I’ve now been back from Hungary a few days following my participation in a three-day international media conference, so I have had some time to reflect on the event. It was organised by the International Children’s Safety Service (NGS) and the National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) and the title was “The Effects Of The Media On Children And Young People”. In my capacity as Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK, I made a presentation on the subject �Combating Child Abuse Images On The Internet: The British Experience�.
In several ways, it was a rather curious event:

• The subject matter jumped from television to video games to the Internet with a lack of focus on these very different media.
• Most of the discussion was about television with a concern, bordering on the obsessive, about the apparent prevalence of violence on Hungarian television.
• There seemed to be a strained relationship between the television regulator and the television channels, the former thinking that their guidance was being repeatedly breached and the latter believing that the regulatory rules were unclear and even capricious.
• There are two watersheds on Hungarian television: 9 pm (until then, there should be nothing offensive to those below 16) and 11 pm (until then, there should be nothing offensive to those below 18).
• Films shown on Hungarian television are classified on an age basis and this classification is shown in a coloured circle at the bottom of the screen.
• Neighbouring Poland also carries age-related pictograms on television films, but these are triangles at the top of the screen.
• A speaker about the NICAM system in the Netherlands explained that the Dutch also have two watersheds on television, but theirs are 8 pm amd 10 pm.
• The Dutch have a common age-related classification system for television programmes, cinema films, DVDs and mobile content.
• There seemed to be little appreciation of how much current regulatory conventions will be impacted by the convergence of broadcasting and the Internet.
• Although broadcasting is quite tightly regulated, there is currently no regulation of the Internet in Hungary. Perhaps reflecting the country’s recent communist past, there appears to be a suspicion that any self-regulation of Internet content will inevitably involve over-regulation and become a ’slippery slope’.
• Although there is no formal regulation of the Internet, the Hungarians have recently esteablished a hotline for the reporting of illegal material on the Net called Matisz, it has been approved for membership of the European association of hotlines INHOPE, but curiously it was not reprepresented at this conference.
• Discussion of race hate on the Net reminded me of debates I have had with Americans. Lawyers especially seemed to feel that there should be an absolute distinction been hateful words and hateful actions that that ‘bad’ speech is best combated by ‘good’ speech.