Internet Regulation

Today the Internet can be accessed by a young child from the privacy of her bedroom at any time of the day or night. In these circumstances, people must have some procedures for tackling illegal content on the Internet and some mechanisms for allowing end user control of what is accessed on the Internet. . These other networks are regulated and so should the Internet. Of course broadcasting and telecommunications is the subject of very different regulatory regimes and similarly the Internet will need its own distinctive system of regulation.

There is harmful content on the Internet.

The major problem here is child pornography and sexual solicitation of children. While Web sites and newsgroups featuring child pornography may be a tiny proportion of the total, nevertheless this material does exist in volume. In most cases, the production of this material has involved child abuse; in many cases, the users of such material are interested in, and may well have indulged in, child abuse. As for sexual solicitation, many groups involved with the welfare of children have considerable case material of paedophiles using the Net to make contact with, and arrange meetings with, minors with a view to molestation. We cannot simply accept this as the price for freedom of expression. In most countries, mere possession of child pornography is a criminal offence whether this occurs off-line or on-line.

I think that the internet should be regulated, because when young children start viewing in inappropriate images this can affect their up growing, however I also blame some parents who don’t supervise their children while on the internet. However a way that internet can be monitored is by having a tracking system, when someone view an inappropriate site they can immediately see whether this site should be blocked or not.