Legislation & Safeline
What is the current status
Legitimacy of SafeLine
An effort to create a healthy Internet environment by eliminating illegal content is far more effective if it is performed cooperatively and methodically. As a matter of fact, it is not unusual for an individual citizen to dishearten himself/herself to get in touch directly with the police authorities. At this stage SafeLine’s part is crucial.
SafeLine’s operation is based on Art. 10 and 12 of the Constitution according to which anybody alone or in a group by founding unions and non-profit societies may report to the authorities aiming at the protection of personal and social human rights in writing. In other words, SafeLine acts as a middleman between citizens and the Greek Police Authorities by receiving reports from the former and forwarding them to the latter. The role described above falls directly into SafeLine’s abilities , as due to the nature of these crimes, they are dealt by a District attorney’s intervention and not after request of the directly offended individual as described in Art. 115, 117 and 368 of the Penal Code for crimes upon request. Thus, any Internet user, who believes that a certain web page he/she has visited contains illegal material does not only have the right but the moral obligation to report it to the District attorney so as to be evaluated by him/her.
Furthermore, SafeLine’s activity follows:
- the regulations for the protection of personal data, more specifically those of Act 4624/2019, which has as an objective the protection of an individual from having his/her personal electronic details processed and those of Act 3471/2006 that has as an objective the protection of personal and private data in electronic communication
- the provisions on communication security and privacy that apply to any communication between SafeLine and a user.
SafeLine’s scope
SSafeLine receives reports for illegal content circulating online, emphasizing on actions offensive to the genital respectability of children. Examples of such crimes are the circulation of child pornography, sexual harassment as well perversion of minor through the Internet. According to the Art.14 par.1 of the Hellenic Penal Code, a crime is considered to be any unfair act, chargeable to its perpetrator, accusable by the law. According to this provision, any of the above mentioned activities could be described as .“crime”.