There’s no doubt that the Internet has been a force for bad as well as good: it really does depend on who uses the Web and what they use it for. But is trying to police the Internet a sensible move for the safety of our children or is it just a futile exercise doomed to failure?

In September 2007, the British Government asked psychologist, Dr. Tanya Byron to conduct a review looking at the risks to young people from new technological influences such as the Internet and video games. The Byron Review was published in March, and its recommendations have now lead to the formation of The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCISS), a catchy name if ever I heard it.

According to Out-Law, the watchdog will consist of more than 100 public and private sector organisations including the Internet Watch Foundation, BT, Microsoft, ELSPA, Google, MySpace, Facebook and the Press Complaints Commission. UKCCIS will meet four times a year and report its findings direct to the Prime Minister.

At the launch, Gordon Brown told The Telegraph:

Some people call the internet a slanging match without an umpire. The challenge for us is to make sure young people can use the internet safely and do so with the minimum of restrictions but the maximum of opportunities,

The internet provides our children with a world of entertainment, of opportunity and knowledge, a world that is quite literally at their fingertips, just the click of a mouse away. But just as we would not allow them to go out unsupervised in playgrounds or in youth clubs or in swimming pools, so we must put in place the measures we need to keep our children safe online.

The organisation will be partaking in some worthy measures, such as educating youngsters as to the dangers online. But it will also have powers to police websites deemed to contain potentially offensive material and write industry codes of practice that will have to be followed.

This reportedly includes being able to tell user-generated websites how quickly they have to take down content once it has been deemed inappropriate. Which stinks of Big Brother to me.

I’m all for children being warned of the dangers of the Web, as no-one can surely deny such dangers exist. However, I don’t think the Internet should be governed by organisations who are aiming to protect kids, otherwise anything even remotely adult will surely be classed as offensive and removed forthwith.

While the aims of this initiative may be fine, it strikes me as the thin end of the wedge in the Web being policed to within an inch of its life. And if that is the case, then the free Web that we currently know and love could be no more.

The Chinese have the Great Firewall Of China in place to prevent any politically-inflaming or society-risking content from getting through. While the formation of UKCISS isn’t anywhere near as bad as that, what’s to say that this isn’t step one on the road to making the Internet a child-friendly environment engineered for 8-year-olds everywhere while ignoring the more mature amongst the population?

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pm under Internet, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!