The EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has called for all Internet-connected devices to be produced with parental controls installed by default.

In a speech to the Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg, Kroes praised “existing self-regulation initiatives” but put forward a list of measures for industry to implement in the next 18 months:

• First, children should be able to easily report abusive content, cyber-bullying or grooming using a “single-click” system;
• Second, children’s profiles on services like social networking sites should be set to privacy by default—or measures with equivalent effect;
• Third, Internet-connected devices should have parental controls installed also by default;
• Fourth, age-rating and content classification systems need expansion and improvement—including common standards and the possibility for user-driven ratings;
• And finally, we need to step up the fight against child sex abuse material. I find it appalling that it takes so much time to take down child sexual abuse content, when in other areas, for example related to copyright, content is taken down quickly.

It is not yet clear whether “installed by default” is intended to mean “installed and activated by default”. It is also unclear what sort of parental controls Kroes has in mind; there is a world of difference between parental control software installed on home computers and under the complete control of the user, and parental controls implemented at the network level – especially if such controls are activated by default, as some UK conservatives advocate.

For more details, see the transcript of Kroes speech.