Eva Lievens
Ghent University
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Featured researches published by Eva Lievens.
Telematics and Informatics | 2007
Eva Lievens
The protection of minors against harmful content in the converging media environment has been a matter of regulatory concern for quite a considerable period. The risk of children stumbling upon potentially harmful material has increased proportionally to the speed of technological developments, such as the availability of broadband access to the Internet. Due to the decentralised, border-crossing and permanently available nature of the new information and communication networks, increasing attention has been brought to the intricacies of efficiently protecting minors against harmful information and images, which were not as easily accessible before. Thus far, no conclusive legal answer or regulatory approach has been identified to tackle the challenge that is posed by this new media environment in an efficient way. Different regulatory approaches and strategies are being considered: legislative proposals, co-regulatory instruments, self-regulatory mechanisms and technological solutions all belong to the spectrum of possible policy choices. The analysis of four regulatory initiatives – the US Communications Decency Act and Child Online Protection Act, the UK mobile operators’ code of conduct with respect to harmful mobile content, the Australian approach to Internet content co-regulation and the Belgian initiative to use the e-ID to protect children in chatrooms – indicates that the use of co-regulatory schemes, preferably with the aid of technical tools, might be the most desirable option at the moment.
Info | 2011
Eva Lievens
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present the preliminary results of a research project which aspires to identify requirements for risk‐reducing regulatory strategies aspiring to protect children and young people in social networks. It aims to provide an insight into the changing role of law in todays networked society and the innovative regulatory solutions that will be able to deal with the paradigm shift from mass media and passive, vulnerable consumers to media for mass self‐communication and active “prosumers”.Design/methodology/approach – First, the legal impact of social networking sites (SNS) risks for children and young people that have been identified in social science research is assessed, as well as the applicability of existing legal instruments. Second, legal trends in this field and a number of recent (alternative) regulatory initiatives and their implementation are discussed. In a final part, the use of such alternative regulatory instruments and their compliance with the broade...
International Journal of Law and Information Technology | 2014
Ellen Wauters; Eva Lievens; Peggy Valcke
The ‘Terms of Use’ of Social Networking Sites (SNS) increasingly attract attention from policymakers and civil society. It is argued that these terms are rarely read by users and that, consequently, users cannot correctly assess their implications. This article attempts to evaluate the validity of SNS Terms of Use based on the requirements that are imposed in existing legal instruments. Firstly, we look at the phenomenon of standard contracts in the offline world. Secondly, we try to identify whether the SNS environment adds additional elements to the manner in which consumers approach standard Terms of Use. Thirdly, as a case study, we examine the Terms of Use of Facebook and assess whether the clauses could be found invalid on the basis of several law requirements. Finally, we try to put forward a number of remedies for the imbalance of the rights and responsibilities that can currently be found in SNS Terms of Use.
Minding minors wandering the web : regulating online child safety | 2014
Eva Lievens
Social networking services (SNS) are an important part of many children and teenagers’ media use. As they communicate and share content by means of these services, minors may also engage in more risky behaviour, leading to reciprocal harassment which may blur the lines between victims and offenders to a greater extent than in the offline world. However, due to the specific nature of SNS, the use, and especially the implementation and enforcement of, traditional types of legislation are confronted with many obstacles. After identifying certain legal implications, this chapter examines the potential of alternative regulatory mechanisms and empowerment techniques (co-regulation, technical tools, media literacy, information provision mechanisms). The goal is to provide guidelines for the development of regulatory strategies which reduce peer-to-peer conduct and content risks in user-centric environments for children and young people while safeguarding fundamental rights and public interest goals.
Sexting : motives and risks in online sexual self-presentation | 2018
Thomas Crofts; Eva Lievens
This chapter explores the laws that frame sexting with a particular focus on Australia and Europe. International concerns over the impact that new technologies have had on child pornography and child abuse have led to countries strengthening laws to protect children. The chapter analyses how such reforms have impacted on children who engage in sexting and whether children have been criminalised for sexting behaviours. It will be seen that there are differences in how countries approach sexting. This chapter concludes by assessing whether, and what form of, legal response to sexting is appropriate and necessary.
