Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

On 6 November last my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, signed into force the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services, Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 2003. These regulations transpose Directive 2002/58/EC, which regulates the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. They introduce restrictions on direct marketing making use of communications networks. Restrictions on unsolicited direct marketing by telephone, fax, automated calling systems, e-mail, SMS and MMS are provided for. Most notably, the regulations also introduce a ban on spam originating in the EU. Spam, unsolicited e-mail marketing sent to individuals, is, with a limited exception covering existing customer relationships, only allowed with prior consent. This opt-in regime equally covers SMS messages and other electronic messages sent to any mobile and fixed terminal. Some protections against unsolicited commercial e-mails to businesses are also provided.

The regulations provide for penalties of up to €3,000 for each unsolicited e-mail, SMS or MMS sent in breach of the regulations. The Minister is also considering the creation of indictable offences and consequential additional penalties to further enhance protections for both consumers and business.

It is important to realise that many administrations worldwide do not have legislation regulating spam. While efforts to achieve international co-operation on measures to combat the proliferation of spam are at an early stage, there are encouraging signs that co-ordinated action will be achievable. I understand that this week the United States Senate approved a Bill, to which Senator Mooney has alluded, to outlaw most spam. Australia and South Korea have also recently reached agreement on measures to combat spam. There is now an increasing awareness among administrations and business that global co-operation is necessary to address the specific threat posed to online business and consumer activity by spam.

We are not convinced that it is desirable for Ireland to attempt to address such matters in isolation. We believe that Ireland's forthcoming Presidency of the European Union offers an excellent opportunity to further progress international co-operation and effective enforcement.

We consider that a mix of various instruments will be needed, including legislation, filtering techniques, self-regulation, commercial contracts and international co-operation. Initially, the primary objective of international co-operation is to promote the adoption of effective legislation in third countries and subsequently to co-operate with these countries to ensure effective enforcement of legislation.

At the multilateral level, we believe that active participation is necessary in fora such as the OECD, where work on spam has started. Indeed the European Commission will host an OECD workshop on spam in February of next year, intended to contribute to a better understanding of the problem created by spam and its possible solutions.

At the UN level, the Commission has also raised the issue of spam in the context of the forthcoming world summit on the information society to be held in Geneva for 10 -12 December this year in order to promote awareness and international co-operation on this issue. While there is some scope for the promotion of bilateral co-operation with third countries, a more efficient approach and response can be delivered through international fora, for example the OECD and the world summit on the information society, and through their bilateral meetings and discussions, for example at ASEM, NAFTA and so on.

EU provisions relating to spam apply to both PC and mobile phone messages. My advice to consumers is to be aware while on-line and to ensure the bona fides of companies and individuals with whom they are in contact. People should only give an e-mail address to people and sites they trust.

The most effective way to ensure an e-mail box does not become cluttered with junk mail is for a person to keep his or her e-mail address private. To do this, the person should only give his e-mail address to people he knows and to sites that explicitly say they will not share e-mail addresses with third parties in their privacy policy. Always check that an Internet site has a specific privacy policy or provides guarantees as to how they use personal data. If an e-mail address is necessary for Internet services which a person suspects may send a vast amount of e-mails or share the address with third parties, it may be a good idea to set-up a separate e-mail address for use exclusively with this type of service. People should use e-mail filtering tools – there are many e-mail packages and stand alone programs that possess the ability to filter out unwanted e-mails. The method by which this is accomplished varies between programs but techniques such as blocking certain addresses or keywords are applied.

I agree with Senator Mooney that we all need to be aware, particularly those of us who are parents. There can be serious consequences for young people who are accessing the Internet unsupervised and are receiving spam from across the world. This is an important issue and the Senator has done a good job in highlighting it. The Government is determined to deal with it and we hope to use the Presidency of the EU to achieve international co-operation to address this issue across the world.