| Rafał Lew-Starowicz, PEGI Enforcement Committee, Poland |
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE  Born in 1979, a graduate from the Faculty of Journalism and Political Sciences of Warsaw University, a PhD student in Media Education at the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw. Currently he works in the Institute for Educational Research, where he coordinates work of the research team. Formerly employed at the Office of the Children's Rigths Ombudsman in the Chancellery of Prime Minister of Poland and in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, where he was involved in activities enhancing safety of young electronic-media users. This engagement led to a change in Polish penal law, a development of self-regulatory market consensus and a launch of mass-media information campaigns. It also resulted in a wider range of educational programmes for parents, teachers and children. He also dealt with these problems in his community work, as a councillor in the Warsaw local government. He is the author of several publications on safe use of the Internet and computers by children. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Pan European Game Information (PEGI), of PEGI Enforcement Committee, and of the Consulting Committee of the Polish “Safer Internet” Centre. 29 September, Wednesday, 14.30 – 16.30 Paralel session: Online overplay Presentation title: Pegi Online The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) is a computer and video game content rating system established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games suitable for their children. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) and launched in spring April 2003. It replaced a number of national age-rating systems with a single European system and is now used in 30 European countries (Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Slovenia, Belgium, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland, Luxemburg, Portugal, Sweden, Cyprus, France, Israel, Malta, Romania, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic and Great Britain). The whole system is overseen by a number of different Boards and Committees, which offer advice, adapt and modify the PEGI questionnaire and raise awareness on safe use of video and computer games in the European society. PEGI has the enthusiastic support of the European Commission. It is considered to be a model of European harmonisation in the field of the protection of children. The origins and functioning of PEGI will be presented. Special focus will be given to education campaigns in Poland, which were addressed to parents, children and journalists. |
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