section (where they should tick the “Question: Internet safety” box).

This pioneering partnership will be reaffirmed during the year through support provided to specific initiatives by the youth channels and their websites (broadcasting the European clip relayed by Internet Sans Crainte, a special operation on 10 February 2009 for Safer Internet Day, and more).

“Entertaining young people while both stimulating their intelligence and bearing in mind their impressionability is essential to our day-to-day activities. Our leading position proves that parents trust us in this respect, and this partnership will help us strengthen this highly privileged relationship with them.”
Emmanuelle Guilbart, Director of Television Operations, Lagardère Active

“Since it is essential that we support parents when their children are surfing the net, we are delighted to partner up with channels that have a genuine ongoing policy that involves educating and supporting parents and children with regard to the Internet.”
Yves Laborey, head of the Internet Sans Crainte project at the National Organization for Internet Usage

About Lagardère Active’s youth sites
In six months, Lagardère Active’s Television Division has entirely changed its youth-brand web offering by creating a portal that benefits from the complementary nature of its three sites: www.tiji.fr a vast early-learning platform; www.gulli.fr, a general multimedia world for children; and www.canalj.fr, a site that is 100% focused on gaming. This approach has already led to the cumulative audience of the three sites in September exceeding 1 million unique visitors, with 22 million pages viewed.* The portal is now firmly established as the leading youth portal.

*Source: Médiamétrie NNR

About Internet Sans Crainte
Internet Sans Crainte is France’s national programme to heighten youth awareness of the Internet, and represents the country in Europe’s Safer Internet Plus project. Operating under the aegis of the National Organization for Internet Usage and coordinated by Tralalère, the programme is supported by the European Commission and the Ministry for Higher Education and Research. It provides information and educates children, their families and their teachers. Further information can be found on www.internetsanscrainte, or through its help line, Net Ecoute Famille, which is run by the e-Enfance organization and provides answers to questions via +33 (0)8 20 20 00 00 (€0.09 euros per minute for calls from within France).