Archive | 2018
Eva Lievens
This briefing paper addresses the various regulatory instruments that may be adopted to realise the full range of child rights in the digital environment, and identifies a number of policy dilemmas that arise in this context. IP/B/CULT/IC/2017-144 February 2018
International human rights of children | 2017
Eva Lievens; Sonia Livingstone; Sharon McLaughlin; Brian O'Neill; Valerie Verdoodt
Digital technologies have reshaped children’s lives, resulting in new opportunities for and risks to their well-being and rights. This chapter investigates the impact of digital technologies on children’s rights through the lens of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Up until now, not all rights have received the same level of attention in the digital context. Legal and policy discourse in the area of children and digital media predominantly focuses on ‘protection’ rights, albeit with a growing awareness of the tension between ‘protection’ and ‘participation’ rights. ‘Provision’ rights are not often emphasised, other than in the important domain of education. However, all children’s rights should be supported, valued and developed in both online and offline spheres of engagement. Governments, parents, educators, industry, civil society and children’s rights commissioners or ombudspersons should all take up their responsibility to enhance children’s rights in relation to digital technologies, while actively listening and taking account of children’s views when developing laws, policies, programmes and other measures in this field.
Children’s rights law in the global human rights landscape isolation, inspiration, integration? | 2017
Eva Lievens
Children’s rights law is often studied and perceived in isolation from the broader field of human rights law. This volume explores the inter-relationship between children’s rights law and more general human rights law in order to see whether elements from each could successfully inform the other. Children’s rights law has a number of distinctive characteristics, such as the emphasis on the ‘best interests of the child’, the use of general principles, and the inclusion of ‘third parties’ (e.g. parents and other care-takers) in treaty provisions. The first part of this book questions whether these features could be a source of inspiration for general human rights law. In part two, the reverse question is asked: could children’s rights law draw inspiration from developments in other branches of human rights law that focus on other specific categories of rights holders, such as women, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, or older persons? Finally, the interaction between children’s rights law and human rights law – and the potential for their isolation, inspiration or integration – may be coloured or determined by the thematic issue under consideration. Therefore the third part of the book studies the interplay between children’s rights law and human rights law in the context of specific topics: intra-family relations, LGBTQI marginalization, migration, media, the environment and transnational human rights obligations.Although there are many and obvious differences between children and indigenous peoples, there are also quite some similarities, especially in how international human rights law and academic research have addressed the claims of these groups. This chapter focuses on three domains in which children’s rights and indigenous peoples’ rights share certain challenges, in order to explore whether and how both branches of human rights law could inspire each other: (i) the demarcation of the personal scope of rights, and the divisions and dichotomies generated by the establishment of categorical human rights; (ii) the way in which indigenous peoples and children have been constructed, especially from a Western perspective, and the consequences thereof; and (iii) participation and consent. I will argue that children’s rights law could draw inspiration from indigenous peoples’ rights law in defining its rights holders, in developing the collective dimension of the right to be heard and in conceptualising the right of children to give consent. On the other hand, an area in which research and practice on both indigenous peoples’ rights and children’s rights should increase efforts, concerns addressing the adverse consequences of idealised constructions.
Youth 2.0 : social media and adolescence : connecting, sharing and empowering | 2016
Ellen Wauters; Eva Lievens; Peggy Valcke
In order to protect minors from the risks associated with exposure to content which is deemed unsuitable (e.g. sexually implicit images, violence, offensive language) and potentially harmful, many countries have adopted systems of labelling or content classification. The purpose is to provide parents and carers with reliable and useful information so that they can make informed and well-balanced decisions about which content is appropriate for their children. This chapter identifies a number of key issues related to the development of labelling systems for the online and social networking environment, such as the rationale behind labelling, the object of the labelling systems and the types of labelling that could be used. Focusing mainly on policy documents and proposals at the European level (European Union and Council of Europe), references are made to specific national systems to illustrate good practices or recently developed schemes.
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights | 2011
Eva Lievens
Since the mid-1990s, it has become increasingly clear that legislation, used to protect minors against harmful content in traditional media, is not suitable to regulate the drastically transformed digital media landscape in an efficient manner. In response to this situation, alternative regulatory instruments (ARIs), such as self- and co-regulation, have been incorporated in regulatory strategies to protect minors against harmful digital content. Notwithstanding the common misconception that ARIs function within a legal vacuum, the use of such instruments should comply with the broader legal framework, and more importantly, must respect a number of fundamental rights, such as the rights to freedom of expression, privacy, a fair trial and an effective remedy. This article focuses on the right to freedom of expression and aims to assess with which freedom of expression safeguards the ARIs must comply in order to guarantee the protection that this right entails. To achieve this, the article examines, on the one hand, the applicability of Article 10 ECHR with respect to ARIs, and, on the other hand, the fundamental rights issues that may arise both with respect to the involvement of private actors and the incorporation of technological tools in ARIs.