The UK government’s department for children, school and families has named several digital media execs to the board of the new UK Council for Child Internet Safety. They include…
— Cindy Rose, SVP & MD, Disney (NYSE: DIS) Interactive Media Group (EMEA)
— Wendy Becker, residential services MD, Carphone Warehouse
— Matthew Bishop, business and marketing officer, Microsoft
— Dr Mike Short, R&D VP, O2
— David Wheldon, global brand director, Vodafone
— Camille de Stempel, policy director, AOL (NYSE: TWX) Europe
The general membership of the body comprises over 100 tech and media companies, from Bebo to Ubisoft. The council is an outcome of Tanya Byron’s review in to child safety and the internet, charged with developing a code of practice governing takedown of material deemed inappropriate for children. It’s a nice idea, destined to get win warm headlines from doom-mongers concerned about evil online doings, but on big test may come in whether in can convince parents to regulate their children’s media habits, as much as regulating content makers themselves. Release.