According to an EU study, 50% of European teenagers provide personal information on the web which can stay online forever and can be seen by anybody. Today, Safer Internet Day, the European Union wants to send a message to teenagers: "Think before you post!"

In December 2008, 211 million Europeans above the age of 15 visited a social networking site, almost 75% of the Internet users in that age group. Faced with this extensive social phenomenon, the European Commission has given greater awareness to protect citizens and consumers' privacy. Social networking websites are, thus, often seen as potentially dangerous for inexperienced users.

“Last year the European Commission urged companies to act, and many have answered this call. However I expect companies to do more. Minors' profiles need to be set to private by default and questions or abuse reports have to receive quick and appropriate responses. The internet is now vital to our children, and it is the responsibility of all to make it safe. If we want children to think before they post, social networking companies should post the right information using the right language. “Said EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, that are now in charge of data protection.”

Young users and their parents have the need to feel safe when socialising online. At last year's Safer Internet Day, 18 social networking companies accepted this fact and signed the Safer Social Networking Principles in February 2009, as Facebook, YouTube, Windows Live, Myspace, Yahoo!Answers and Flickr and were joined by another two in June 2009.

Most of these companies made it easier to minors to change privacy settings, block users or delete unwanted comments and content. Still, less than half of social networking companies (40%) make profiles of under-18 users visible only to their friends by default and only one third replied to user reports asking for help.

Though, neither all companies are undertaking what they’ve promised last year. The European Commission is taking action against Facebook for recent changes to its privacy settings, which make personal information available by default, going against the EU's drive for more privacy protection on the Internet, especially for minors. Against data protection recommendations, Facebook surprisingly changed its privacy policy at the end of January, making it easier to access to personal information hosted on its platform.