Seoul Declaration for the Future of the Internet Economy

Citation

OECD, Seoul Declaration for the Future of the Internet Economy (June 18, 2008) (full-text).

Overview

This Declaration was adopted by 39 countries and the European Community on June 18, 2008. It outlines the basic principles that will guide further development of the Internet economy. The Declaration was intended

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to promote the Internet economy and stimulate sustainable economic growth and prosperity by means of policy and regulatory environments that support innovation, investment, and competition in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

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The Declaration stresses the vital role that Internet and ICT technologies can play to tackle new challenges, such as an aging population, environmental and energy concerns, the scarcity of raw materials, globalization and regional imbalances. It also explicitly mentions virtual worlds as one of the "emerging Internet technologies, applications and services" to be analysed.

Policy guidance

Policy guidance was developed in the following areas: convergence and next generation networks (NGN), digital content, emerging consumer protection and empowerment issues in mobile commerce, online identity theft, protecting and empowering consumers in communication services, protection of critical information infrastructures, enhanced access and more effective use of public sector information and radio frequency identification.

The Report sought to provide guideposts for shaping policies and practices for the future of the Internet economy in this rapidly changing and inherently global area. It identified a number of challenges:

• Making Internet access available to everyone and everywhere.
• Promoting Internet-based innovation, competition and user choice.
• Securing critical information infrastructures and responding to new threats.
• Ensuring the protection of personal information, respect for intellectual property rights, and more generally a trusted Internet-based environment which offers protection to individuals, especially minors and other vulnerable groups.
• Promoting secure and responsible use of the Internet; and,
• Creating an environment that encourages infrastructure investment, higher levels of connectivity and innovative services and applications.